 
Carol Added: 7 May 2021 18:44 GMT |
Nan
My nan lily,her sister Elizabeth and their parents Elizabeth and William lived here in1911
Reply |
 
Added: 4 May 2021 19:45 GMT |
V1 Attack
The site of a V1 incident in 1944
Reply |
David Gibbs Added: 3 May 2021 16:48 GMT |
73 Bus Crash in Albion Rd 1961
From a Newspaper cutting of which I have a copy with photo. On Tuesday August 15th 1961 a 73 bus destined for Mortlake at 8.10am. The bus had just turned into Albion Road when the driver passed out, apparently due to a heart attack, and crashed into a wall on the western side of Albion Road outside No 207. The bus driver, George Jefferies aged 56 of Observatory Road, East Sheen, died after being trapped in his cab when he collided with a parked car. Passengers on the bus were thrown from their seats as it swerved. Several fainted, and ambulances were called. The bus crashed into a front garden and became jammed against a wall. The car driver, who had just parked, suffered shock.
Reply |
 
Richard Eades Added: 3 May 2021 11:42 GMT |
Downsell Primary School (1955 - 1958)
I was a pupil at Downsell road from I think 1955 age 7 until I left in 1958 age 10 having passed my "11plus" and won a scholarship to Parmiters school in bethnal green. I remember my class teacher was miss Lynn and the deputy head was mrs Kirby.
At the time we had an annual sports day for the whole school in july at drapers field, and trolley buses ran along the high street and there was a turning point for them just above the junction with downsell road.
I used to go swimming at cathall road baths, and also at the bakers arms baths where we had our school swimming galas. I nm y last year, my class was taken on a trip to the tower of london just before the end of term. I would love to hear from any pupils who remember me.
Reply |
 
Added: 1 May 2021 16:46 GMT |
Cheyne Place, SW3
Frances Faviell, author of the Blitz memoir, "A Chelsea Concerto", lived at 33, Cheyne Place, which was destroyed by a bomb. She survived, with her husband and unborn baby.
Reply |
James Preston Added: 28 Apr 2021 09:06 GMT |
School
Was this the location of Rosslyn House prep school? I have a photograph of the Rosslyn House cricket team dated 1910 which features my grandfather (Alan Westbury Preston). He would have been 12 years old at the time. All the boys on the photo have been named. If this is the location of the school then it appears that the date of demolition is incorrect.
Reply |
Tricia Added: 27 Apr 2021 12:05 GMT |
St George in the East Church
This Church was opened in 1729, designed by Hawksmore. Inside destroyed by incendrie bomb 16th April 1941. Rebuilt inside and finished in 1964. The building remained open most of the time in a temporary prefab.
Reply |
Added: 21 Apr 2021 16:21 GMT |
Liverpool Street
the Bishopsgate station has existed since 1840 as a passenger station, but does not appear in the site’s cartography. Evidently, the 1860 map is in fact much earlier than that date.
Reply |
Lullington Garth, WD6
Lullington Garth has a very unusual name! The "poet" roads of Borehamwood had names suggested by David Scott-Blackhall, ultimately of Melrose Avenue, Chief Housing Officer of the Elstree Rural District Council and himself a published poet.
While other roads had standard poetry names - Melrose Avenue, Tennison Avenue etc., Lullington Garth - while poetic - was named after one in Woodside Park, some five miles to the east of here. [[23215|Lullington Garth, N12]] was named after a village in Sussex.
»read full article
Princess Frederica School
Princess Frederica School on the corner of College Road and Purves Road, NW10. The Princess Frederica School was opened as a National School by the Church Extension Association, working through the Anglican community of the Sisters of the Church in 1889 for boys, girls and infants. It was financed by a parliamentary grant, voluntary contributions, and school pence – and opened by Princess Frederica who was a patron of the Association and a cousin of Queen Victoria. It was reorganised by 1948 and in 1965 was passed to the London Diocesan Board of Education.
It was extended and modernised in 1975 and reorganised again in 1978.
»read full article
Latimer
Latimer is a village that sits on the border between Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. Latimer was originally joined with the adjacent village of Chenies. Both were anciently called Isenhampstead, at a time when there was a royal palace in the vicinity. However, in the reign of King Edward III of England the lands were split between two manorial barons: Thomas Cheyne in the village that later became called @@@[email protected]@@, and William Latimer in this village. Latimer came into possession of the manor in 1326.
At the time of the English Civil War Latimer belonged to the Earl of Devonshire. When Charles I was captured by the Parliamentarian forces he was brought to Latimer on his way to London.
The small village includes 17th- and 18th-century cottages around a triangular village green with a pump on it. The church of St Mary Magdelane was rebuilt by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1867. The rectory was built in the 18th century in grey and red brick.
The nearest railway station to Latimer is Chalfont and Latimer situated in the near...
»more
Ladbroke Square Garden
Ladbroke Square communal garden lies in Notting Hill. The huge Ladbroke Square communal garden is unusual on the Ladbroke estate in being part communal garden accessed from the backs of the houses lining it (on its north side) and part traditional London Square with roads between the houses and the square. It is bordered by Ladbroke Grove on its west side, Kensington Park Road on its east side, and the road called Ladbroke Square on its south side – so the latter is something of a misnomer, being a single long road.
It is one of the largest private garden squares in London and is Grade II listed by English Heritage.
»read full article
Kensington Park Road, W11
Kensington Park Road is one of the main streets in Notting Hill. Kensington Park Road was built over a long period between the early 1840s and the 1870s. It was built in fits and starts by a variety of different developers, so the history of the street is somewhat complicated.
Originally, there was no north-south road parallel to Portobello Lane (as Portobello Road was known). In 1840, after the failure of the Hippodrome racecourse (the main entrance of which was about where Kensington Temple now is), James Weller Ladbroke signed an agreement with a developer, Joseph Connop, under which Connop agreed to develop a large portion of the estate between Portobello Road and roughly what is now Ladbroke Grove. The deal was that Connop would arrange for the building of roads, sewers and houses and Ladbroke undertook then to give him 99-year leases of the houses for a small ground rent; Connop would then recover his costs through letting the houses.
“Kensington Park” was the name chosen by the developer Pearson Thompson wh...
»more
Kensington Park Gardens, W11
Kensington Park Gardens is a street in Notting Hill. Kensington Park Gardens is a broad, open street, connecting Ladbroke Grove to Kensington Park Road at the apex of Notting Hill, with a magnificent vista to St John’s church at the western end. Both sides of the street back onto communal gardens, and St John’s Church was built on its chosen site to close the vista at the west end of the street.
The housing was built in the 1850s during the second great wave of construction on the Ladbroke estate. In the filthy atmosphere of London in the 19th century, a considerable premium was put on being high up, and the land on which Kensington Park Gardens now stands was amongst the most valuable on the estate. The street contains some of the most important and grandest houses in the Ladbroke area.
The original layout plan for the area and designs for the houses in Kensington Park Gardens had been drawn up by the Ladbroke family’s architect and surveyor Thomas Allason in 1849, but he died before it could be ...
»more
Lismore Circus, NW5
Lismore Circus was a former Victorian circus with six streets radiating from it. Lord Mansfield, Lord Southampton and Lord Lisburne were the local landowners and plans were drawn up for six streets radiating from Lismore Circus. Houses here were built by 1853.
From 1868 the Midland Railway ran trains from Bedford to its own terminus at St. Pancras with the railway tunnel running underneath the southern half of the Circus. And also in 1868, Haverstock Hill station opened and was situated in the southwest of the circus (partially closing in 1916 but only finally decomissioned in 1983).
In 1870 St Pancras Vestry took over the central area following a memorial that it should be laid out as a garden. It opened to the public in 1871, a circular garden surrounded by privet hedge with grass, shrubs and trees.
The area was devestated by bombing during the Second World War. On 15 October 1940, a bomb demolished the Lismore Circus bridge over the railway, blocking it.
The housing estate surrounding Lismore Circus w...
»more
St Peter’s Italian Church
St. Peter’s Italian Church is a Basilica-style church located in Holborn. It was built by request of Saint Vincent Pallotti, and it is still under the control of the Pallotine order which he founded. He had assistance from Giuseppe Mazzini, who was in London at the time, for the growing number of Italian immigrants in the mid 19th century and modelled by Irish architect Sir John Miller-Bryson on the Basilica San Crisogono in Rome.
It was consecrated on 16 April 1863 as The Church of St. Peter of all Nations. At the time of consecration, it was the only Basilica-style church in the UK. Its organ was built in 1886 by Belgian Anneesen.
The frontal section of the church consists of a loggia and portico with twin arches, above which are three alcoves. The central alcove contains a statue of Christ, whilst the sides contain statues of St. Bede and St. George. Between the alcoves are two large mosaics depicting the miracle of the fishes and Jesus giving the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to St. Peter.
Although the origin...
»more
South End Green
South End Green is the focus of a distinct Hampstead community. South End Green has been marked as such on maps since the 18th century, going simultaneously by another name - Pond Street.
The area took more shape along the rough edges of Hampstead Heath in 1835, when the small puddle at the bottom of aptly-named Pond Street was filled in. Much like Parliament Hill on the opposite side of the Heath, the arrival of a tram terminus brought people, shops, roads, homes and large public houses to this once sleepy hamlet by mid-century.
»read full article
Bridge Approach, NW1
Bridge Approach was once a busy thoroughfare connecting Regents Park Road with the world. Regents Park Road was a major east west route from central London to the east was very busy. To the north lay Bridge Street.
In the 1960s, two children were knocked down and killed at the railway bridge. As a result the bridge was closed to traffic and one of the five entry points into Primrose Hill was blocked to cars whilst still allowing pedestrian access. The road was renamed Bridge Approach.
Regents Park Road was no longer a through route. The massive decrease in traffic flows encouraged restaurants and shops to settle and form a more vibrant Primrose Hill. Although they have many attributes, the presence of busy through routes ultimately prevents the formation of a relaxed village neighbourhood which Primrose Hill has susequently become.
»read full article
Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath railway station has been part of the London Overground since 11 November 2007. In the nineteenth century up to 100,000 people per day used the station at weekends and on public holidays as the Heath was a popular holiday destination for Londoners. The station was rebuilt, after Second World War bomb damage, and in the 1990s in conjunction with works to allow Eurostar trains to use the North London Line.
»read full article
South Hill Park, NW3
South Hill Park is a road on the edge of Hampstead Heath. In 1878, landowner the Dean of Westminster made a building agreement with Joseph Pickett, the tenant of South End Farm, and John Ashwell, a Kentish Town builder, for the 15 and a half acres north of the Hampstead Junction Railway. South Hill Park Road (later Parliament Hill Road) and Nassington Road were laid out in 1878 and 90 houses built between 1879 and 1892.
The planned extension of the roads into Lord Mansfield’s lands in St. Pancras was halted by the addition of Parliament Hill Fields to the heath in 1889. Tanza Road was made instead, to connect the existing roads, and building began there in 1890. Ashwell withdrew in 1881 and Pickett, who by then described himself as a master builder and lived in South Hill Park, was under-financed and built cheaply, mostly semi-detached and terraced tall but cramped redbrick houses for the middle class.
The last woman to be hanged in Britain, Ruth Ellis, was sentenced to death for a murder committed on South H...
»more
Benevolent Institution for the Relief of Aged and Infirm Journey
The Benevolent Institution for the Relief of Aged and Infirm Journeymen was founded on 10 February 1837. The work originated with a Mr Stulz, the President of the Society, who, at one of the anniversary meetings, announced to the members that he would present them with a piece of land as a site for an asylum.
Accordingly, upon the sale of the Southampton estate, he made the purchase; and, at his sole cost and charge, erected the chapel, and six of the adjoining houses.
The Asylum was built in the old English style, from the design of Mr. T. Meyer. The first stone was laid by the Marquis of Salisbury, on the 31 May 1842; and the chapel was consecrated by the Bishop of London, on the 24 June. The chapel was endowed by Mr Stulz; and the communion-plate, books, altar-screen, and furniture of the chapel presented by different master members of the institution.
The asylum consisted of the chapel and ten houses; the dwelling at the south end being appropriated for the chaplain. Each house consisted of eight rooms, two being allotted to each pension...
»more
Shepherd’s Well
Shepherd’s Well, whose flow was thought to be nearly as pure as distilled water, is the source of the River Tyburn. Also known as The Conduit, the well provided a source of good quality soft drinking water for the residents of Hampstead. The walk to the nearest road meant that well carriers sold water by the pail or two pails because of the yoke needed for carrying the water. The spring never froze and only vary rarely ran dry.
There was an arch over the conduit, and rails stood round it.
At the close of the 1700s Lord Loughborough, its landwoner, tried to stop locals from obtaining the water, by enclosing the well. So great was the popular indignation, that an appeal was made to the Courts of Law, when a decision was given in the people’s favour, and so the well remained in constant use until well into the nineteenth century.
Hone’s Table Book, in the nineteenth century, writes the following about Shepherd’s Well:
The arch, embedded above and around by the green turf, forms a conduit-head to a beautiful spring; the specifi...
»more
Belsize Park Mews, NW3
Belsize Park Mews lies in the Belsize Park Conservation Area. The areas of mews to the north of Belsize Lane and either side of Belsize Crescent were
developed initially by Tidey (1850-1870) and later by Willett in the 1870s on a field formerly
associated with Belsize Farm.
The single-aspect, two storey mews terraces are built generally in London stock brick, with red brick detailing, fronting directly onto the narrow streets and courtyards. The properties are generally uniform in their simple elevational treatment providing a rhythm and consistency to the terrace.
»read full article
Princess Mews, NW3
Princess Mews is a mews of Belsize Park. Princess Mews has been substantially remodelled but the overall scale remains appropriate to the original design.
»read full article
Belsize Court Garages, NW3
Belsize Court Garages were built by Willett in around 1880 as livery stables. Moving with the times, Belsize Court Garages was originally called Belsize Court Stables and is alternatively called Belsize Court Gardens.
The street forms an attractive group of relatively intact mews terraces, many retaining original
features such as garage doors, sash windows, and a door at first floor to No. 6.
No. 9 has an overtly modern extension but this maintains the building line and scale.
»read full article
Perivale
Until the 18th century Perivale was called Little Greenford or Greenford Parva. Perivale formed part of Greenford Urban District from 1894 to 1926, and was then absorbed by the Municipal Borough of Ealing. Before the residential building expansion of the 1930s, the fields of Perivale were used to grow hay for the working horses of Victorian London, a scene described in the ending of John Betjeman’s poem ’Return to Ealing’: "...And a gentle gale from Perivale/blows up the hayfield scent."
Although now mainly residential, there are some office blocks and parades of shops. Perivale has two golf courses: Ealing Golf Club and Perivale Golf Course. The BBC Archives are in Perivale.
Perivale is one of the settings of Anthony Trollope’s novel The Belton Estate (1865).
The Great Western Railway opened "Perivale Halt" in 1904 but it was closed when the current London Underground station was opened on 30 June 1947. It was designed in 1938 by Brian Lewis, later Chief Architect to the Great Western Railway, bu...
»more
Great Castle Street, W1W
Great Castle Street was one of the main streets of the Harley Estate. The plan for the Harley estate published by John Prince in 1719 accurately foreshadows the position and alignment of Castle Street as well as its name. The origin of the name is mysterious, but the likely reason is that the street pointed eastwards towards traces of one of the biggest of the Civil War fortifications round London. This according to George Vertue was ‘a large Fort with Four half bulwarks, across the road at Wardour Street’, which if accurate would mean it impinged on the line of Castle Street at what is now Berners Street, just beyond the confines of Harley property. The ‘castle’ in question was distinct from a minor fort further east which probably gave its name in the 1670s to Joseph Girle’s Castle Inn, on Oxford Street near Hanway Place.1 In due course Castle Street spawned its own Castle pub, at the southern corner of the former Bolsover Street. It was rebuilt in an equivalent corner position in the 1820s when Regent Street superseded Bolsover Street, acqu...
»more
Maple Cross
Maple Cross is a village in Hertfordshire straddling the modern M25. Maple Cross is thought to be a contraction of Maypole Cross and the village was once a place where maypole dancing took place. The nearby village of Mill End is on record as having complained to the lord of the manor about the noise of the dancing in 1588. The village stands on the western edge of the River Colne flood plain with the river a third of a mile to the east. The village has no churches, historically it lacked the population to support one and its residents were part of the parish of St Thomas’s West Hyde a mile to the south.
Until the Second World War, Maple Cross consisted of an inn, a blacksmith’s shop and a few cottages. After WW2 it was intentionally developed as a dormitory for workers in the nearby towns and at the new sewage treatment plant by the river. Today there are around 800 postwar council houses with some of these have been sold into private ownership.
The ancient route known as Old Shire Lane runs in a north south ...
»more
Grosvenor Place, SW1X
Grosvenor Place is the main road connecting Hyde Park Corner with Victoria. It forms the eastern boundary of Belgravia, extending south from St. George’s Hospital (which later became the Lanesborough Hotel) and overlooking the gardens of Buckingham Palace. It was at the beginning of the nineteenth century described as "a pleasant row of houses".
When George III added a portion of Green Park to his new garden at Buckingham House, he sold the fields on the opposite side of the road for £20,000. The ground was consequently leased to builders, and a new row of houses was erected "overlooking the king in his private walks, to his great annoyance."
In maps of London dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century, the whole of the future site of Belgravia, between Grosvenor Place and Sloane Street, appears still covered with fields. In the centre of Grosvenor Place, at that time, stood the Lock Hospital, which was founded in 1787 by the Rev. Thomas Scott.
This area of countryside was originally known as Five Fiel...
»more
The Prince of Wales Cinema
The Prince of Wales Cinema was located at 331 Harrow Road. Located in Westbourne Park, the Prince of Wales’ Cinema was built on the site of an earlier Prince of Wales’ Picture Playhouse (1912-1934) which had 650 seats and was designed by architect M. Wilson. The new cinema was built for W.C. Dawes’ Modern Cinemas circuit, a small independent chain of cinemas in west London.
It opened on 27 October 1934 with Tom Walls in “A Cup of Kindness” and George Arliss in “The House of Rothschild”. Architects J. Stanley Beard and W.R. Bennett designed a pleasing Art Deco style cinema which was equipped for cine/variety programmes. The facade of the building was clad in cream faiance tiles and had three large windows in the centre which let in light to the large foyer. Seating was provided in stalls and balcony levels and the auditorium was illuminated by indirect lighting.
It was taken over by John Maxwell’s Associated British Cinemas (ABC) chain from 19 February 1935 and they continued to operate it througho...
»more
Cape Nursery
The Cape Nursery once lay along the south side of Shepherd’s Bush Green. By the early 19th century the north side and west side of Shepherd’s Bush Common were lined with terraces but the southern side remained open land. The lands here were called Charecroft’s - part of the charity estates belonging to the parish.
A Little History Of British Gardening by Jenny Uglow reported that during 1760, James Lee and Lewis Kennedy "started a great nursery in Shepherd’s Bush".
In 1797 the Cape Nursery was reported by a botanist to be owned by two gentleman called Middlemist and Wood, and supplying rare plants: "many novelties from the North African flora were exhibited, the proprietor having resided there during many years"
The London Gazette of 1834 notes: "His Majesty’s Commissioners authorised to act under a Fiat in Bankruptcy, bearing date the 31st day of January 1834, awarded and issued forth against John Middlemist, of Cape’s Nursery, Shepherds-Bush, in the County of Middlesex, Nurseryman, Seedsman, Dealer a...
»more
Corner of Johns Hill and Pennington Street (1906)
The corner of Johns Hill and Pennington Street, Wapping, December 1906. The long range of late 17th century dwellings of Pennington Street stood directly opposite the towering walls and warehouses of London Docks, which they pre-dated - hence the raised level of road surface which provided access to the Docks.
By the early twentieth century, many older buildings such as these, offered rooms and lodgings for the working poor, who are gathered here outside their houses.
»read full article
The Load of Hay
The Load of Hay was established by 1721. On Haverstock Hill the Load of Hay was so named by 1723 although it is said once to have been called the Cart and Horses.
It had a varying reputation. Its boisterous landlord Joe Davis (d. 1806) was widely caricatured in prints and patronised by the nobility, whereas Washington Irving remembered it for its rowdy Irish haymakers.
In 1863 the Load of Hay was rebuilt and from 1965 until 1974 it was called the Noble Art in honour of the Belsize boxing club and of a gymnasium behind used by the British Boxing Board of Control.
It was more recently called "The Hill".
Just opposite the Load of Hay lived Sir Richard Steele, in a picturesque two-storied cottage. The cottage was later divided into two and in 1867 was pulled down.
»read full article
PREVIOUSLY ON THE UNDERGROUND MAP...
Print-friendly version of this page
The Underground Map is a project which is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying inside the M25.
