The Underground Map

The Underground Map is a project which is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying inside the M25.

BT Tower

The Post Office Tower - now known as the BT Tower - opened in the Fitzrovia area of central London in 1965.

The tower’s main structure was 177 metres high. A further section of aerial rigging brought the total height to 191m.

It was the tallest building in the UK until London’s NatWest Tower opened in 1980.
Credit: Wiki Commons

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...

BT Tower, W1W

The BT Tower is a communications tower, previously known as the GPO Tower, the Post Office Tower and the Telecom Tower. The main tower structure is 177 metres high, with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 191 metres. The building was designed by the architects of the Ministry of Public Building and Works: Eric Bedford and G. R. Yeats.

The structure was commissioned by the General Post Office (GPO) and its primary purpose was to support the microwave aerials then used to carry telecommunications traffic from London to the rest of the country. It replaced a much shorter tower which had been built on the roof of the neighbouring Museum telephone exchange to provide a television link between London and Birmingham. The taller structure was required to protect the radio links’ "line of sight" against some of the tall buildings in London then in the planning stage.

The narrow cylindrical shape was chosen because of the requirements of the communications aerials: the building shifts no more than 25 centimetres in high wind speeds. Initially, th...

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OCTOBER

2021

Kilburn Toll
The Kilburn Toll Gate dated from 1710 The main road out of London towards the northwest was Watling Street. It had fallen into serious disrepair given its important status. A new source of funds was needed to maintain the highway. In 1710, a turnpike was established improving the road quality tremendously. There was a toll gate at Kilburn Bridge to charge road users at the entrance to Willesden parish.

Kilburn Toll Gate was situated at the southern end of Kilburn High Road beside the junction with Kilburn Priory.

After 1827, the Metropolitan Turnpike Trust was the body responsible for maintaining the main roads in the north of the conurbation of London. The commissioners took over from fourteen existing turnpike trusts, including the one at Kilburn, and were empowered to levy tolls to meet the costs of road maintenance.

Later the tollgate was moved to Shoot Up Hill before the turnpike was abolished altogether in 1872 as the Metropolitan Turnpike Trust was disbanded. The toll s...
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OCTOBER

2021

Golders Green crossroads
The Golders Green name derives from that of a local family - the Goodyers - and was first recorded in 1612 The hamlet of Golders Green originated as a group of cottages on waste ground on each side of the main road. In 1754, manorial waste at Golders Green stretched for some distance on either side of the main road from Hampstead.

By 1754 there were about 16 houses with small gardens at Golders Green, most of them on small inclosures from the waste and by 1751 there were two inns at Golders Green: the Hoop, commemorated later by the name ’’Hoop Lane’’, and the White Swan. The White Swan had tea gardens for summer visitors to Golders Green in 1882.

In the early 19th century, the manorial waste at Golders Green was enclosed for villas. In 1814 Golders Green contained ’many ornamental villas and cottages, surrounded with plantations’, and in 1828 detached houses spread on both sides of the road as far as Brent Bridge. The green was finally enclosed in 1873-4.

At Golders Green, a straggling hamlet in 1901, new hou...
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OCTOBER

2021

Lakeside Road, W14
Lakeside Road was built on the site of artificial lakes formed by local brickworks Black Bull Ditch (or Parr’s Ditch) was first mentioned in 1493 as a man-made tributary of the Stamford Brook, flowing into the Thames south of Chancellor’s Wharf where it formed the boundary between Hammersmith and Fulham.

The hamlet of Brook Green, around the ditch, was established by the 16th century, originating as an outlying farm of a manor. It was largely marshland with the brook running through, and where an annual fair was held until 1823.

Nearer to the River Thames, the good soil enabled farmers to grow soft fruits such as gooseberries, red currants, raspberries and strawberries which were taken by boat to sell at Covent Garden market.

Further from the Thames during the early 19th century a considerable amount of the local farmland was turned over to the creation of brickfields. The clay soil provided good building materials for London as it continued to expand westwards. Many ponds and lakes were formed as a result o...
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OCTOBER

2021

York Road, SE1
York Road skirts the western edge of Waterloo station To the west of York Road is the old County Hall, Shell Centre, Jubilee Gardens and, beyond, the London Eye and the River Thames.

The first Waterloo Bridge Act contained a clause for the continuation of Stamford Street across Waterloo Road to Westminster Bridge Road. The new road, which was for several years called Stamford Street, but which ultimately became York Road, was made across the land of the Archbishop’s manor of Lambeth.

Except for a fringe of cottages along Narrow Wall and for Phelps’ soap factory, which stood east of Narrow Wall (i.e. on ground between Belvedere Road and York Road and adjoining north on Waterloo Road) the land was undeveloped. It was divided by open ditches into fields: Float Mead, The Twenty-one Acres, and the Seven Acres.

In 1807 the Archbishop obtained an Act authorising the development of this ground for building. The road was cut in 1824, and between 1825 and 1830 practically the whole frontage...
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

John Neill Sandringham Road, E10 Added: 25 Nov 2021 11:30 GMT	Sandringham Road, E10 (1937 - 1966) I lived at No. 61 with my parents during these years. I went to Canterbury Road school (now Barclay Primary) and sang as a boy soprano (treble) in the church choir at St Andrew’s church, on the corner of Forest Glade. Opposite us lived the Burgess family. Their son Russell also sang in my choir as a tenor. He later became a well-known musician and the choirmaster at Wandsworth Boys’ School. Just at the end of WW2 a German rocket (V2) landed in the grounds of Whipps Cross Hospital, damaging many of the houses in Sandringham Road, including ours. Reply
Tim Stevenson The Bohemia Added: 16 Nov 2021 18:03 GMT	Pub still open The Bohemia survived the 2020/21 lockdowns and is still a thriving local social resource. Reply
STEPHEN JACKSON Fellows Court, E2 Added: 14 Nov 2021 17:25 GMT	Fellows Court, E2 my family moved into the tower block 13th floor (maisonette), in 1967 after our street Lenthall rd e8 was demolished, we were one of the first families in the new block. A number of families from our street were rehoused in this and the adjoining flats. Inside toilet and central heating, all very modern at the time, plus eventually a tarmac football pitch in the grounds,(the cage), with a goal painted by the kids on the brick wall of the railway. Reply
STEPHEN ARTHUR JACKSON Lynedoch Street, E2 Added: 14 Nov 2021 17:12 GMT	Lynedoch Street, E2 my father Arthur Jackson was born in lynedoch street in 1929 and lived with mm grandparents and siblings, until they were relocated to Pamela house Haggerston rd when the street was to be demolished Reply
Sir Walter Besant Wirtemberg Street, SW4 Added: 11 Nov 2021 18:47 GMT	Sir Walter adds.... All the ground facing Wirtemberg Street at Chip and Cross Streets is being levelled for building and the old houses are disappearing fast. The small streets leading through into little Manor Street are very clean and tenanted by poor though respectable people, but little Manor Street is dirty, small, and narrow. Manor Street to Larkhall Rise is a wide fairly clean thoroughfare of mixed shops and houses which improves towards the north. The same may be said of Wirtemberg Street, which commences poorly, but from the Board School north is far better than at the Clapham end. Source: London: South of the Thames - Chapter XX by Sir Walter Besant (1912) Reply
Old Nichol Street, E2 Added: 6 Nov 2021 15:03 GMT	Old Nichol Street, E2 Information about my grandfather’s tobacconist shop Reply
tom Electric Avenue, SW9 Added: 3 Nov 2021 05:16 GMT	I met someone here 6 years ago Reply
Fion Anderson Elstree Added: 2 Nov 2021 12:55 GMT	Elstree not Borehamwood Home of the UK film industry Reply

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