Atlas of Unexpected Places

Described as 'one of the country's finest pop culture historians', Travis Elborough is an acclaimed author and social commentator who lives in London. His work delves into the ephemera of retro culture as well as the history of London, geography, and a broad range of other subjects. His Atlas of Vanishing Places won the Illustrated Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards in 2020, and he has also written The Bus We Loved, a passionate love letter to the Routemaster bus which defined London transport for more than 50 years. His other works include A Traveller’s Year, A London Year, The Long-Player Goodbye, Being A Writer and A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution. Travis is a regular contributor to Radio 4 and the Guardian, and has penned articles on all aspects of travel and culture, from pirates in the Caribbean to donkeys at the British seaside. He has written for the Times, Sunday Times, New Statesman, BBC History Magazine and Kinfolk among others, and is a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster, where he teaches creative writing.

• IntroductionAccidental DiscoveriesMadeira Archipelago — Portugal, Atlantic OceanDerinkuyu Underground City — Cappadocia, TurkeyVaseline — Titusville, Pennsylvania, USAThe Dead Sea Scrolls — Qumran, IsraelCahokia Mounds — Illinois, USAPompeii — Naples, ItalyFly Geyser — Nevada, USAGalápagos Islands — Ecuador, Pacific OceanStrange RootsGeorgia Colony — Savannah, Georgia, USAChemainus — Vancouver Island, CanadaBuzludzha Monument — Stara Zagora Province, BulgariaFreetown — Sierra Leone, West AfricaFreshkills Park — New York City, USAFort House — Leith, Edinburgh, ScotlandChess City — Elista, Kalmykia, RussiaFordlândia — Pará, BrazilGibsonton — Florida, USANowa Huta — Kraków, PolandHaphazard DestinationsNaft Daslari — Azerbaijan, Caspian SeaManshiyat Naser — Cairo, EgyptCaleta Tortel — Capitán Prat Province, ChileJaisalmer Fort — Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, IndiaJust Room Enough Island — St. Lawrence River, New York, USASpiegelhalter’s Jewellers — East London, England, UKMonemvasia — Laconia, GreeceUros Floating Islands — Lake Titicaca, Puno, PeruCliff of Bandiagara — Mopti, MaliKorowai Treehouses — Province of Papua, IndonesiaCavernous LocationsLascaux Caves — Montignac, FranceXuankong Si (Hanging Temple) — Shanxi Province, ChinaMatmata Village — Matmata, TunisiaShell Grotto — Margate, Kent, England, UKCoober Pedy — South AustraliaMovile Cave — Constanţa County, RomaniaThe Petrifying Well — Knaresborough, Yorkshire, EnglandAogashima — Philippine Sea, JapanSerendipitous SpacesZhangye Danxia Landform — Gansu, ChinaSlope Point — South Island, New ZealandGlass Beach — Fort Bragg, California, USALake Hillier — Western AustraliaGrüner See — Styria, AustriaCat Island (Tashirojima) — JapanTsingy de Bemaraha (Grand Tsingy) — Melaky, MadagascarHitachi Seaside Park — Hitachinaka, Ibaraki, JapanCanfranc Station — Canfranc, SpainSelected BibliographyPicture CreditsAcknowledgementsIndex