St John's City Street Guide

Alison Mews is co-ordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

This guide to the twin cities of eastern Newfoundland comprises
“written directions to travel to any street in the St. John’s or
Mount Pearl area.” Arranged alphabetically by street name, with St.
John’s and Mount Pearl streets interfiled, the directions are
generally clear and precise, using major arteries and landmarks like
City Hall or cemeteries. Because the starting points vary, however, it
is possible to pass the street you want in order to get to the major
artery cited in the directions for that street.

The final third of the book, which consists of street maps, is
problematic. A larger map of the area was simply cut into sections to
form smaller, printable maps. This results in street names’ being
sliced in half. Without an overlapping shaded area, it is difficult to
get your bearings. The arbitrary division also means that major arteries
referred to in the written directions do

not necessarily appear in the relevant map. One-way streets are not
marked, and there are physical mistakes in the downtown section. The
maps are not sequentially arranged on subsequent pages, which means that
the two halves of a split street name may appear pages apart, with
un-related maps in between. The publisher would have done better to
include a full map in a back pocket. Recommended with reservations.