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

APRIL

2016

Paddington
The first underground railway station in the world ran from Paddington on 10 January 1863 as the terminus of the Metropolitan Railway’s route from Farringdon. The first Metropolitan station opened as Paddington (Bishop’s Road) but Paddington station, designed by the celebrated engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel had long been the London end of the Great Western Railway.

Paddington had been an important town west of London before it was engulfed by the metropolis. It was first a medieval parish, then a metropolitan borough and finally integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Also found in Paddington are St Mary’s Hospital (where penicillin was first discovered) and the former Paddington Green Police Station - once the most important high-security police station in the United Kingdom.

Alan Turing, the pioneer mathematician was born in Warrington Crescent.

Fictionally, Paddington Station has a display case showing Paddington Bear, a character of children’s fiction who, in the book, is first discovered at this station and hence named after it.

Paddington...
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APRIL

2016

Eastminster
Eastminster (The Abbey of St Mary de Graces) was a Cistercian abbey on Tower Hill and founded by Edward III in 1350. It was located just outside the Roman London Wall. New Abbey was its alternative name.

The abbey was dissolved in 1538, and the site has for centuries been occupied by the London part of the Royal Mint.
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APRIL

2016

’Royal Blue’ horse omnibus outside 5 Euston Road
The bus carries route information and an advert for Selfridge’s. The shops behind, including Boots the Chemist, Stewart & Wright’s Cocoa Rooms and the Northumberland Hotel, are covered in advertisements.
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APRIL

2016

Bullbaiters Farm
Bullbaiters Farm near Boreham Wood was originally called Bullbeggar's Farm - Bullbeggar meaning 'hobgoblin' or 'scarecrow'. Above the central door was the Byng family crest - onwers of the farm, who were based in Wrotham Park, South Mimms.

In the 1861 census, the occupant of Bullbaiters Farm was 60 year old William King, who farmed 190 acres and employed 3 men and 2 boys. In addition to his family two farm labourers also lived in the farm. Thrift Farm, nearby, was occupied by a farm labourer according to the census - so it may have been used as a farm cottage. Quite often, especially involving what had been smaller tenanted farms, the fields would be combined into a larger farm and the 'redundant' farm house used as farm cottages.
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APRIL

2016

Finstock Road, W10
Finstock Road is a turning out of Oxford Gardens. Finstock is an Oxfordshire place name.
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APRIL

2016

Avenue Farm
Cowhouse Farm was linked to Hodford Farm in Golders Green for a long period. Horses were raised here and by 1890 their breeding and training was widespread. There were several dairy farms and others where sheep were fed for the London market.

As Cricklewood suburbanised, the farm became surrounded by housing.

Latterly Dickers Farm and finally Avenue Farm, it was closed in 1932.

Its access track finally became Farm Avenue. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners refused to allow building of some of the land because of bad drainage and it was sold to University College school as a sports ground.
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APRIL

2016

Lothrop Street (1907)
Postcard of a "street on the Queen’s Park Estate". Most likely this is Lothrop Street.
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APRIL

2016

Barnet Gate Wood
This small woodland is public open space, owned and managed by Barnet Council. It is a remnant of the extensive Middlesex Forest which covered most of this area after the last Ice Age.

Barnet Gate Wood is a small ancient woodland, with a canopy of oak and hornbeam, and an understorey dominated by rhododendron. Some of the hornbeam are in strange shapes as they were originally trained as hedges and then allowed go wild.

The entrance is by a path from Hendon Wood Lane, near the junction with Barnet Road. There is also access from the Dollis Valley Greenwalk and London Loop, at wooden posts numbered 12 and 13, which are points on the Barnet Gate Wood Nature Trail.

Barnet Gate Wood is part of Moat Mount Open Space and Mote End Farm, a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Borough Grade II.

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APRIL

2016

Highwood Hill, NW7
Highwood Hill links the Rising Sun pub with Totteridge. Highwood Hill marks the junction of two ridges, one stretching east to Totteridge and the other south-east through Holcombe Hill to Mill Hill and Bittacy Hill.

“It is no uncommon thing to see 100 loads of hay go up to London on market day and each of the teams bring back a load of dung for dressing the land”, writes John Middleton in his "View of the Agriculture of Middlesex" (1798).

Hay farming, he says, was mixed with sheep farming; pig farming too “purchased fat by the hogbutchers of London”.

Some got rich through hay farming and some built many large mansions along Totteridge Lane, Highwood Hill and The Ridgeway. The landlords of these properties were allowed to enclose fields all over the area and the common lands, where the poor could graze their pigs, cows and geese, became much smaller and fewer, impoverishing those dependent on such land.

Lavish parks were laid out around their mansions, and the resident...
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