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...
Beaumont Street is the location of the King Edward VII Hospital and the Marylebone Library. Beaumont Street runs from Marylebone High Street to the junction of Westmoreland Street and Weymouth Street. It was named after Sir Beaumont Hotham, local leaseholder in the late 18th century.
The street’s story began soon after the Marylebone Gardens closed in 1776, the line of the northern half being mostly laid out over the site of the gardens. The southern part was already partly developed by then.
Building leases were granted to the Thomas Neales, senior and junior, and John White, among others in the late 1780s. The street was advertised as being in as "pleasant and as healthy a situation as in the country".
Shopkeepers and professionals moved in including a lady perfumer, surgeon, cheesemonger and a bookseller-stationer. Additionally there was a teacher of writing and accounting whose manuscript collection was open to the public.
The first residents in the 1790s included a botanical painter and a celebrated harpist, ...
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Thorold Road dates from 1889-90 The name Thorold Road might reflect a Lincolnshire association since, while not a village name, there are two pubs called ’The Thorold Arms’ - one in Marston and the other in Harmston. The Reverend Henry Thorold lived in a vicarage in the former. A housemaster at Lancing College, he wrote for the acclaimed ’Shell Guides’ to the counties of England.
More likely is the theory that the name is derived from James Edwin Thorold Rogers (1823-1890) who was Liberal MP for Southwark. He had been influential in the ’National Liberal Land Company’. The company was renamed the ’National Land Company’ in 1893.
While not landowners in Ilford, the Balfour Group and the National (Liberal) Land Company had close political links and it was the Balfour Group - trading locally as Hobbs and Company - which developed Thorold Street.
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Silverdale Road, WD23
Silverdale Road lies between Aldenham Road and Grange Road The road dates from the Edwardian era.
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Hounslow West
Hounslow West was once the terminus of the London Underground Hounslow branch The original station was opened by the District Railway (now the District line) on 21 July 1884. It was originally named Hounslow Barracks since it was situated close to the Cavalry Barracks in Hounslow which were south of the station on Beavers Lane.
At first, the station was the terminus of a single track branch line from the now-closed Hounslow Town station on Hounslow High Street. This branch diverged from the main route about 300 metres east of the present Hounslow East station. When the branch opened there were no intermediate stations between this station and Osterley & Spring Grove (now called Osterley).
New stations were eventually opened and on 1 December 1925 Hounslow West, Hounslow Central and Hounslow East received their current station names. The branch had been electrified in 1905.
The original building was demolished and a new Stanley Heaps and Charles Holden-designed Hounslow West opened on 5 July 1931 on the Bath Road.»more
Gants Hill
Gants Hill is an area of Ilford within the London Borough of Redbridge, 15 km northeast of Charing Cross The name ’Gants Hill’ may derive from the le Gant family, stewards of Barking Abbey, who were originally from the Ghent area (’Gand’ in French). The name ’Gantesgrave’ appears in records from 1291.
The area was remote farmland until after the First World War.
The government had begun to provide funds to subsidise public housing. The Corporation of London proposed an estate of 2000 cottages between Cranbrook Road and Horns Road but abandoned the project before it was even half way complete.
After the Eastern Avevue was carved through the site in the mid 1920s, a developer - Charles Lord - bought the abandoned Corporation of London site and largely completed the scheme. Especially profitable for him was the conversion of properties that faced the Eastern Avenue into shops.
The focus for the new area was the Gants Hill roundabout. Largely retail, the The art deco Savoy cinema was built in 1934 (but demolished...
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