The Underground Map is a project which is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying inside the M25.
In a series of maps from the 1750s until the 1950s, you can see how London grew from a city which only reached as far as Park Lane into the post war megapolis we know today. There are now over 85 000 articles on all variety of locations including roads, houses, schools, pubs and palaces.
You can begin exploring by choosing a place from the dropdown list at the top left and then clicking Reset Location.
As maps are displayed, click on the markers to view location articles.
You can also view historical maps of London - click on the "pile of paper" control on the top right of a page's map to change to a particular decade.
Latest on The Underground Map...
Zulu Mews lies within the curve of a Battersea railway. At time of writing it was the last street alphabetically in London. It arrived as the latest street in Battersea in 2010.
It had been an access road to the back gardens of Rowena Crescent but, London housing pressure being what it is, became filled with ten modern dwellings in a gated development.
The curious name comes about because Rowena Crescent was originally called Zulu Crescent when laid out in 1880. The nearby streets had all been named after 1870s British military victories. Rowena Cresent residents of the 1880s did not take to the name for the road.
When the 2010 developet was built, and needed a name, the original Zulu monicker was given to the new street.
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Keeley Street has a dual history Little Wild^ Street came into existence around 1690 - there is a deed dated 1 September 1690 which refers to a "toft, peece or parcell of ground, being parcell of the garden late belonging to Weld House in or near Weld Streete … abutting towards the south to a new streete or passage of thirty foote in breadth there made or intended to be made, to lead out of Weld Streete towards Duke Streete and the arch in Great Lincolne’s Inn Fields." (N.b. Duke Street later became Sardinia Street).
There was a matching Great Wild^ Street which it lay off of. Towards the end of its history, the Little Wild Street Baptist Church and a school were notable buildings.
As part of the Aldwych scheme, Keeley Street was built over the top of Little Wild^ Street with its eastern end adjusted to reach Kingsway. All the existing buildings in the original street were demolished, leaving only its route.
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Lisson Grove, NW1
The southern end of Lisson Grove was the location of a hamlet and open space, both called Lisson Green Lisson Green is described as a hamlet in the Domesday book.
Originally Lisson Grove was part of the medieval manor of Lilestone which stretched north to Hampstead. Lisson Green broke away as a new manor in 1236 and had its own manor house.
’Lissing Green’ becames a recreation area for Londoners. By the 1790s, the Green was a large open space stretching down to Chapel Street and the Old Marylebone Road. Beside it on Lisson Grove, the Lissing Green/Lissom Grove village was part of a network of country lanes, on the east side of Edgware Road. At the southern end of the Green was the Yorkshire Stingo inn from whence stagecoaches set off for all parts.
Earlier, in 1771, Lisson Green was bought by James Stephens and Daniel Bullock, manufacturers of white lead. They set up the White Lead Manufactory next to the Nursery Garden, with unrecorded consequences to health. But until the late 18th century the district remained essentially rural.
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Kew Green
Kew Green is a large open space owned by the Crown Estate and extending to about thirty acres The northern, eastern and southwestern sides of the Green are largely residential with some pubs, restaurants, and the Herbarium Library. To the north of the Green is Kew Bridge and the South Circular Road leading from the bridge runs across the Green, dividing it into a large western part and a smaller eastern part.
At the south end is St Anne’s Church and at the west end of the Green is Elizabeth Gate, one of the two main entrances into Kew Gardens.
A large triangular space, Kew Green is mentioned in a Parliamentary Survey of Richmond taken in 1649. Kew Green became notable as a venue for cricket in the 1730s and a parcel of land at the edge of the Green was enclosed by George IV in the 1820s.
Near the northeast corner of Kew Green is Kew Pond, originally thought to have been fed from a creek of the tidal Thames. During high tides, sluice gates are opened to allow river water to fill the pond via an underground channel.
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Long Lane, UB10
Long Lane runs roughly parallel with and about half a mile east of the River Pinn Until the 20th century, there were only two major roads: the road from the district towards Harefield (later Park Road) and Long Lane running south from Ruislip and Ickenham to the London road east of Hillingdon village.
Ickenham village was situated at the junction of the modern Swakeleys Road and Long Lane. At this junction Long Lane widened to form a roughly triangular village centre for Ickenham. Until the 1930s most of the local houses were grouped around this spot.
Ickenham began to change after the sale of most of the Swakeleys estate in 1922. By 1934, larger dwellings and blocks of flats had been built along Long Lane.
Early 20th-century expansion was to transform the formerly distinct settlements of the area. By 1934 private housing estates and access ways covered much of the triangular area between Hillingdon village, Colham Green, and Goulds Green. Further private building was concentrated north of Hillingdon village along Long ...
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