7 September 2004

Multimap Signposts the Way to the Capital’s Architectural Gems in Support of Open House London, 2004

Open House, the UK architecture education charity, today applauded the continued support of Multimap for its Open House London event, this year taking place on 18th and 19th September. Europe’s number one online mapping provider is once again providing interactive maps of 500 private and public venues of contemporary and historical architectural significance throughout London on www.openhouselondon.org. The online mapping services last year directed 350,000 visits through the doors of buildings taking part in the programme and, this year, that figure is expected to be even greater as the event gathers more support, particularly from our neighbours across the pond.

Visitors to www.openhouselondon.org click the "Open House London" button, select the "Online Search" link beneath the "Buildings Information" tab, and click on "Click here to go the search page" to access Multimap’s "Storefinder" service. To view a map showing the location of their OH buildings in their local area, plus a list of those same buildings with a link through to details such as address, nearest tube, opening times, a brief description, and an interactive map, users click on the "local bldgs" button, enter the postcode or street around which they’d like to conduct the search, and click on "Search". Should they wish to search by other criteria, such as the building’s name, the architect’s name, building type (e.g., residential, offices and industrial), period when it was built (e.g., contemporary, Edwardian and Victorian), and/or the day that they’d like to visit, users may enter this information on the online Search form and click on the "Search" button to access a list of buildings that meet the criteria specified. They select a building of interest to view its details (as before) and, to view a detailed map with icons representing the building selected and other OH buildings found in the area, users then click on "Interactive Map". The maps delivered have full panning N,S,E,W and zooming in/out capability, and users can jump to maps showing other nearby buildings at the simple click of a mouse.

Nicolette Spera, Open House London’s Project Manager, commented, "Multimap played an important part in the overwhelming success of the OH event last year. The primary source of information was, and still is, our web site and, by offering visitors easy-to-access and easy-to-read maps on it, we ensure that interested parties turn into actual visitors. Open House London is the biggest education event in our calendar and we’re grateful to Multimap for its invaluable support in the build up to it."

Willem Mijnarends, UK sales manager, said, "Open House offers the public a wonderful opportunity to visit a huge range of the capital’s private homes, historical houses, art spaces, offices, city banks and government buildings, absolutely free of charge. We are delighted to lend our support to such a worthwhile cause. Our accurate, content-rich maps, coupled with our powerful search service, help people find their way to nearby buildings of interest quickly and easily, both on the OH web site and once they hit the London streets."

About Multimap.com

Multimap.com is Europe’s leading provider of mapping and location-based services. The company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where’s my nearest?") searches to more companies than any other supplier in Europe. All services are offered on WAP, PDA, kiosk, and interactive TV platforms and in multiple languages.

The public web site www.multimap.com provides a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of Europe, USA, Canada and Australia; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; weather forecasts; links to location information; and services such as hotel, restaurant and entertainment booking. The public site attracts over 7.3 million unique users, registers more than 140 million page impressions every month, and is one of the top 10 most visited web sites in the UK. Multimap recently came 27th in The Sunday Times’ Tech Track 100 league table of fastest-growing companies.

About Open House

Open House London is part of Open House, the architecture education charity whose work includes a year-round architecture programme. For details visit www.openhouselondon.org.