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.

As maps are displayed, click on the markers to view location articles.

Latest on The Underground Map...

High Barnet - Totteridge walk

This walk takes in the top of the Northern Line. High Barnet is a London Underground station and, in the past, a railway station, located in Chipping Barnet. It is the terminus of the High Barnet branch of the Northern line and is the start of a walk which takes us on to Totteridge and Whetstone station.

High Barnet station was an idea of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway and was opened on 1 April 1872 by the Great Northern Railway which had taken over by then. It was situated on one of the original sites of the Barnet Fair and was the terminus of the branch line that ran from Finsbury Park via Highgate.

The section north of East Finchley was incorporated into the London Underground network because of the Northern Heights project begun in the late 1930s. High Barnet station was served by Northern line trains from 14 April 1940 onwards.

The station retains much of its original Victorian architectural character, with some platform buildings dating from the pre-London Transport era.
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MARCH

2022

Trafalgar Avenue, SE15
This area of Peckham, close to the Old Kent Road, was developed from the 1840s onwards In the 1850s, north Peckham was developing as a handsome, middle-class suburb. Leading south from the Old Kent Road, Trafalgar Road (later Trafalgar Avenue) was laid out including an earlier bridge (the Trafalgar Bridge) over the Grand Surrey Canal. The canal was filled in during 1970.

On the corner of Trafalgar Avenue and Waite Street, a pub was built: "The Victory".

After the Second World War and its war damage, much of the southern part of Trafalgar Avenue was demolished to make way for parkland.
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MARCH

2022

Galton Street, W10
Galton Street lies within the Queen’s Park Estate, W10 Because of its townscape and architectural quality and its historical interest, the Queen’s Park Estate was designed as a conservation area in 1978. A number of properties had been sold and many of them had already been "improved" in such an insensitive way that the visual unity of whole terraces was threatened.

The designation enabled the City Council to safeguard the character of the Estate and give guidance to owner-occupiers on suitable improvements. The conservation area was extended in 1991 to include parts of the Grand Union Canal and the Harrow Road Library (part of this extension was transferred to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 1994).
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MARCH

2022

Lord Hills Road, W2
Lord Hill’s Road was at first called Ranelagh Road By the middle of the eighteenth century, Westbourne House - a large house and also known as Westbourne Place - had been rebuilt as an elegant Georgian mansion by the architect Isaac Ware. Residents had included Sir William Yorke (a Venetian ambassador), architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell (a distant relative of diarist Samuel Pepys) and finally General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill.

The River Westbourne flowed in a southeasterly direction across Paddington and beside Westbourne House. In its last incarnation it was the Ranelagh sewer - some of its course was still open in 1871 along the later line of Kilburn Park Road and Shirland Road. This was then built over but further south, it had already disappeared beneath new roads known as Formosa Road, Ranelagh Road and Cleveland Square.

General Rowland Hill left Westbourne House in 1836 and following his departure, the mansion was demolished and replaced by Westbourne Park Villas. Hill was Commander-in-Chief of...
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MARCH

2022

Hanbury Street, E1
Hanbury Street is a long road running west-east from Commercial Street to Vallance Road The street-line of the western section dates from around 1649 when it was known as Lolesworth Lane or Lolesworth Street as it crossed Lolesworth Field.

It appears as Browne’s Lane on maps of 1677, named after Jeffrey Browne, a local landowner who also owned part of the Spital Field which later became the market. The north side had become built up by 1681. The street was later extended east of Brick Lane, though called Montague Street, Church Street and Wells Street.

Considerable rebuilding took place during the early 1700s, resulting in the typical Georgian houses that dominated much of the area (and still do in nearby streets). Following the progressive expansion of Truman’s Black Eagle Brewery, Browne’s Lane and its continuations eastward were renamed and renumbered as Hanbury Street in 1876, in honour of Samson Hanbury and possibly his brother Osgood, who became partners in the brewery business from 1780. A widely reproduced br...
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Bob Land The Underground Map Added: 29 Jun 2022 13:20 GMT	Map legends Question, I have been looking at quite a few maps dated 1950 and 1900, and there are many abbreviations on the maps, where can I find the lists to unravel these ? Regards Bob Land Reply
Alison Archway Added: 26 Jun 2022 18:20 GMT	On the dole in north London When I worked at the dole office in Medina Road in the 1980s, "Archway" meant the social security offices which were in Archway Tower at the top of the Holloway Road. By all accounts it was a nightmare location for staff and claimants alike. This was when Margaret Thatcher’s government forced unemployment to rise to over 3 million (to keep wages down) and computerised records where still a thing of the future. Our job went from ensuring that unemployed people got the right sort and amount of benefits at the right time, to stopping as many people as possible from getting any sort of benefit at all. Britain changed irrevocably during this period and has never really recovered. We lost the "all in it together" frame of mind that had been born during the second world war and became the dog-eat-dog society where 1% have 95% of the wealth and many people can’t afford to feed their children. For me, the word Archway symbolises the land of lost content. Reply
Jack Wilson St Albans Place, N1 Added: 21 Jun 2022 21:40 GMT	Penfold Printers I am seeking the location of Penfold Printers Offices in Dt Albans place - probably about 1870 or so Reply
Runcorn Place, W11 Added: 19 Jun 2022 16:58 GMT	Runcorn Place, W11 Runcorn place Reply
The Three Magpies Added: 30 May 2022 19:03 GMT	The Three Magpies Row of houses (centre) was on Heathrow Rd....Ben’s Cafe shack ( foreground ) and the Three Magpies pub (far right) were on the Bath Rd Reply
Watts Beethoven Street School Added: 17 May 2022 20:29 GMT	Baeethoven St School, also an Annex for Paddington College of FE. In the early 70’s I took a two year science course at Paddington CFE. The science classes were held on weekday evenings at Beethoven Street school, overseen by chemistry teacher, Mr Tattershall. Reply
Southover, N12 Added: 25 Apr 2022 22:11 GMT	Southover, N12 Everyone knows Central Woodside is the place to be. Ever since kdog moved from finchtown, Woodside has been thriving. Reply
Bernard Miller Windsor Terrace, N1 Added: 12 Apr 2022 17:36 GMT	My mother and her sister were born at 9 Windsor Terrace My mother, Millie Haring (later Miller) and her sister Yetta Haring (later Freedman) were born here in 1922 and 1923. With their parents and older brother and sister, they lived in two rooms until they moved to Stoke Newington in 1929. She always said there were six rooms, six families, a shared sink on the first floor landing and a toilet in the backyard. Reply

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