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...

Dollis Hill Lane, NW2

Dollis Hill Lane is an ancient throughway. At the time of the Enclosure Award of 1816, the area of a 16th century farm at Oxgate, another farm at the top of Dollis Hill, a mansion known as Neasden House and some 75 fields resulting from the enclosure. The region was typical open farming country and the only road across the area was Dollis Hill Lane which traversed it from east to west. Dollis Hill House was built in 1825 and the railway in 1868. By 1895 there was a golf-course to the south west.

Residential building really started in the south-east of Dollis Hill from 1907-08.

Of the major landmarks constructed in the first quarter of the century, the two most noteworthy are St. Andrew’s Hospital, built in 1913, and the Post Office Research Station which rose in 1923 on the site of the old Dollis Hill Farm. In the mid-1920s Edgware Road was developed and there was some small-scale building in the middle of Dollis Hill.

So far a large part of the area still retained much of its rur...

»more

AUGUST

2020

Braddyll Street, SE10
Braddyll Street dates from 1852 Many street names east of Greenwich relate to the Durham coal field. Col. Braddyll was one of the partners in the South Hetton Coal Company. Messrs Braddyll & Co. also then owned Dalden-le-Dale Colliery.

The locomotive ’Bradyll’ still exists and is believed to be the oldest surviving locomotive with six-driving wheels. Bradyll was built by Timothy Hackworth at his Soho Works in Shildon, County Durham in 1840. The locomotive can be seen in the National Railway Museum’s location at Shildon.

The street was labelled ’Braddyle Street’ on the Stanford 1860s map and its alignment followed the modern Thornley Place before it was later extended south.
»read full article

AUGUST

2020

Lea Bridge
Lea Bridge is a district spanning an area between the London boroughs of Hackney and Waltham Forest It is named for a timber bridge built across the River Lea in 1745 which formed the dividing line between Middlesex and Essex. The road leading to it became known as Lea Bridge Road, with a tollhouse at the Middlesex bank. The bridge was rebuilt in 1821 and tolls continued to be levied until 1872.

Lea Bridge gives access to the lower reaches of the extensive Lee Valley Park. To the south are the Hackney Marshes, and to the north the Walthamstow Marshes.

The old Middlesex Filter Beds have been converted into a nature reserve, and on the Leyton side the Essex Filter Beds are now a reserve for birds. Next to the south side of the bridge are two pubs: ’The Princess of Wales’ and ’The Ship Aground’.

Lea Bridge station opened on 15 September 1840 by the Northern and Eastern Railway as Lea Bridge Road and is thought to be the earliest example of a station having its building on a railway bridge, with staircases down to the ...
»more

AUGUST

2020

Beaumont Street, W1G
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, ...
»more

JULY

2020

Thorold Road, IG1
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.

»more

JULY

2015

Belsize Lane, NW3
Belsize Lane is a thoroughfare linking Rosslyn Hill with Swiss Cottage. Belsize Lane is very old, being marked between hedges in Rocque’s 1745 map, and shown as leading to the grounds of the manor-house.

Baines says that about 1839 "Belsize Lane was long, narrow, and lonesome; midway in it was a very small farm, and near thereto the owner of Belsize House erected a turnpike gate to demonstrate his rights of possession."

While still an attractive road, the road is slightly too narrow for the modern buses which run along it. Traffic tends to buildup behind them.
»read full article

JULY

2015

Harrow Road, Kensal Green (1900s)
The corner of Ravensworth Road and Harrow Road in NW10.
»read full article

JULY

2015

St Charles’ Square Training College (1908)
St Charles’ Square Training College/Carmelite Convent. This photo was taken from the bottom of St Marks Park which was open land all the way to Highlever Rd at this point. Pangbourne Avenue where the Princess Louise Childrens hospital was (and is now the Argyll development) was not built until the 1920s.
»read full article

JULY

2015

The Crown
The Crown was situated at 57 Princedale Road. This pub was established in 1851 and this magnificent photo was taken by a photographer from Maxilla Gardens, Notting Hill.

It featured in a couple of episodes of ’Minder’, which was filmed on location in this area.

This pub became a bar/restaurant called The Academy in 1987.
»read full article

JULY

2015

Barnet Grass Speedway
Barnet Grass Speedway was active between 1929 and 1936, next to the recently constructed Barnet By Pass. It was the North London Motor Club that negotiated to run speedway on a twenty acre grass track that was adjacent to the Barnet Bypass. It was thus so convenient to travel to with plenty of room for spectators and their transport. The track was originally grass-covered rather than the more usual cinder or shale. The track was opened for the first meeting on the 27 July 1929.

The site remained the venue for open meeting through to 1936 although by 1934 the grass was all but worn away and cinders were added to the bends. The name for its final year was changed to simply ’Barnet Speedway’.

Closing in 1937 when the North London Motor Club failed to achieve an extension on the licence after having successfully completed eighty seven meeting meaning that speedway was lost to the area however the NLMC moved their speedway operation to High Beech leaving the owners of the land free to sell it on for building.

Once the circuit had been s...
»more

JULY

2015

Colville Terrace, W11
Colville Terrace, W11 has strong movie connnections. Colville Terrace began the 20th century well-to-do but some time before World War Two the houses became multi-occupied. The street suffered some bomb damage in the Blitz and hosted the local communists’ headquarters. In the late 50s numbers 2, 9, 10, 19, 22 and 24 were Rachman houses occupied by West Indian immigrants and prostitutes, including Majbritt Morrison who wrote the ’Jungle West 11’ book.

In the 1958 riots they became targets for the fascist-influenced local mob. In 1960 the basement of number 24 was put under police surveillance and duly established to be a brothel. Michael de Freitas, who was living on the top floor, was arrested but the police couldn’t prove he was the landlord.
Colville Terrace also hosted several West Indian blues clubs including Sheriff’s gym and the Barbadian La Paloma. In the early 70s number 42, at the east end of Powis Square, became renowned as the gay hippy commune, which was evicted and re-housed by Notting Hill ...
»more

JULY

2015

Colville Gardens, W11
Colville Gardens was laid out in the 1870s by the builder George Frederick Tippett, who developed much of the rest of the neighbourhood. It is possible that the street was named after the Colville Family, Scottish steel magnates. The houses were intended as single family homes for the well-to-do but, from the beginning, it proved difficult to attract wealthy buyers to the area and as early as 1888, the buildings began to be subdivided into flats.

In 1885, Tippett was declared bankrupt. He attributed his failure to "his inability to let a large portion of his property and to the pressure of secured creditors". Gradually, the character of the buildings changed as wealthier tenants left the area.

By 1928, the neighbourhood was described as "rapidly becoming poorer" and, by 1935, as a "largely slum area...large houses turned into one-room tenements and small flats".

Further decline set in as residents moved away during World War II to escape The Blitz and, indeed, one of the buildings at the end of the street was destroyed by bombing, which also damaged numerous other buildings ...
»more

JULY

2015

Buses in Shenley Road
A 292 and 358 in Shenley Road. Facebook user Maureen Sullivan has worked out the following from the clues in the photo:

This photo was probably taken in August 1968 (the advertised film was released in July that year).

The green Route 358 in the background is the 12.53 departure from St Albans, running about 5 minutes late according to the clock on All Saints Church tower.

The 292 is for some reason displaying the Saturday only intermediate blind for Route 292A.

Buildings on the right are still being finished off, on the site of the old Baptist Church, once home to the 1st Borehamwood Scouts.
»read full article

JULY

2015

Hayden’s Place, W11
Haydens Place is a small cul-de-sac off of the Portobello Road. Hayden’s Place is a short mews is just off the Portobello Road between Westbourne Park Road and Lancaster Road. It was built in the 1860s. Its original name was Hayden’s Mews; it was only by the time of the 1901 census that was described as Hayden Place. The apostrophe seems to have crept in much later – it was still described as Hayden Place on the 1935 Ordnance Survey map.

In 1871, John Hayden, described in the census return as “contractor employing 6 men” was living at 1 Hayden Mews, and it must have been named after him. He may well have been responsible for building the mews.

Originally, the mews had 19 numbered dwellings in it, so it probably extended right down as far as Elgin Mews, between the back gardens of the houses in Westbourne Park Road and Lancaster Road. But by 1891, no more than three households are recorded in the census (five in 1901). It seems that sometime around 1890 the western end of the mews was built over to form a b...
»more

JULY

2015

Elgin Crescent, W11
Elgin Crescent runs from Portobello Road west across Ladbroke Grove and then curls round to the south to join Clarendon Road. East of Ladbroke Grove, it was originally called Elgin Road with the middle section Surrey Gardens and the rest, Arundel Road.

West of Ladbroke Grove, it was originally numbered from 1-36 consecutive on the northern side, starting at the western end (so the present No. 120 was No. 1) and from 37-81 consecutive on the southern side starting at the eastern end (so the present No. 63 was No. 37). The street was officially renumbered in 1880.

The section between Portobello Road and Kensington Park Road consists of shops and cafes; the rest of the street is residential. It is intersected by Ladbroke Grove and further along, the southern side is broken by Rosmead Road. Many houses back on to communal gardens. The odd numbers are on the south side and the even on the north. From Ladbroke Grove west the Crescent is lined intermittently with mature and some new trees. Lamp posts are in the Victorian style.
»read full article

JULY

2015

Kilburn Bridge
Kilburn Bridge once marked the spot where the Edgware Road crossed the River Westbourne. Kilburn Bridge, which was recorded in 1398 and thought to have been built in the mid 13th century by the prior of Kilburn, carried Edgware Road across the Kilburn brook (the Westbourne River).

In 1826 the original stone bridge with a Gothic arch survived, flanked by brick portions added at two different periods. By that date repair was shared between the trustees of Marylebone turnpike and of the Kilburn Road.

In more modern times, as the river has been culverted and sent underground, there is no trace of the structure.

»read full article

JULY

2015

Goods Way, N1C
Goods Way runs from Pancras Road to York Way. The area north of King’s Cross was predominantly rural until the end of the eighteenth century - the whole area was then known as Battle Bridge. John Rocque’s map of 1745 shows fields adjacent to York Way (formerly Longwich Lane and then Maiden Lane). This road, and Pancras Road (formerly King’s Road), were traditional routes out of London to the north being the route to Hampstead, Highgate and Kentish Town.

With the completion of the Regent’s Canal in 1820, the area became linked to major industrial cities in the north of England. Another feature of the area’s growing industrial importance was the arrival of the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company. The company opened Pancras Gasworks to the south of the canal in 1824.

During this same period a number of other “polluting” businesses such as paint manufacture and refuse sorting were established in the area but much of the land to the north of the canal remained open fields. In a move to rais...
»more

JULY

2015

All Saints Church
All Saints church was designed by the Victorian Gothic revival pioneer William White, who was also a mountaineer, Swedish gymnastics enthusiast and anti-shaving campaigner. In 1852 the Reverend Walker bought 51 acres of Portobello farmland from Mary Anne and Georgina Charlotte Talbot. This covered the whole strip of North Kensington lying east of Portobello Lane, from Portobello farmhouse on the north to Lonsdale Road and Western Terrace on the south. On this land which joined the ‘Ladbrooke estate’, Walker commenced to build ‘a new town’ and erect an elaborate church to the memory of his parents.

The road on which the church was built was called St Columb’s Road, and the church was dedicated to St Ann, but the name of ‘All Saints’ was soon substituted.‘This ‘very stately and abnormal stone church, built after the model of that at St Columb’s Major in Cornwall was structurally completed in 1855, but owing to pecuniary difficulties was left without glass or furniture till 1861.’ Meanwhile it stood boarded up and weed-grown near a pond, the open ground behind being sometimes occupied by gypsies. A footpath which starte...
»more

JULY

2015

Apollo Victoria Theatre
The Apollo Victoria Theatre is a West End theatre, across from London Victoria Station. The theatre was built by architects Ernest Wamsley Lewis and William Edward Trent in 1929 for Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, a part of the Gaumont British chain. The theatre was built with two identical facades on Wilton and Vauxhall Bridge Roads. Construction is principally of concrete, with strong horizontal banding along the exterior sides of the auditorium. By contrast the entrances feature a cantilevered canopy, and are framed by vertical channelling, with two black marble columns rising to the roof line. The entrance is simple, making use of chrome trimmings, this leads to a nautical themed interior in the original Art Deco style that makes extensive use of concealed lighting, decorated with scallop shells and columns that burst into sculptured fountains at the ceiling.

The theatre had a 74 feet by 24 feet stage and was equipped with 10 dressing rooms and two suites for principals. The theatre was Grade II* listed on 28 June 1972.

The theatre op...
»more

JULY

2015

Dollis Avenue, N3
Dollis Avenue sprung to life in the Edwardian years. Early attempts to build up Olders Hill in the south-west corner of Finchley proved abortive. The National Standard Land Mortgage and Investment Co. bought the estate in 1880 but few lots had been built on by 1897.

Part of Grass farm, which adjoined Olders Hill to the north, was offered for building along Hendon Lane with similar lack of success in 1894. In 1901 that part of Finchley, while providing excellent sites, was thought to be undeveloped because of poor transport, which would be improved by trams.

After the arrival of trams in 1905 housing spread quickly.

There was building in 1906 on Grass Farm estate in Dollis Avenue, where Woodway Lodge, designed by Messrs. Bennet & Richardson, was one of several detached houses.
»read full article

JULY

2015

East End Road, N3
East End Road was originally the route from the hamlet of Church End Finchley to the old Great North Road when it ran through Muswell Hill. Although apparently not so named until the late 19th century, it probably dated from the 14th-century growth of East End.

The road has had various names such as Manor Lane (19th century) and Finchley Road (18th century). In the medieval period a triangle of waste, called Hunts Green (1437), which stretched from Stanley Road to the Junction of Church Lane, was the location of the first hamlet of East End Finchley (1365).
»read full article

JULY

2015

Holly Park Methodist Church
The Holly Park Methodist Church was founded in 1881 by the Rev. Morley Punshon and Sir Francis Lycett. The architect was Elijah Hoole. The church with seating for 1000 opened in 1882 - the lecture hall and school classrooms, considered by Mr Hoole to be his best work, opened in 1886.

In 1962 a modern church was erected on the site.
»read full article

JULY

2015

Victoria Bus Station
Victoria bus station is a bus station outside Victoria Station in Terminus Place. Victoria Station was built in 1861, after Victoria Street had been built a decade earlier through a slum dubbed "Devil’s Acre" by Charles Dickens. It connected Westminster Abbey with this part of Pimlico which gained the name Victoria instead, after the station which the growing suburb surroounded.

Quickly becoming one of the busiest stations in London, the forecourt outside quickly became an important hub for omnibuses. By the 1930s, it had a substantial roof canopy spanning all lanes - this was demolished in April 2003 as part of a station refurbishment.

Victoria is now London’s busiest bus station. In 2015 it had 19 bus routes using the station, with 200 buses per hour passing through in the peak.

It services bus services managed only by Transport for London, and is not to be confused with Victoria Coach Station, a few hundred metres away.
»read full article

JULY

2015

Kilburn Lane, W10
Kilburn Lane runs around the edge of the Queen’s Park Estate in London W10. Kilburn Lane is, after Harrow Road, the oldest road in the area and connected Kilburn and Kensal Green. Until the nineteenth century, the names "Kilburn Lane" and "Kensal Green Lane" were both used. The southernmost section was also known as "Flowerhills Lane".

It was known in the 17th century as "Flowerhills Lane". It was commented upon that the inhabitants of Willesden were indicted for not repairing it in 1722.

Kilburn Lane suffered from depopulation in the 18th century with those buildings that had been there, falling into disrepair and then removed. However, the enclosure of Kensal Green in the 1830s meant buildings appeared on the west of the lane near to the junction of Harrow Road.

In 1844 St John’s Church in Kilburn Lane was consecrated. There were now enough people living locally in order to create a new parish.

Further north, the road remained rural until the late nineteenth century with just two farms along it...
»more

JULY

2015

Middle Row, W10
Middle Row is one of the original streets laid out as Kensal New Town. Kensal New Town was developed in the period 1840-1859 by Mr Kinnard Jenkins on his land between the Great Western Railway and the Grand Union Canal, to provide housing for employees of the canal, the railway, the gas works, and the Kensal Green Cemetery in Harrow Road on the other side of the canal. He laid out the roads following his field boundaries- Kensal (Albert) Road, West Row, Middle Row, East Row and South Row, divided the blocks up and built cottages, and named it Kensal New Town.

The residents were largely Irish immigrants, many employed in the laundry business, the area becoming known as the "laundry colony". The village had six public houses.

Charles Booth in his "Life and Labour of the People in London" (First Series, Volume 1, pub 1902, pp.243,246) described Kensal New Town: "Kensal New Town retains yet something of the appearance of a village, still able to show cottages and gardens, and gateways between houses in its streets leading back...
»more

JULY

2015

Middle Row School
Middle Row School was established in the late 19th century to provide education to the children of Kensal New Town. Kensal New Town was a 19th century greenfield development of terraced workers housing sandwiched between the Grand Junction (now Union} Canal and the Great Western Railway, next to the Western Gas Company Gas Works.

The first schooling for the new settlement was provided by the church of St John's, Kensal Green (built in 1845. north of the Canal). St John's School was erected close to the church in 1850. and it was here that any child from Kensal New Town who wished to receive an education would have attended. There was also an early Ragged School in Kensal Road adjacent to the Canal where poorer children may have received a rudimentary education.

The passing of the 1870 Education Act brought about fundamental changes in British education, as the state started to replace the church as the main source of elementary education. From 1880 education became compulsory until the age often or when a certain standard of education was achieved, and by 1899 the mini...
»more

	Files on this website are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
	Attribution:
	You are free: to share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix - to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution - You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). share alike - If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. CC-BY-SA-2.0 truetrue
1900 and 1950 mapping is reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.

The Underground Map

PREVIOUSLY ON THE UNDERGROUND MAP...