You are here: a history of the estate map signboard

A talk by Julian Williams RIBA on 16th September 2025

at the Alan Baxter Associates Gallery, 77 Cowcross St, London.

This talk is about housing estates’ intertwined relationship with the map, tracing a history from the celebrated landed estate maps and the municipalisation of estate land for social housing in the late nineteenth century to the creation of estates as idealised landscapes of betterment post WWII.

Julian Williams RIBA

Director of Teaching, Learning and Quality, School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster

Julian Williams is an architect and lecturer at the School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster. He is currently the Director of Teaching, Learning and Quality for the School and teaches design and professional practice.

His research is focused on the historical geography of the housing estate, examining the role of maps in demarcating territory. His current projects include the tradition of estate tours made by visiting politicians and dignitaries, the estate signboard, and the study of ‘belonging on’.