January 2017 archive

1729: Upton Farm, Bayswater

[advanced_iframe securitykey=”73bfdf36bff161fdb6d48c80a87afbe943e66891″ src=”http://theundergroundmap.com/iframe.html?id=41273&mapyear=1800&zoom=16&iheight=400″ width=”400″ height=”400″] Click on the markers to access locations on the main website In 1710, Robert Pollard was the owner of the old buildings of Bayard’s Watering Place and 6 acres of land in what had once been common fields of Westbourne Green. He sold them to Thomas Upton and his wife …

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Bayard’s Watering Place

The name Bayswater originates from Bayard’s Watering Place, first recorded in 1380 as a place where horses were refreshed on their way out of or into London. At this watering place a stream called the Westbourne passed under the Uxbridge Road, which is now known as the Bayswater Road. The stream ran south along the …

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Branch Hill Pond

[advanced_iframe securitykey=”73bfdf36bff161fdb6d48c80a87afbe943e66891″ src=”http://theundergroundmap.com/iframe.html?id=37071&mapyear=1860&zoom=16&show=westbourne&iheight=400″ width=”400″ height=”400″] Branch Hill Pond, which was covered in during 1889 because of the building of a covered reservoir, can still be seen as a distinct hollow in the heath which is still grassland even now. John Constable (1776-1837) came to Hampstead Heath in the late summer of 1819, seeking relief from …

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Chickens

Spedan Close, NW3

Spedan Close was the site of an innovative council housing scheme.

London snow

With a little snow forecast for the afternoon of the day this is being written, some London winter scenes through the years… During the “Little Ice Ages” period, deep frosts were more normal, and the most bizarre sign of the times was London’s legendary Frost Fair – a carnival of bear-baiting, gambling and ice skating …

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London E4

By the 1850s, the rapid growth of the metropolitan area meant that London became too large to operate efficiently as a single post town. A Post Office inquiry into the problem had been set up in 1837 and a House of Commons committee was initiated in 1843. In 1854 Charles Canning, the Postmaster General, set …

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