Francis Chichester Limited

The Francis Chichester Map and Guide publishing house started in 1946 - the day after Francis Chichester was demobbed from the Royal Air Force. He was map designer, publisher, salesman, secretary and office boy rolled into one. His office was one room on the ground floor in the lovely William and Mary house in St,James's Place London, which his wife and he bought in 1944 during the height of the V1 "doodlebug" bombing campaign against London. His first commercial undertaking in 1946 was turning 15,000 wartime Air Ministry maps into jigsaw puzzles and selling them to the major London stores.

His vast experience of flying and navigation led to his producing air-route maps for many major commercial airlines seeking to establish themselves in a market fast developing in the late 1940’s and 1950’s.

He went on to design other maps for jigsaws - the Heart of London, the Heart of Paris, Shakespeare's Country, and London Zoo. The London map was expanded and sold in sheet form, then his partner in his New Zealand timber company, on holiday in London and tired of a flapping map on a windy corner, suggested it should be put into pocket book form, and so the world-famous map series was launched.

By the time of the Coronation in 1953 the business and the Illustrated Map of London in particular, was so well established that an extract of the map was used as the basis of a map of the Route of the Coronation Procession. This connection with great State occasions was revived when in 1981 the map was chosen by The Sunday Telegraph Magazine as the basis of a map of the Route of the Procession on the occasion of the marriage of HRH The Prince and the late Princess of Wales.

Francis Chichester was already well known as a pioneer aviator. In 1929 he had made the second solo flight to Australia; in 1931 the first solo flight across the Tasman Sea from East to West in his Gipsy Moth aeroplane fitted with floats. Awarded the Johnson Memorial Trophy for his epic flight, he was the first holder of this coveted award. In flying solo from New Zealand to Japan he made the first solo long distance flight in a seaplane. This flight ended in disaster when he collided with an overhead cable and the plane crashed in Katsuura Harbour. He was dreadfully injured but was nursed back to health by a brilliant doctor and kind, sympathetic Japanese nurses.

Francis Chichester sailed single-handed around the world in 1966-7. He was, on his return to England, in a rare public investiture, knighted at Greenwich by HM Queen Elizabeth II using the sword with which Queen Elizabeth I had knighted Francis Drake. Francis Chichester had crossed the Atlantic several times prior to that, most notably winning in 1960, the first single-handed transatlantic race, but throughout he remained the driving force behind his successful map publishing business.

In St. James's Place, their home as well as their business headquarters, he was greatly helped by his wife Sheila who had become a director when the firm became a limited company in 1956. In 1958 when her husband was ill, Lady Chichester took over the running of the business and London Woman, a highly successful shopping guide for women was conceived and published for the first time. London Man, a shopping and services guide for men, followed his wife's original idea. The Guide to Good Living in London, first brought out in 1966, describes how to set up home and then enjoy the best of living in London.

Today Francis Chichester Limited publish five pocket maps and guides. Originally sold over the counter of the major London Department Stores, by far the greater proportion of sales is now to the corporate market for distribution as goodwill gifts. The most popular is the Pocket Map and Guide of London, containing forty pages of four-colour immensely clear maps of Central London plus information on hotels, restaurants, night life, museums and the like.

With the increasingly international character of London through business and tourism various foreign language editions were produced. Predictably, the European 5-Language Guide to London was the most popular. Other trading partners and important markets have been reflected in Arabic and Japanese editions. Portuguese, Russian and Chinese versions have also been produced in limited editions.

Since the death of Sir Francis in 1972, his son Giles has maintained his tradition of quality and innovation.

In addition to continuously developing and refining the pocket map and guide range the company specialises in producing maps to a client's particular needs and has also introduced other publications and products. The most significant has been the design and production of educational and promotional wall charts and posters. These attractive and informative publications have become a speciality and commissions have been undertaken for clients as diverse as the brewing and food industries, conservation organisations, the Nuclear Electricity Information Group, the Electricity Council, the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries and the Central Electricity Generating Board.

Sir Francis's flying and sailing achievements are commemorated by a number of memorials; most notably, the Navigators' Memorial in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. There is also a memorial in the chapel at Buckler's Hard in Hampshire, where Gipsy Moth IV had a mooring; a “Green Plaque” on 9, St James's Place and a recently erected granite plinth unveiled by HRH Prince Philip, West Hoe Pier, Plymouth where Sir Francis stepped ashore after his solo circumnavigation. The latest is a slate tablet in the parish church at Shirwell, North Devon commemorating his life and achievements. Sir Francis was born in Shirwell Rectory, the second son of the Rector of that parish. Sir Francis was recognised for his epic circumnavigation by Royal Mail (and not for thefirst time) by being included in the April 2003 postage stamp series, Extreme Endeavours, along with Sir Edmund Hillary, Amy Johnson, Captain Robert Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Dame Freya Stark

We are always ready to welcome visitors at 9, St. James's Place, whether they wish to buy a guide or any of our other products, or just to photograph the commemorative tablet.

 

 

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