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.

Amersham

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...

Amersham

Amersham is a market town 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills, England. It is part of the London commuter belt. Amersham is split into two distinct areas: Old Amersham, set in the valley of the River Misbourne, which contains the 13th century parish church of St. Mary’s and several old pubs and coaching inns; and Amersham-on-the-Hill, which grew rapidly around the railway station in the early part of the 20th century.

Records date back to pre-Anglo-Saxon times, when it was known as Egmondesham.

In 1200 Geoffrey, Earl of Essex obtained a charter for Amersham allowing him to hold a Friday market and a fair on 7 and 8 September. In 1613 a new charter was granted to Edward, Earl of Bedford, changing the market day to Tuesday and establishing a statute fair on 19 September.

The area of the town now known as Amersham on the Hill was referred to as Amersham Common until after the arrival of the Metropolitan Line in 1892. After this date growth of the new area of the town gradually accelerated, with much work being done by the arch...

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NOVEMBER

2023

Yiewsley
Yiewsley is a large suburban village in the London Borough of Hillingdon Yiewsley’s transition from an agrarian community began when the Grand Junction Canal was opened. Construction started in May 1793 and connected the area to the Thames at Brentford, passing through Yiewsley on its way north following the River Colne. An aqueduct was built at Cowley Lock to cross the Fray’s River. In 1794, the canal opened between the Thames and Uxbridge, and in 1795, the aqueduct over the Fray’s River was likely completed.

The following year, in 1796, Colham Wharf, Yiewsley’s first dock, was established near Colham Bridge. In 1801, the Paddington Arm of the canal opened, connecting the area to national trade routes.

The canal played a vital role in transporting Cowley stock bricks, which were made from the abundant brick-earth in Yiewsley. The bricks were transported mainly along the Grand Junction Canal and the Regent’s Canal to supply the demand for building materials in Victorian London.

By t...
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NOVEMBER

2023

South Harrow
South Harrow originally spread south and west from the hamlet of Roxeth as a result of easier access from Central London by rail In the 1890s, the Metropolitan District Railway, which later became the District Line but was operating as an independent company at the time, recognised the inadequate service to Uxbridge and Harrow. To address this, they proposed the construction of a railway line towards both towns, and this led to the formation of the Ealing & South Harrow Railway. The railway line was intended to extend to South Harrow, which was then a rural area located to the south of Roxeth.

Construction of the railway line was completed by 1899, but the District Line faced financial difficulties that delayed its opening until 1903. Consequently, South Harrow became the terminus of a line extending from Park Royal & Twyford Abbey. The location around Northolt Road subsequently developed into South Harrow’s own commercial and residential hub.

The original station building was approximately 170 metres south of the present-day station. This extension marked a significant miles...
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SEPTEMBER

2023

Great Portland Street
Great Portland Street is a London Underground station near Regent’s Park Great Portland Street station was opened on 10 January 1863 as Portland Road, renamed Great Portland Street and Regents Park in 1923 and changed to its present name on 1 March 1917.

The station’s present structure, constructed in 1930, is situated on a traffic island at the intersection of Marylebone Road, Great Portland Street and Albany Street. This building features a steel-framed design with a cream terracotta exterior. The station’s perimeter also houses shops and, in the past, included a car showroom with office spaces above it. Notably, Great Portland Street was a significant sales location for the motor industry. The station’s architectural design, credited to C.W. Fowler, earned it a Grade II listing in January 1987.

The area around Great Portland Street station offers various points of interest. Regent’s Park and the iconic BT Tower are nearby attractions. Additionally, the station’s proximity to Regen...
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SEPTEMBER

2023

Courtfield Gardens, SW5
Courtfield Gardens is named after the field beneath it, cultivated until the 19th century According to 16th-century records, Courtfield Gardens was built on a vast open meadow known as Great Courtfield. This meadow was surrounded by fertile land and small farms and was part of a large area of land that extended from Cromwell Road to The Old Brompton Road in one direction, and from Gloucester Road to Earl’s Court Road in the other direction. Great Courtfield was included in the Earl’s Court ’manor’.

During the 18th century, Earl’s Court House, a grand manor house, was constructed on the land that is now the western terrace of Barkston Gardens. This building replaced an extensive dwelling that was described in 1705 as having fountains, a marble-tiled dairy, engines for water, and impressive gates at its entrance.

In the 19th century, the area surrounding Courtfield Gardens was developed with rows of terraced houses, as the demand for housing in London grew. Earl’s Court House was demolished in the middle of th...
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Peter Gambia Street, SE1 Added: 4 Dec 2023 07:05 GMT	Gambia Street, SE1 Gambia Street was previously known as William Street. Reply
Eileen Brecknock Road, N7 Added: 10 Nov 2023 09:42 GMT	Brecknock Road Pleating Company My great grandparents ran the Brecknock Road pleating Company around 1910 to 1920 and my Grandmother worked there as a pleater until she was 16. I should like to know more about this. I know they had a beautiful Victorian house in Islington as I have photos of it & of them in their garden. Source: Family history Reply
Squirrel’s Lane, IG9 Added: 6 Nov 2023 16:59 GMT	061123 Why do Thames Water not collect the 15 . Three meter lengths of blue plastic fencing, and old pipes etc. They left here for the last TWO Years, these cause an obstruction,as they halfway lying in the road,as no footpath down this road, and the cars going and exiting the park are getting damaged, also the public are in Grave Danger when trying to avoid your rubbish and the danger of your fences. Source: Squirrels Lane. Buckhurst Hill, Essex. IG9. I want some action ,now, not Excuses.MK. Reply
Christian Cornwall Road, W11 Added: 31 Oct 2023 10:34 GMT	Cornwall Road, W11 Photo shows William Richard Hoare’s chemist shop at 121 Cornwall Road. Reply
Vik Oaks Road, TW6 Added: 30 Oct 2023 18:48 GMT	Old pub sign from the Rising Sun Hi I have no connection to the area except that for the last 30+ years we’ve had an old pub sign hanging on our kitchen wall from the Rising Sun, Stanwell, which I believe was / is on the Oaks Rd. Happy to upload a photo if anyone can tell me how or where to do that! Reply
Phillip Martin Ashburnham Place, SE10 Added: 16 Oct 2023 06:25 GMT	16 Ashburnham Road On 15 October 1874 George Frederick Martin was born in 16 Ashburnham Road Greenwich to George Henry Martin, a painter, and Mary Martin, formerly Southern. Reply
Christine Bithrey Holly Park, N4 Added: 15 Oct 2023 15:20 GMT	The Hollies (1860 - 1900) I lived in Holly Park Estate from 1969 I was 8 years old when we moved in until I left to get married, my mother still lives there now 84. I am wondering if there was ever a cemetery within The Hollies? And if so where? Was it near to the Blythwood Road end or much nearer to the old Methodist Church which is still standing although rather old looking. We spent most of our childhood playing along the old dis-used railway that run directly along Blythwood Road and opposite Holly Park Estate - top end which is where we live/ed. We now walk my mothers dog there twice a day. An elderly gentleman once told me when I was a child that there used to be a cemetery but I am not sure if he was trying to scare us children! I only thought about this recently when walking past the old Methodist Church and seeing the flag stone in the side of the wall with the inscription of when it was built late 1880 If anyone has any answers please email me [email protected] Reply
Chris hutchison Broadhurst Gardens, NW6 Added: 15 Oct 2023 03:04 GMT	35 broadhurst gardens. 35 Broadhurst gardens was owned by famous opera singer Mr Herman “Simmy”Simberg. He had transformed it into a film and recording complex. There was a film and animation studio on the ground floor. The recording facilities were on the next two floors. I arrived in London from Australia in 1966 and worked in the studio as the tea boy and trainee recording engineer from Christmas 1966 for one year. The facility was leased by an American advertising company called Moreno Films. Mr Simbergs company Vox Humana used the studio for their own projects as well. I worked for both of them. I was so lucky. The manager was another wonderful gentleman called Jack Price who went on to create numerous songs for many famous singers of the day and also assisted the careers of Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff. “Simmy” let me live in the bedsit,upper right hand window. Jack was also busy with projects with The Troggs,Bill Wyman,Peter Frampton. We did some great sessions with Manfred Mann and Alan Price. The Cream did some demos but that was before my time. We did lots of voice over work. Warren Mitchell and Ronnie Corbett were favourites. I went back in 1978 and “Simmy “ had removed all of the studio and it was now his home. His lounge room was still our studio in my minds eye!! Reply

Click here to explore another London street
We now have 628 completed street histories and 46872 partial histories

JUNE

2015

Red Lion Hill, N2
The contemporary Red Lion Hill connects Oak Lane and Central Avenue. Red Lion Hill, a significant obstacle on a drovers’ path, takes its name from a public house, the Red Lion. This dated from at latest the 1780s and is now replaced by a block of flats.

It is a lot shorter than its former length as it used to cover most of what is now King Street.

Minor roads grew up along the edge of what was Finchley Common. Bow Lane, named from its shape, existed at Fallow Corner south of East End by 1814. Farther south there was a settlement at Cuckolds Haven by 1678, linked by causeways before 1814. Red Lion Hill was named by 1821 but most of its course became King Street by 1920.

During work in 1934, ten old cottages in Red Lion Hill were set alight to enable the local fire service to give a demonstration.
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JUNE

2015

Kensal House
There are two Kensal Houses in London W10 - this was the original In the triangle between the canal and Harrow Road, a new Italianate villa stood by 1835. Called Kensal House and occupied by Alfred Haines in 1841, it was unusually large for its position.

In 1911, in association with the LCC, the Paddington & Kensington Dispensary for the Prevention of Consumption established an open air school for local tuberculous children, set in the estate of Kensal House.

Kensal House had an extensive garden and the Open Air School provided an education for children who would otherwise have been barred from normal school.

The original Italianate house survived in the 21st century, containing three storeys over a basement and of brick and stucco, the main façade having seven bays, a prominent cornice, and a Corinthian porch.

A 19th century wing has been added to the east and a modern one to the west. After serving as a school, the house was occupied by the Metropolitan Railway Surplus Lands Co. by 19...
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JUNE

2015

The Flora
The Flora is situated on Harrow Road, W10. The Flora was built in the 19th century from polychrome brick, and Pevsner notes its "angular window heads". The building is also notable for the contrasting brickwork above the windows and the floral motifs incorporated into the design.

The pub was known as The Flora Arms from 1881. In the nineteenth century, as The Flora Hotel, the building was the location for a number of inquests into deaths in the Queen’s Park area. Thomas Robinson Dipple was the publican for many years, from at least 1904 to 1921. Sometimes described as an "Irish" pub due to the large Irish community in the area, in the twentieth century the pub has been a favourite watering hole for supporters of the local football team Queen’s Park Rangers.

In April 1893, after QPR had beaten Fulham at at Kensal Rise in the final of the West London Observer Cup, the trophy was put on show in the pub.

The pub backs onto the Grand Union Canal.
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JUNE

2015

Beethoven Street School
Beethoven Street School was opened in 1881 to serve the community of the newly-built Queen's Park Estate. In the playshed of the school in September 1885, the first woodwork class in elementary schools in London was opened. The instructor was J .T Chenoweth. As the expenditure was illegal, it was disallowed and the class was temporarily suspended.

The course re-started with money provided by the City and Guilds Institute and was later taken up by the London School Board as a model for other schools.
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JUNE

2015

Redcliffe Gardens, SW10
Redcliffe Gardens began life as Walnut Tree Walk, a pathway running through nurseries and market gardens. The street, built between 1865 and 1873, is characterised by a wide street, mature trees, ample front gardens and large gault brick houses arranged as detached houses, pairs, groups of three and terraces.

Redcliffe Gardens is home to Redcliffe School’s prep school.
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JUNE

2015

Harrow Road (1920s)
Harrow Road in the 1920s, looking south east towards the Prince of Wales pub and the Emmanuel Church spire. On the right of the image can be seen the pre-war Harrow Road Market. Beyond the market is North Paddington School.

The market, almost opposite Benjamins furniture shop, later became a wood yard.
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JUNE

2015

Westbourne Lodge
Westbourne Lodge appeared in one of the earliest photographs in London. Westbourne Lodge was built before the Great Western Railway was built but once it had, the railway ran beside the Lodge.

The accompanying photo dates from 6 August 1857 and shows guests at the wedding of the Reverend Frederick Manners Stopford to Florence Augusta Saunders, daughter of Charles Saunders, first general secretary of the Great Western Railway. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was amongst the guests.

During the wedding, both Brunel and Saunders were able to experience trains running beside the wedding party along the railway which they had built.
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JUNE

2015

Coppetts Road, N10
By 1754 the modern Coppetts Road ran from Crouch End north towards Colney Hatch. By 1846 it was linked by a track south of Bounds Green brook to Colney Hatch Lane. At the northern end Coppetts Road met a route running westward from Colney Hatch shortly before it forked into two tracks crossing Finchley Common, later Woodhouse Road and Summers Lane. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries many copyhold lanes apparently led to individual holdings.

South of Bounds Green Brook there was only Coppetts Farm between 1783 and 1846.

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JUNE

2015

Ridler’s Tyre Yard
Ridler’s Tyres was situated in a part of Blechynden Street which no longer exists It was situated next to the railway bridge in Blechynden Street. This part of the street was redeveloped.
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JUNE

2015

Queen’s Park
Queen’s Park lies between Kilburn and Kensal Green, developed from 1875 onwards and named to honour Queen Victoria. The north of Queen’s Park formed part of the parish of Willesden and the southern section formed an exclave of the parish of Chelsea, both in the Ossulstone hundred of Middlesex. In 1889 the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works that included the southern section of Queen’s Park was transferred from Middlesex to the County of London, and in 1900 the anomaly of being administered from Chelsea was removed when the exclave was united with the parish of Paddington. In 1965 both parts of Queen’s Park became part of Greater London: the northern section - Queen’s Park ’proper’ formed part of Brent and the southern section - the Queen’s Park Estate - joined the City of Westminster.

Queen’s Park, like much of Kilburn, was developed by Solomon Barnett. The two-storey terraced houses east of the park, built between 1895 and 1900, typically have clean, classical lines. Those west of the park, built 1900–05, tend to be more Gothic in style. Barnett’s wife was f...
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JUNE

2015

The Apollo
The Apollo pub was located at 18 All Saints Road, on the southeast corner of the Lancaster Road junction. It was first listed as a pub, having been built as such in 1869. The first licencee was Mr Edward Ashley.

Until after the Second World War, the pub was a typical Victorian-stlye boozer, just like many others throughout London.

In the 1950s, All Saints Road became a centre for the local West Indian population with the pub at its heart - it was possibly the first pub in Notting Hill where black people were able to be served without hassle.

In 1964, Ringo Starr was across Lancaster Road from the Apollo (on the north east corner) in the Beatles film ’A Hard Day’s Night’. Ringo first appears on St Luke’s Road. From there he’s chased by two screaming girls down Lancaster Road to All Saints Road, where he goes into a second hand clothes shop and comes out in beatnik disguise.

When All Saints Road became part of the heart of the Notting Hill Carnival, the Apollo obtained a bit of a reputation.

After a riot ...
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JUNE

2015

Kilburn Bridge Farm
Kilburn Bridge Farm stood beside Watling Street until the late 1830s. Watling Street has long been running through Kilburn. The road stretched in Roman times from Dover to Wroxeter in Shropshire. Kilburn was a stopping point on the way to Willesden’s ‘Black Madonna’ shrine, and in turn a destination in itself to take the waters at the Kilburn Wells.
Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Kilburn Bridge Farm was reported as lying to the west side of Watling Street and consisting of 40 acres. It was worth £230 a year in 1795. The modern day site of the farm is just south of the junction between Kilburn Park Road and the Edgware Road.
The earliest mention of the farm dates from 1647 when a Mrs Wheatley leased 44 acres of pasture in five closes from the Bishop of London who owned the land.
In 1742, when Richard Marsh was tenant, the farmhouse and its yards stood by the road close to the Westbourne stream, with 39 acres in six fields to the south and west. It was named after the bridge where the Edgware Road crossed the stream...
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JUNE

2015

Cornwall Crescent, W11
Cornwall Crescent belongs to the third and final period of building on the Ladbroke estate. Development of this area became more attractive with the opening in 1864 of the Hammersmith and City branch of the Metropolitan Railway with a station on Ladbroke Grove. With it came the introduction of cheap workmen’s fares.

By that time the Ladbroke family had disposed of the land, either by selling the freehold or by giving 99-year peppercorn rents. The land on which Cornwall Crescent lies was in the hands mainly of two merchant-turned developers, Stephen Phillips, and the speculator and ex-Calcutta merchant Charles Blake, who had already developed successfully several other parts of the Ladbroke estate. They in their turn gave building leases to a variety of builders. The normal pattern was no doubt followed, according to which the builder had to build houses meeting certain standards; he then received a 99-year lease of the houses, which he would let out, thus recovering his costs, but he had had to pay a ground rent to the landowner. In practice, both the free...
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JUNE

2015

St Lukes Mews, W11
St Lukes Mews is a mews off of All Saints Road, W11. St Luke's Mews runs across All Saints Road from St Luke's Road to Basing Street. The western half was originally called 'Lancaster Mews' and appears as such on the 1900 map.

It has been inhabited by Marsha Hunt of 'Hair', Lemmy of Motörhead, Chet Baker, Richie Havens, Joan Armatrading of 'Love and Affection' fame, and Paula Yates.

In Hollywood W11 the mews appears in 'The Man Who Knew Too Little' - Bill Murray thwarts a mugging attempt, and 'Love Actually' - Andrew Lincoln expresses his feelings for Keira Knightley with Bob Dylan-style placards.
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JUNE

2015

Windsor Castle
The Windsor Castle dates from the 1820s but its main incarnation was as a classic Victorian public house, seminal in 1970s musical history. It started life as the building at one end of houses on the south side of the Harrow Road, then called Ormes Green.

When rebuilt about 1850, the new building was typical of the villa development in this part of Harrow Road. It has turrets on the top reminiscent of its namesake: the real Windsor Castle.

After passing about a hundred years as a classic local pub, it burst into musical significance.

It was renowned for early gigs by the Rolling Stones and the Who.

The pub was a punk rock venue in the mid to late 1970s. Playing there, among others, were Dr Feelgood, The Jam, U2 and the Psychedelic Furs. The 101`ers with Joe Strummer - his band prior to forming the Clash - played there. The inspiration for the ‘Protex Blue’ track is said to come from the contraceptive machine in the toilets of the Windsor Castle.

After moving considerably downmarket as a strip club, it closed in 2009.
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JUNE

2015

Spotted Dog
The Spotted Dog public house was one of the earliest buildings in Westbourne Green. It was located near to what later was nos. 12-18 Cirencester Street and, on Roque's 1746 map, is the last building along the Harrow Road before Kensal Green.

It stood very close to Westbourne Farm. ,The farm was occupied by the actress Sarah Siddons from April 1805 to Autumn 1817, while her brother Charles Kemble lived in a smaller house nearby for part of the time.

Later it was called the Westbourne Green Tavern and kept by Eleanor Winter, a witness to the 1802 Paddington Canal Murder.

The pub had disappeared by the 1860s.
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JUNE

2015

Codrington Mews, W11
This attractive L-shaped mews lies off Blenheim Crescent between Kensington Park Road and Ladbroke Grove. Given their uniformity, the houses must have been built all of a piece. They all have two stories. They are built of London stock brick with pitched roofs and decorative brickwork under the eaves. They have been much altered over the years, but those on the north side originally had almost certainly a double stable or stable and coach house below, and external stairs up to a door on the first floor, where there would have been accommodation for coachmen etc. This pattern survives only on No. 6 at the far end.

The mews was probably named after Admiral Sir Edward Codrington (1770-1851), who commanded a ship at Trafalgar, led the fleet at Washington and Baltimore in the American War and commanded the combined fleets of Britain, France and Russia at the battle of Navarino.
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JUNE

2015

Chepstow Villas, W11
Chepstow Villas is a road in W11 with a chequered history. Chepstow Villas is a pleasant leafy street that runs between Pembridge Villas and Kensington Park Road. It is intersected by Ledbury Road/Chepstow Crescent; Denbury Road/Pembridge Crescent; and Portobello Road.

Until the 1840s, the whole area was agricultural land. But in around 1840 the demand for housing began to increase and the second great surge of housebuilding began on the Ladbroke estate. The Ladbroke family, the owners of the estate, had begun to sell off parcels of land to speculators. James Weller Ladbroke retained the eastern part of what is now Chepstow Villas (numbers 1-15 odds and 2-32 evens), but the central part, up as far as Portobello Road, passed into the ownership of Robert Hall of Old Bond Street. And after James Weller Ladbroke’s death in 1847, his heir Felix Ladbroke sold the western plot to a speculating parson from Bedfordshire, the Rev. Brooke Edward Bridges, and the latter then sold it on to another developer, Thomas Pocock. So there were ...
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JUNE

2015

Elgin Mews, W11
Elgin Mews lies in Notting Hill. This small L-shaped mews runs from Ladbroke Grove along the back of the gardens of the north side of Westbourne Park Road before turning sharp right to emerge between Nos. 316 and 318 Westbourne Park Road. Unusually for the Ladbroke area, both entrances to the mews are through archways under buildings.

It was built in the 1860s (it does not appear on the 1863 Ordnance Survey map, but is already inhabited by the time of the 1871 census). Both sides of the mews were lined with small two-storey buildings, described in a 1960 Ministry of Housing report (quoted in old RBKC planning papers) as stables with accommodation above. There were no fewer than 28 units.

The 19th century inhabitants were mainly connected with horses - cab drivers, horse-keepers and grooms - but with a good sprinkling of labourers and minor tradesmen: a chimney sweep, a baker, a butcher’s assistant, a house painter etc. Whole families were packed into what must have been extremely cra...
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JUNE

2015

Manette Street, W1D
Manette Street in Soho is named after the character from Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Manette Street is a small street in the Soho area of London, linking the Charing Cross Road to Greek Street. Dating from the 1690s, and formerly named Rose Street, it is now named after the fictional character of Dr Manette in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Buildings on the street include the Foyles Building and the Pillars of Hercules pub, and Goldbeater’s House, which still has an arm-and-hammer sign outside it, a replica of the original described by Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities.

The House of St Barnabas has a chapel and garden facing onto Manette Street, and an entrance to The Borderline nightclub is accessed from Manette Street.

The street was associated with anarchism in the 19th century, in particular in association with the Rose Street Club, known for its popularity with radicals of all nationalities.
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