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...

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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JUNE

2023

Alba Place, W11
Alba Place is part of the Colville Conservation Area Originally the stable house accommodation for the main houses on Lancaster Road, the primary purpose of the Mews properties is now residential.

Alba Place is located on the site of an original Mews but has been redeveloped to a degree that it no longer contains any surviving Mews properties. It is a gated cul-de-sac off Portobello Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, almost opposite Hayden’s Place (another redeveloped Mews). It contains 16 properties used for residential purposes.

Alba Place was Albion Place until 1937, one of the many patriotic names dating from the period immediately following the Crimean War.
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

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
Sue L Battersea Added: 13 Oct 2023 17:21 GMT	Duffield Street, Battersea I’ve been looking for ages for a photo of Duffield Street without any luck. My mother and grandfather lived there during the war. It was the first property he was able to buy but sadly after only a few months they were bombed out. My mother told the story that one night they were aware of a train stopping above them in the embankment. It was full of soldiers who threw out cigarettes and sweets at about four in the morning. They were returning from Dunkirk though of course my mother had no idea at the time. I have heard the same story from a different source too. Reply

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

JANUARY

2016

St John’s Notting Hill
St John’s Notting Hill is a Victorian Anglican church built in 1845 in Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill. St John’s was designed by the architects John Hargrave Stevens (1805/6–1857) and George Alexander (1810–1885), and built in the Victorian Gothic style. Dedicated to St John the Evangelist, the church was originally built as the centrepiece of the Ladbroke Estate, a mid nineteenth century housing development designed to attract upper and upper middle class residents to what was then a largely rural neighbourhood in the western suburbs of London.

In 1821 James Weller Ladbroke (died 1847) and his architect Thomas Allason (1790–1852) began to plan an estate on land which now spans the southern end of Ladbroke Grove. From 1837 to 1841 a significant part of this land was used as the Hippodrome race-course. The hill that is now surmounted by St John’s was used by spectators as a natural grandstand to view the races. The Hippodrome was not however a financial success, and by 1843 it had closed, the circular racecourse soon to be replaced by crescents of stucco...
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JANUARY

2016

Sedgemere Avenue, N2
Sedgemere Avenue is named after Sedgemere House which stood on the site. Sedgemere House was situated opposite Park Farm and had dog kennels and a cattery.

It was sold to developers in 1901 and was pulled down to make way for Sedgemere Avenue, a development of ’maisonettes for rent to gentlefolk’.
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JANUARY

2016

Kingdon Road, NW6
Kingdon Road connects Sumatra Road and Dennington Park Road. Kingdon Road was possibly named after a speculator Emmeline Kingdon, and houses there date between 1883 and 1888.

Three blocks of flats, named Dene Mansions after Little Dene, home of the Ripley family, replaced Lauriston Lodge in 1904 which had been situated on what became the corner of Kingdon Road and Dennington Park Road.
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JANUARY

2016

Bangor Street, W11
Bangor Street, W11 was situated on the site of the modern Henry Dickens Court. Originally called George Street, it was the most notorious road of the Notting Dale ‘Special Area’ slum.

It was more colloquially known as ‘Do as you like Street’, a place where ‘no one left their door closed’, and the venue of the Rag Fair. At the turn of the 20th century, the local district nurses were reported "valiantly holding their own in spite of the disturbance caused by nightly brawls and the noisy and unsavoury Sunday markets."

Valerie Wilson recalled in an interview by the Notting Dale Urban Studies group: “They used to threaten us – don’t go up rag fair and the first thing we did when we got outside, we forgot all about it and went straight through rag fair… that was really like a film show, they used to hang old bits of clothing on the railings… the street would throng with people… there was a group of men who came out the war and they were all ex-servicemen, big tall strong men, and they couldn’t get work, so they f...
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JANUARY

2016

The Eagle
The Eagle is on the corner of Ladbroke Grove and Telford Road. The pub features a brooding Eagle sat on the top of the corner. There are also a couple of Truman’s Beers lanterns still present and an iron Truman’s sign-holder jutting out from the wall.

There are a number of quirky touches, such as the stately oil paintings denoting the ladies and gents toilets, the elegant black railings that prop up the heavy-set wooden bar, and an Olympic-sized canoe suspended from the ceiling.

It is now the last remaining pub on Ladbroke Grove between the Harrow Road and the Westway.
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JANUARY

2016

Weston’s Cider House
In 1930 Weston’s opened their first and only cider mill on the Harrow Road. It was closed in 1970 and demolished as part of a road improvement scheme.
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JANUARY

2016

The Mitre
The Mitre was situated at 62 Golborne Road on the corner with Wornington Road. It seems to have opened in 1871 with an address listed as Mitre Terrace, Golborne Road. Note that there is another Mitre pub on the Ladbroke Grove/Holland Park Avenue corner.

The pub closed around 1972 after it burnt down.

After The Mitre was demolished, it eventually became home to Cafe O’Porto, a notable Golborne Road coffee shop.
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JANUARY

2016

Woodfield Crescent, W9
Woodfield Crescent was a former street in London W9. Most likely built in the 1880s, the road ceased to exist in the 1960s once the area was redeveloped.
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JANUARY

2016

North Kensington Library
North Kensington Library opened in 1891 and was described as one of London’s finest public libraries. It was built as part of the free library movement.
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JANUARY

2016

Tavistock Mews, W11
Tavistock Mews, W11 lies off of the Portobello Road. Tavistock Mews is a short mews off Hayden’s Place, running behind Nos. 237-247 (odds) Portobello Road. Originally, the entrance to it was through an archway between Nos. 239 and 241 Portobello Road and there was no way through from Hayden’s Place. No trace of that entrance remains and Tavistock Mews is now effectively a branch of Hayden’s Place. The eastern side is lined with storage units and the other side gives access to the rears of the Portobello houses.

The mews was built in the 1860s and there is a full set of early deeds for the original Nos. 1-3 Tavistock Mews in the Local Studies section of Kensington Central Library. The buildings are described in the deeds as “coach-houses and tenements” – i.e. the coach-house would have been on the ground floor with accommodation above. In the 1920s, it was the Home of the Tavistock Mews Lads’ Club and Institute.

In 1933 the Mews was clearly in a very dilapidated state and it was declared a cl...
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JANUARY

2016

Fourth Avenue, EN1
Plans for four houses in Fourth Avenue were first submitted in 1880. In 1974 Enfield council compulsorily purchased properties north of Main Avenue and demolished Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Avenues to put up a housing estate.

Extensive Roman remains were discovered in the process and the new cul-de-sacs that took their places were given Roman-related names.
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JANUARY

2016

Winchester
Winchester Hotel was situated at 21a Winchester Road, NW3 It closed about 1970 to become home to the Winchester Project, a local youth centre.
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JANUARY

2016

Welbeck Mansions, NW6
Welbeck Mansions, flats notable for their ironwork balconies, were built north of Inglewood Road in 1897. They were built on the site of Potter’s foundry.
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JANUARY

2016

Potter’s Buildings, NW6
Potter’s Buildings or West Cottages were established by Thomas Potter for his workers. Industry had come to West Hampstead in the form of Thomas Potter’s foundry on the southwest side of West End Green in the 1860s.
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JANUARY

2016

Inglewood Road, NW6
Inglewood Road, NW6 was one of the last roads to be built in West End, West Hampstead. On the west side of West End Lane, the land between the three railway lines was still largely untouched but beyond them building spread during the 1880s.

Thomas Potter, owner of Thorplands, 13 acres south of Mill Lane, stretching westward from the junction with West End Lane, where he lived in Poplar House, built about 15 houses fronting Mill Lane between 1873 and 1877 and the Elms and the Cedars next to the green by 1878.

New roads were constructed in the late 1870s and 346 houses were built between 1882 and 1894 in Sumatra, Solent, Holmdale, Glenbrook, Pandora, and Narcissus roads, mostly by J. I. Chapman of Solent Road, G. W. Cossens of Mill Lane, Jabez Reynolds of Holmdale Road, and James Gibb of Dennington Park Road.

Another 28 houses and a Methodist church were built on the estate fronting Mill Lane in 1886-7 and seven blocks of flats in West End Lane on what was called the Cedars estate in 1894.

Some 49 houses were ...
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JANUARY

2016

Inglewood House, NW6
Inglewood House is on the corner of West End Lane and Inglewood Road. Inglewood Road was built on the site of Poplar House in 1893.
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JANUARY

2016

Marlborough Mansions, NW6
Marlborough Mansions is a residential block in Fortune Green, NW6 E. J. Cave, one of the district’s most prominent Victorian builders, built the Cannon Hill estate where Marlborough, Buckingham and Avenue Mansions were built in the triangle formed by Cannon Hill, Finchley Road, and West End Lane in 1896-1900.

Conductor Sir Adrian Boult lived at at 78 Marlborough Mansions on Cannon Hill and has a blue plaque to his memory there. Nigel Balchin, the novelist, died in 1970 also in Marlborough Mansions.
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