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OS MasterMap Topography Layer

OS MasterMap Topography Layer is the most detailed and accurate view of Great Britain's landscape. It includes features representing the manmade and natural environment, including: land cover, buildings, water, rail, height, heritage, structures, administrative boundaries, and roads, tracks and paths.

This product is updated every six weeks.

A representation of OS MasterMap Topography Layer data showing a map of a Quayside area
A representation of OS MasterMap Topography Layer data.

The OS MasterMap Topography layer is presented seamlessly with more than 500 million real-world objects – all uniquely identified – including roads, buildings, parks and waterways. All data is managed and maintained by Ordnance Survey within one of the world’s largest spatial databases.​

Mapping from the ground up

OS MasterMap Topography Layer gives you the confidence to make location-based decisions about assets, services, environmental risks, customers and operations.

Accurate referencing

All features are assigned a unique Topographic Identifier (TOID) to allow assets to be geo-tagged. This makes it ideal for monitoring assets such as pipelines, pylons, bridges and warehouses.

Enhanced features

OS MasterMap Topography Layer includes enhanced features such as Building Height Attribute, enabling users to analyse the built environment, and Sites Layer showing the main points of access to key sites.

The foundation of the OS MasterMap family

With OS MasterMap Topography Layer, each feature is a record in a database. Each of these records has information about the feature’s position and shape on Earth – its geometry – as well as details about it termed ‘attributes’. It provides an accurate visual context to help you interpret addresses, routes and imagery provided by the other layers.

How to get this product

Access to this product is free for Public Sector Geospatial (Agreement) PSGA Members. Find out if you are a PSGA Member or download a sample of OS MasterMap Topography Layer data by visiting the OS MasterMap Topography Layer product page on the OS website, which has links to all of the relevant resources.

Visualise OS MasterMap Topography Layer data online

This product is available to try out free online using one of our three sets of sample data (Exeter, Newport and Inverness) through the OS MasterMap Product Viewer:

Other ways to access this data

OS MasterMap Topography Layer data is available through our OS Features API, providing location-based insights combining topography data with buildings, transport, and water layer data to create finely detailed datasets with a high degree of accuracy. Visit the OS API docs site to unlock programmatic access to rich geospatial data and integrate OS data and services into your applications.

Access to OS MasterMap Topography Layer data is also available through multiple OS NGD Themes. Designed to create interoperable datasets of geospatial data for Great Britain, the OS NGD delivers improved data structures, increased currency of data supply, and enhanced metadata for customers accessing OS data. OS MasterMap Topography Layer data is available to customers in the following OS NGD themes:

  • OS NGD Land ThemeA collection of point, line, and polygon features depicting land cover information showing manmade and natural features.

  • OS NGD Land Use Theme Includes features which are geographical representations of areas identified as having a specific purpose (such as schools, universities, and caravan parks).

  • OS NGD Structures Theme Contains manmade structures that are not occupied buildings, such as clock towers, bridges, arches, and bandstands.

  • OS NGD Water Theme A theme containing both the topographic and network representations of water features across Great Britain.

  • OS NGD Administrative and Statistical Units Theme Provides a definitive dataset of administrative and electoral boundaries and their names for England, Wales and Scotland.

Many themes have been enriched with additional information and data that many users will find more accessible and easier to use with databases and GIS software. Visit the OS NGD docs site to discover how to access the OS NGD and learn what's available to users.

What's next?

To access additional documentation and resources relating to this product, please refer to the following:

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Overview

The overview introduces OS MasterMap Topography Layer and gives context for all users – highlighting key features, providing examples of uses, and listing details such as file sizes, formats, etc.

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Getting Started Guide

The getting started guide provides instructions for using OS MasterMap Topography Layer in different software applications. Users with limited technical knowledge will be able to follow this guide.

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Getting Started with Styling Guide

The styling guide describes the Ordnance Survey post-processing styling method and the related resources, showing you how to use these resources in various geographical information systems (GIS).

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Standard Styling Specification

Ordnance Survey has produced a Standard Styling Specification for OS MasterMap, providing a distinct set of fonts, colours, fill styles and symbols.

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Technical Specification

The technical specification provides detailed technical information about OS MasterMap Topography Layer. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.

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Downloads

Provides links and resources to support the application of OS MasterMap Topography Layer within your environment.

New users should start with the Overview to gain high-level insight into the product. The Getting Started Guide will help you to begin using product data in different software systems. The Technical Specification contains detailed technical insights.

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