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

JULY

2016

Broadwalk Centre
The Broadwalk Centre is a shopping centre located in Edgware. The Broadwalk Centre is a single-storey shopping centre and contains over 20 shops. It is linked to Edgware bus station.
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JULY

2016

Lavenham Road, SW18
Lavenham Road is named after a Suffolk town. An estate agents’ office was established opposite Southfields station in 1899. George Ryan and Henry Penfold were the prime developers at the start of the ’Grid’ scheme and they employed builders under contract to construct different sections of the various streets.

Their standards were high and they were constantly badgering the contractors about the quality of their work. Socially they were in advance of their time with their option for residents to own or rent their property, a flexible arrangement designed to attract a wide cross- section of different people.
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JULY

2016

Horsenden Lane South, UB6
Horsenden Lane South connects the Western Avenue with the Grand Union Canal. Perivale ’village’ was never more than a small complex centred on the church, rectory, and manor-house. By the time of the first detailed map in 1839, the manor-house had been demolished and the only domestic buildings were five widely separated farm-houses. Horsenden Farm, Church Farm, Grange Farm, Manor Farm and Apperton or Alperton Farm. At this time Perivale was said to be ’very secluded’. The only roads in the area were Horsenden Lane and Apperton Lane.

The opening in 1801 of the Paddington branch of the Grand Junction Canal had little effect and in 1876 Perivale was described as ’a curiously lonely-looking little place, lying in the valley of the Brent among broad meadows’. Horsenden Lane was split into Horsenden Lane North and Horsenden Lane South, depending on the particular side of the canal.

In 1821, the population census showed that there were only 25 inhabitants in Perivale and this had only grown to 32 in the 1851 census. Kelly’...
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JULY

2016

The Myriad Stores
Photo depicting 49 Shenley Road, WD6 Situated opposite Drayton Road, this general store sold just about anything from pots & pans to needles & thread. This photo was taken in the 1940s after new owners took over from Tom Wingate.
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JULY

2016

Fox and Clark Furniture Shop (1905)
The Fox and Clark Furniture Shop was situated at 73 Shenley Road, Boreham Wood.
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JULY

2016

Bullbaiter’s Farm Sale (1905)
Bullbaiter’s Farm was located at the bottom of the modern Bullhead Road. Auction of farm goods after the retirement of farmer George King.
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JULY

2016

Bullbaiter’s Farm
Bullbaiter’s Farm in 1905. Farmer George King (pictured standing at the gate) retired from running Bullbaiter’s Farm on 25 March 1905. The farm was the property of the Earl of Strafford of Wrotham Park, South Mimms.
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JULY

2016

Horse and cart at Bullbaiter’s Farm
Horses and a cart at Bullbaiters (Bullbeggar’s) Farm, c1880. The area has since been built over. The farm was approximately where Bullhead Road, Boreham Wood is now.

Bullbeggar meant "hobgoblin" or "scarecrow."
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JULY

2016

Theobald Street (watercolour)
Watercolour of the lower part of Theobald Street. The image seems to date from the turn of the twentieth century.
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JULY

2016

Station Road, N11
Station Road dates from the time that the railway came to New Southgate. Gas came to New Southgate in 1858. That year the Southgate and Colney Hatch Gas Light and Coke Limited set up a gasworks in Station Road.

Houses were provided for the gas company’s workers in Lee Street and Albert Street. These were demolished when the course of Station Road was altered in the 1970s. They were very basic terraced workmen’s cottages with outside toilets. They were built in the shadow of three huge gasholders.
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JULY

2016

Blomfield Road, W9
Blomfield Road is the road running beside the canal on the Little Venice side. It received its name in 1841. Charles Blomfield was a Bishop of London.

Very little building was taking place behind the Edgware Road frontage by the time the 1840s dawned and progress over the fields north of the canal continued to be slow.

In 1851 there were buildings only in Blomfield Road and in the quadrangle between that road, Clifton Place (later Villas), and the south end of Warwick Road enclosing Warwick Place. In 1857 Bristol Gardens still commanded uninterrupted country views to the north and west.
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JULY

2016

Ladbroke Crescent, W11
Ladbroke Crescent belongs to the third and final great period of building on the Ladbroke estate and the houses were constructed in the 1860s. Development of this area had suddenly become more attractive with the opening in 1864 of the Hammersmith and City line of the Metropolitan Railway with a station on Ladbroke Grove (the station was originally called ‘Notting Hill’), and the introduction in the early 1860s 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 Ladbroke Crescent lies was in the hands of the speculator and ex-Calcutta merchant Charles Blake, who had already developed successfully several other parts of the Ladbroke estate. In 1864, he granted a lease of the whole crescent to G. and T. Goodwin, builders. The normal pattern was no doubt followed, according to which the builder had to build houses meeting certain standards; he was then given a 99-year lease of the property which he could let, thus recovering his costs, but he had had to pay a ground rent to the landowner...
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JULY

2016

Ladbroke Gardens, W11
Ladbroke Gardens runs between Ladbroke Grove and Kensington Park Road. By the early 1850s the Ladbroke family had sold the freehold of much of the undeveloped part of their estate, including the land on which Ladbroke Gardens now stands, to various speculators. The north and south sides of what is now Ladbroke Gardens ended up in different ownership. It was a time of building boom, and in 1852 the owners of both sides began to let building leases, under which contractors undertook to erect houses in exchange for a promise that, once the houses were completed, they would be given 99-year leases, enabling them to recover their costs by subletting the new houses.

Unfortunately the building boom did not last. The excessive building had outstripped demand and it soon became clear that the developers were unable to continue financing their plans. In about 1855 building ceased almost completely on the Ladbroke estate. Ladbroke Gardens was one of the streets most affected, becoming known as “Coffin Row” because of the many half-built and cr...
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JULY

2016

Ladbroke Square, W11
The huge Ladbroke Square communal garden is part communal garden accessed from the backs of the houses lining it 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. All the houses are numbered consecutively.

Felix Ladbroke, the owner of the Ladbroke estate, signed an agreement in 1840 with a developer, Jacob Connop, a bill broker in the City of London, to develop inter alia the road now called Ladbroke Square. Under this agreement, Connop let building leases of the individual plots to various builders. Then, when the houses were built or nearly built, Ladbroke granted 99-year leases of the houses to Connop or some other person at his direction, usually the builder, allowing the developer and/or the builder or financier to recover their capital outlay by subletting or selling the leaseholds..

It seems to have taken Connop some time to find people willing to take up building leases. The first plots to be ...
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JULY

2016

St John’s Gardens, W11
St John’s Gardens runs around St John’s church. The road that runs down to Clarendon Road was originally known as St John’s Road, although by 1923 it had become St John’s Gardens. The road is bordered almost entirely by the railings of the neighbouring communal gardens or the sides of the back gardens in neighbouring streets. There are only two houses with an address in St John’s Gardens, both in the semi-circular section facing the back of the church.

Nos. 1 and 2 St John’s Gardens form part of a trio with No. 44 Lansdowne Crescent. Indeed, until a renumbering in 1925, all three houses were considered to be in St John’s Gardens and No. 44 was known as No. 3 St John’s Gardens. All three were built by William Reynolds, a builder turned developer to whom James Weller Ladbroke (the freeholder) and Richard Roy (the developer) gave a lease in 1846 at a ground rent of £5 for each house. They are handsome half stucco houses, as well decorated on their rear elevations (also half stucco) as on the front. They a...
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JULY

2016

Westbourne Park Road, W11
Westbourne Park Road runs between Notting Hill and the Paddington area. This part of the Ladbroke estate was the last to be developed. In 1847, a convent of the Poor Clares was established at the south-western end of what is now Westbourne Park Road, in its own large walled garden. At the time, the site was described by the journal Building News as a ‘dreary waste of mud and stunted trees’, apart from ‘a melancholy half-built church’ (All Saints in Talbot Road) and ‘a lonely public house’ (the Elgin). The street was at first called Cornwall Road though the section nearest to Ladbroke Grove, ’Somerset Road’.

For more than a decade, the convent and the pub remained alone. It was a period of financial crisis for developers, and it was not until the early 1860s that any other buildings were erected.

The first houses to be built on the southern side (apart from the convent) were Nos. 305-317 (odds), dating from around 1860, as the 1861 census records three occupied houses next to the Castle pub, and four of...
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