Non-map geeks, turn away now. 

As you might have noticed, colouring books for adult have become A Thing of late. Whether as a way to calm anxiety, or a tool for those who just want to feel like a real artist without any of the effort, the books of black and white line drawings are now a trend bordering on phenomenon. 

And now, Ordnance Survey, the UK mapping agency, has piled in on the fun. From the OS blog:

We regularly hear from OS map fans who can happily spend hours poring over maps and planning new adventures and we wondered whether that activity might produce similar alpha brainwaves. The networks of roads, rivers and buildings that form the towns and cities of Britain make some complex and detailed patterns – and surely it could be fun to colour them in too?

Using black and white vector maps stripped of street names, the OS has created a series of printable black and white maps which can be coloured in. At the moment, you can choose from London, Southampton, Milton Keynes, Cardiff and Edinburgh, each in two different levels of detail. All can be downloaded and printed out here. There are even maps molded into the shape of the OS logo. 

Here’s an example of a part-coloured city from the OS blogpost:

Well that’s our weekend sorted, then.