# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Building/Structure Mapping >  Fantasy Medieval Butcher Shop

## psyekl

It's been a while since I've posted any new maps, so here you go.  I've been working on quite a few maps lately, mostly towns and hamlets, so I decided to make a floorplan for the change of pace.  This is the layout for a medieval-themed butcher shop; completely hand-drawn as many of you have come to expect from me.  I rarely make maps of common city buildings because they rarely come into play other than to say, "I go to the market and buy rations and some more arrows."  Even when there is a significant dialogue between the players and a shopkeeper the layout of the shop is usually irrelevant.  But that isn't to say that they aren't any fun to create  :Smile: 

This particular butcher is fairly successful and would be located somewhere where there are plenty of daily customers (a large town or city).  The shop is big enough not only for a seperate room where meat can be cooked, smoked and salted, but it also has a second floor that is used as sleeping chambers that doubles as a storage space.

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## Rythal

cool stuff as always  :Very Happy:

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## guyanonymous

A wonderful plan/layout/map.  The simple elegance comes across nicely.  Would a butcher, of the time, have a cold-room (down in the cellar)?  Just an idea (a 3rd floor).

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## psyekl

I have a couple of old drawings where I had included a form of "cold room".  One was a "cool pit" in a tavern; basically a brick-lined covered hole off of the kitchen for keeping certain items cool.  The other was a room off the original version of this butcher shop; a thick-walled room lined with water-soaked curtains that kept the temperature down through evaporation.  I had considered including it again, but opted not to.

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## riffman

cool plan. And maybe i can help you... i'm lucky enough to live in a city (Limoges) where some medieval quarters still exists, including the butcher's ones. the street next mine is called "rue de la boucherie" and is where the butcher's used to work until 1800. One of the butcher's house have been transformed into a museum, maybe i can get some pictures for you ? 
For the "cold room", i think guyanonymous is right, the meat used to be keep in the cellar ... wich had no walls...

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## tilt

looking really good, sending some rep your way  :Smile:

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## ravells

What a really wonderful plan. I am on the verge of taking a break from mapping on the computer and using 'real' media to start working on handdrawn maps. 

How did you get the hatching  on the walls so beautifully regular in spacing and exactly parrallel? Was it by eye? 

All the best and have some rep

Ravs

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## psyekl

I did some research online about medieval businesses in order to get an idea of what a medieval butcher shop would contain so that the plan would at least have a level of believability.  If you have some pictures of a real medieval building I would most definitely like to see them!  That's one of the drawbacks to being such a fan of architecture and living in the western United States: We really don't have any "old" buildings compared to Europe.

The hatching was done by eye.  I've always preferred a nice tight hatch over a solid fill since I think it not only looks better but saves on printer ink as well.  I have been hatching my drawings for years and through practice my lines have become pretty uniform.  I'm definitely not perfect, however, and if you look at the largest version of the drawing you will see that some of the hatches are spaced wider and narrower in places.  I think the minor imperfections like those are what give hand-made drawings their charm  :Wink:

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