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.

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...

Bishop’s Bridge

Bishop’s Bridge, sometimes known as Paddington Bridge, is a road bridge which carries Bishop’s Bridge Road across the rail approaches to Paddington station The name of Bishop’s Bridge derives from the manor of Paddington which was granted to the Bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley, by Edward VI in the mid 16th Century.

In 2003 while researching a book about the station, Steven Brindle discovered that Isambard Kingdom Brunel was responsible for the original Bishop’s Bridge and that the section he built over the canal was his first iron bridge and had a unique design.

The bridge was due to be rebuilt and negotiations between the council and English Heritage followed. It was agreed that the 1839 iron bridge would be dismantled with a view to future reconstruction. The bulk of the dismantling work took place in April 2004, allowing the bridge replacement work to proceed as planned.

Construction on the replacement bridge by Hochtief commenced in July 2003 with it opening on 14 June 2006.

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JANUARY

2021

Nine Elms
Nine Elms is an area within Battersea in the far north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Wandsworth Nine Elms was formerly mainly industrial but is now becoming more residential and commercial in character. In the area is the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

Nine Elms Lane was named around the year 1645, from a row of elm trees bordering the road, though a path probably existed between York House and Vauxhall from the 1200s. In 1838, at the time of construction of the London and Southampton Railway, the area was described as "a low swampy district occasionally overflowed by the River Thames [whose] osier beds, pollards and windmille and the river give it a Dutch effect".

Nine Elms railway station opened on 21 May 1838 as the first London terminus of the London & South Western Railway. The neo-classical building was designed by Sir William Tite. The station was connected to points between Vauxhall and London Bridge by Thames steam boats. It closed in 1848 when the railway was extended via the Nine Elms to Waterloo Viaduct to a new terminus at Waterloo. The ...
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JANUARY

2021

Chester Road, DA15
Chester Road lies to the north of the Blackfen Road In the early 1930s, estates of houses and bungalows were being built in the area by C. R. Leech, Wates and New Ideal Homesteads.

Buying a new house in the area was an exciting business and show house viewing (even for those not intending to purchase) was a popular weekend occupation for many who lived in the inner London suburbs.

Many families who moved here were attracted by modern houses with gardens, fresh air and space. Many of the 1930s houses though were small and even had outside toilets.
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JANUARY

2021

Mayplace Road East, DA7
Mayplace Road East was an old lane leading east from Barnehurst In 1750 Miles Barne inherited a large estate: May Place.

’Barnehurst’ was an artificial name created for the local railway station from the family name. The area was previously agricultural - a mix of market gardens, orchards and woodland. A settlement was concentrated along Mayplace Road. Only with the electrification of the railway in 1926 did the large housing developments of the 1920s and 1930s start to appear.

In 1926, the developer W H Wedlock Ltd started to build on the site of Mayplace Farm and based on Oakwood Drive.

W H Wedlock Ltd developed the ’Mayplace Estate’ between Erith Road and Barnehurst Avenue only after 1932 as the underlying land was more difficult to develop.

The Barne family finally disposed of May Place in 1938, selling it to Crayford Urban District Council for £24,500.
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JANUARY

2021

Boxmoor Street, W11
Boxmoor Street was also known as Henry Place and Beaumont Street during its brief life It ran west from Norland Road and started its life in the 1840s. The western end was originally the Counter’s Creek rivulet, later superseded by the track of the West London Railway.

By the 1930s, Boxmoor Street was described as "a little road off the Norland Market in Shepherd’s Bush". Its entrance was located opposite the Stewards Arms pub.

It was quite unique as it was part of W11 lying within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The M41 (West Cross Route) motorway was built over the top of the street.
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JANUARY

2021

Waterloo Street, EC1V
Waterloo Street once ran from Lever Street to Radnor Street. The modern layout of Galway Street still includes the part of the line of Waterloo Street and nearby Murton Street.

The original street dates from around 1829 and like other streets of similar name, commemorates Wellington’s 1815 victory. The whole area was redeveloped for the Pleydell Estate in 1965.
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JANUARY

2021

Dupont Street, E14
Dupont Street ran from Maroon Street to Burn Street. Limehouse was a large, important London port in the medieval period. It specialised in production such as rope making and shipbuilding rather than cargo handling. In 1600, it was estimated that half of the population of 2000 who lived in Limehouse had a seafaring connection.

Dupont Street seems to have been built as Catherine Place during the 1820s. The name Dupont Street replaced Burn Street before 1912 though on the 1900 map, both names appear simultaneously. The street contained a pub - the Devonshire Arms - at 10 Dupont Street.

Well into the twentieth century, Dupont Street was a classed as a slum.

During the 1990s, Dupont Street was replaced by Shaw Crescent which was built over the top of it.

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JANUARY

2021

Saxham Road, IG11
Saxham Road was the first road built on the Movers Lane Housing Estate. The foundation stone for the Movers Lane Housing Estate, municipal housing which was built by Barking Council, was laid in Saxham Road on 6 Decmber 1933 by the Mayor, A. Edwards.

The estate was intended to provide 265 houses for approximately 1378 persons, according to the Council at the time. This first section, consisting of 106 houses and eight flat built at a cost of £35 706, was intended to provide accommodation for the occupants of Back Lane, Church Path, Bridge Street and Abbey Road areas. The mayor hoped "that the houses would be proceeded with rapidly, and that at an early date they would have the pleasure of transferring to the new houses tenants from the slum dwellings".

The Mayor gave a speech that day. He had asked the Borough Engineer, R.A. Lay, to see how many bricks Barking was responsible for laying in connection with the municipal houses since he came to the area in 1899, the year of the first housing scheme. Between 1899 and 1908, the ...
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JANUARY

2021

Walnut Tree Place, SE11
Walnut Tree Place was a minor street replaced by the China Walk Estate. In the 17th century, this area was open fields and a favourite recreation spot for Londoners who would cross the Thames by boat to escape the city. By the late 17th century a place of entertainment called Lambeth Wells had been established in the vicinity of Lambeth Walk at its junction with Lollard Street. Lambeth Walk was then a lane known as Three Coney Walk. John Rocque’s map of 1746 shows Three Coney Walk in an area of market gardens and sparse development.

The opening of Westminster Bridge in 1750 caused an increase in traffic which began to change the area. New turnpike roads were laid including Kennington Road. Although smart houses were built along Kennington Road, within a few decades the area behind it began to fill up with poor quality housing.

By the mid 19th century, the area was completely built over. It was by then notorious for its poverty and crime.

The poor housing conditions became a pressing concern after the First W...
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JANUARY

2021

Castor Street, E14
Castor Street existed between the 1810s and 1960s. Until the building of the East India Dock Road in 1806, the only roads running north from Poplar High Street were Bow Lane, Robin Hood Lane and North Street. East India Dock Road’s arrival at the beginning of the nineteenth century started development planning.

The land to the north of Pennyfields as far as East India Dock Road was owned by Mary Burch. In 1812, Castor Street was laid out and a number of leases were granted there to carpenters, a bricklayer and a builder. Henceforth a number of small houses were erected in Castor Street and Sandpit Road (later this was renamed West Street and again in 1875 renamed Birchfield Street).

Mary Burch offered short leases of 31 years - these were too short to encourage a high standard of building. Some nearby occupiers complained of filth ’of every kind’ in Castor Street.

By 1832, Joel Langley and his family had acquired the land from Miss Burch. From about 1855 Joseph and George Mills establ...
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JANUARY

2021

Grangeway, NW6
Grangeway, NW6 lies off of Messina Avenue. Built in the period immediately following the First World War, Grangeway is tucked into the corner of Kilburn Grange Park.

The park itself is a 3.2 hectare open space in Kilburn. Administered by the London Borough of Camden, it includes a children’s playground, basketball court, outdoor gym equipment and tennis courts.

The park first opened in 1913 having previously been part of the Grange estate.

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JANUARY

2021

Byfleet and New Haw
Byfleet & New Haw railway station is at the northern edge of Byfleet with the village of New Haw immediately to the north and the M25 motorway within 400m to the west. The station was designed by the architect James Robb Scott and opened on 10 July 1927 to cater for the increasing local population. The opening of the Vickers aircraft factory in 1911 led to Byfleet’s population doubling in just ten years. Many new houses were built to accommodate the factory workers.

The station was originally called "West Weybridge" and changed to its present name in June 1962.

It is on a section of railway that forms part of the South Western Main Line’s original form, the London and Southampton Railway, which was built in stages. The first stage opened in May 1838 and joined the London Terminus in Nine Elms with Woking Common, now Woking.

Byfleet and New Haw Station is in close proximity to the historical Brooklands racetrack and aerodrome, which date back to 1907. The racetrack hosted the 1927 British Grand Prix a few months after the station opened.
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JANUARY

2021

Staveley Road, W4
Staveley Road was the site of the first V2 rocket landing on London. At 18.43 on Friday 8 September 1944, a V2 missile launched from Wassenaar, Netherlands in Holland landed in Staveley Road, near the junction with Burlington Lane.

The V2 on Chiswick resulted in three deaths. Three year old Rosemary Clarke who lived at number 1 Staveley Road, Ada Harrison aged 68 of 3 Staveley Road and Sapper Bernard Browning, who was on leave, and on his way to Chiswick Station. 19 were injured.

The missile had taken seven minutes to reach Chiswick from Holland, travelling at around 3000mph. This is regarded as the world’s first recognised ballistic rocket attack, although another V-2 had previously landed in the outskirts of Paris earlier in the morning.

Eleven houses were completely destroyed and another fifteen had to be extensively rebuilt. The general public was not notified about the existence of V2 rockets until November.

Sixteen seconds after the V2 attack occurred in Chiswick, another V2 landed in...
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