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.

The Cabbie’s Hut at the end of Kensington Park Road, W11 near the junction with Pembridge Road.
Credit: User unknown/public domain

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...

Kensington Park Road, W11

Kensington Park Road is one of the main streets in Notting Hill. Kensington Park Road was built over a long period between the early 1840s and the 1870s by a variety of different developers.

Originally, there was no north-south road parallel to Portobello Lane (as Portobello Road was known). In 1840, after the failure of the Hippodrome racecourse (the main entrance of which was about where Kensington Temple now is), James Weller Ladbroke signed an agreement with a developer, Joseph Connop, under which Connop agreed to develop a large portion of the estate between Portobello Road and roughly what is now Ladbroke Grove. The deal was that Connop would arrange for the building of roads, sewers and houses and Ladbroke undertook then to give him 99-year leases of the houses for a small ground rent; Connop would then recover his costs through letting the houses. A plan for Connop’s land was drawn up by an architect called John Stevens.

Kensington Park was the name chosen by the developer Pearson Thompson when in 184...

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SEPTEMBER

2021

Bonner Street, E2
Bonner Street was named for Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London from 1539–49 and again from 1553-59 Bonner Street was once split into Bonner Street as its southernmost part and Bonner Lane in the north.

The area east of Bethnal Green was rural but Bishop’s Hall existed, occupied by Bishop Bonner. In 1655, the local manor house was demolished and the material used to build four new houses in the area. By 1741, the four houses were described as joining the main building on the west. The most easterly house, next to the lane, was a public house - probably the Three Golden Lions.

Other houses were built in Bonner Street by 1800 and spread eastward during the next decade.

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SEPTEMBER

2021

Green Lanes, N21
Green Lanes is part of an old route that led from Shoreditch to Hertford Green Lanes may have been in use from the second century during Roman times - its name derives from its connecting a series of greens en route, many of which no longer exist as greens.

In the mid 19th century the southernmost part was renamed Southgate Road - until that occurred, the Green Lanes name referred to a much longer thoroughfare. It possibly originated as a drovers’ road along which cattle were walked from Hertfordshire to London.

Green Lanes ultimately runs north from Newington Green, forming the boundary between Hackney and Islington, until it reaches Manor House. As it crosses the New River over Green Lanes Bridge, it enters the London Borough of Haringey. From the junction with Turnpike Lane the road temporarily changes its name and runs through Wood Green as ’High Road’, resuming its Green Lanes identity again after the junction with Lascott’s Road. It then continues north through Palmers Green and Win...
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SEPTEMBER

2021

Pinner Park Farm
One of the last of the major Middlesex farms Pinner Park Farm is a 93 hectare site surrounded by suburban residential areas. It is owned by the London Borough of Harrow and leased to Hall & Sons (Dairy Farmers) Ltd, which formerly ran it as a dairy farm. It is designated as a Site of Nature Conservation Importance.

Pinner Park has existed since the 13th century, when it was part of a large area around Harrow placed under the control of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The woodland was then used as pannage for pigs, but by the 15th century most of the trees had been cut down for timber and charcoal and the cleared areas were used mainly for pasture. Part of the park was also stocked with roe deer, protected from the depredation of local people by a high bank (parts of which still exist) and two ditches. The park held about 100 deer by the end of the 15th centre.

From the middle of the 15th century, the park was leased by the archbishopric to local farmers. In the 16th century, when the lordship and owne...
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SEPTEMBER

2021

Winchmore Hill
Winchmore Hill is a district in the London Borough of Enfield bounded on the east by Green Lanes (the A105) and on the west by Grovelands Park Once a small village hamlet in the parish of Edmonton, Winchmore Hill borders Palmers Green, Southgate, Edmonton, Enfield Chase and Bush Hill Park. At the heart is Winchmore Hill Green, a village green surrounded by shops and restaurants. The nearest Underground station is at Southgate which is on the Piccadilly Line.

Of particular note in Winchmore Hill is Grovelands Park which originated as a private estate before being partly being sold to the council in 1913. What remained in private hands, is the famous Priory Clinic.

Prior to occupation by the Romans, the area was occupied by the Catuvellauni tribe. It is believed that this tribe built an ancient hill fort on the mound where the Bush Hill Park Golf clubhouse now stands.

The earliest recorded mention of Winchmore Hill is in a deed dated 1319 in which it is spelt Wynsemerhull. By 1565 the village was known as Wynsmorehyll, becoming Winchmore Hill by the time it was ment...
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

roger morris Atherton Road, IG5 Added: 16 Oct 2021 08:50 GMT	Atherton Road, IG5 (1958 - 1980) I moved to Atherton road in 1958 until 1980 from Finsbury Park. My father purchased the house from his brother Sydney Morris. My father continued to live there until his death in 1997, my mother having died in 1988. I attended The Glade Primary School in Atherton Road from sept 1958 until 1964 when I went to Beal School. Have fond memories of the area and friends who lived at no2 (Michael Clark)and no11 (Brian Skelly) Reply
margaret clark Thrawl Street, E1 Added: 15 Oct 2021 22:23 GMT	Margaret’s address when she married in 1938 ^, Josepine House, Stepney is the address of my mother on her marriage certificate 1938. Her name was Margaret Irene Clark. Her father Basil Clark was a warehouse grocer. Reply
Martin Eaton Shoreditch Added: 14 Oct 2021 03:56 GMT	Boundary Estate Sunbury, Taplow House. Reply
Simon Chalton Duppas Hill Terrace, CR0 Added: 10 Oct 2021 21:52 GMT	Duppas Hill Terrace 1963- 74 I’m 62 yrs old now but between the years 1963 and 1975 I lived at number 23 Duppas Hill Terrace. I had an absolutely idyllic childhood there and it broke my heart when the council ordered us out of our home to build the Ellis Davd flats there.The very large house overlooked the fire station and we used to watch them practice putting out fires in the blue tower which I believe is still there. I’m asking for your help because I cannot find anything on the internet or anywhere else (pictures, history of the house, who lived there) and I have been searching for many, many years now. Have you any idea where I might find any specific details or photos of Duppas Hill Terrace, number 23 and down the hill to where the subway was built. To this day it saddens me to know they knocked down this house, my extended family lived at the next house down which I think was number 25 and my best school friend John Childs the next and last house down at number 27. I miss those years so terribly and to coin a quote it seems they just disappeared like "tears in rain". Please, if you know of anywhere that might be able to help me in any way possible, would you be kind enough to get back to me. I would be eternally grateful. With the greatest of hope and thanks, Simon Harlow-Chalton. Reply
Linda Webb Hungerford Stairs Added: 27 Sep 2021 05:51 GMT	Hungerford Stairs In 1794 my ancestor, George Webb, Clay Pipe Maker, lived in Hungerford Stairs, Strand. Source: Wakefields Merchant & Tradesmens General Directory London Westminster 1794 Source: Hungerford Stairs Reply
jack stevens Whites Row, E1 Added: 26 Sep 2021 13:38 GMT	Mothers birth place Number 5 Whites Row which was built in around 1736 and still standing was the premises my now 93 year old mother was born in, her name at birth was Hilda Evelyne Shaw, Reply
Ron Shepherd 91 Fernhead Road, W9 Added: 18 Sep 2021 17:28 GMT	More Wisdom Norman Joseph Wisdom was born in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, West London. Reply
Jonathan Penner Pennard Road, W12 Added: 11 Sep 2021 16:03 GMT	Pennard Road, W12 My wife and I, young Canadians, lodged at 65 (?) Pennard Road with a fellow named Clive and his girlfriend, Melanie, for about 6 months in 1985. We loved the area and found it extremely convenient. Reply

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