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

NOVEMBER

2016

Rupert Street, W1D
Rupert Street – after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, noted 17th century general and son of Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I. Cutting across Shaftesbury Avenue from Chinatown up into Soho, Rupert Street was named in 1676 after Prince Rupert of the Rhine: the nephew of King Charles I. Rupert was a charismatic figure who rode into battle with his pet poodle.

Between the site of Panton Square and Colman Hedge Lane (now Wardour Street) lay a plot of ground bounded on the south by the lane leading from the Military Yard to Piccadilly (now Coventry Street), and on the north by Knaves’ Acre. A map of 1664 marks the whole plot as ’parish Land’.

After the Restoration the whole of the Bailiwick of St. James, of which this ground formed a part, was leased by Queen Henrietta Maria and her trustees to the trustees of Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans. In 1676 Charles II granted the freehold of the plot to St. Albans in exchange for the surrender by the latter of his leasehold interest in Nell Gwynne’s house in Pall Mall. The ground was then described as a long slip of...
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NOVEMBER

2016

George Lane, N2
George Lane ran from Hampstead Lane to East End Road. In the south part of what was originally the extent of Finchley, there were two lanes in 1754.

Hampstead Lane, which crossed the southern tip of the parish on its way from Highgate to Hampstead, and George Lane, which ran north from Hampstead Lane to Spaniards Farm and thence, by field paths, to East End Road.
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NOVEMBER

2016

Gwendwr Garden
Gwendwr Gardens is a small park in West Kensington. In 1948 the area was donated to Fulham Council by the Gunter Estate for a memorial to the victims of German air raids in the area.

The park contains a pond, lawns and a commemorative plaque.

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NOVEMBER

2016

InterContinental London
InterContinental London Park Lane is a luxury 5-star hotel. It is located at 1 Hamilton Place on Hyde Park Corner with Park Lane, close to the shopping centre of Knightsbridge and Piccadilly.The hotel is operated by the InterContinental Hotels Group as part of the InterContinental chain, and was built in 1974.
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NOVEMBER

2016

Five Bells
The first recorded licensee of the Five Bells was in 1751. There is mention of an ale house as early in 1484 when a Mr Thomas Sanny was fined for not putting enough hops in his beer.

In 1803 the original building was demolished and replaced by cottages. A new pub was built in its present location to the west and the present building dates from 1868 following a major fire. Beside the pub was the village blacksmith.

The pub had a reputation as a centre of boxing and a number of champions trained there including the heavyweight and mediumweight champion Jem Mace.

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NOVEMBER

2016

Shenley Road water tank
Shenley Road tank was a fire prevention feature of Boreham Wood. This brick structure was a bunded tank. It was full of water for the fire brigade to use should there be a fire at the nearby studios.

Local children would catch sticklebacks there.

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NOVEMBER

2016

105 Shenley Road, WD6
105 Shenley Road lies along the main street of Borehamwood. In the early 1900s, this was the 12th of 21 cottages, running west to east, built along the north side of Shenley Road, ending where Clarendon Road met the main road.

In 1960, the cottages were demolished and in 1961, between 83 and 123 Shenley Road, shops to serve the growing population of Boreham Wood took their place.

In 1976, according to the research of local historian Vic Rowntree, this was the site of Halford’s.

In the 2010s, Santander Bank was here.
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NOVEMBER

2016

St Augustine’s, Kilburn
St Augustine’s was founded by Richard Carr Kirkpatrick in the Anglo-Catholic tradition in 1870 and listed as a Grade I building by Historic England. Kirkpatrick formed the church after his parish at St. Mary’s, Kilburn, where he served as curate, received an evangelical vicar unsympathetic to the Anglo-Catholic movement.

By 1871, a foundation stone had been laid and the original ’iron church’ was subsequently replaced by a much more ambitious building, a Gothic Revival church designed by John Loughborough Pearson.

Pearson’s plans called for a red brick structure, vaulted ceilings, and extensive interior stone sculpture in a style reminiscent of 13th-century Gothic architecture. The church was consecrated in 1880, but the tower and spire, remarkable for such Victorian era structures, were not constructed until 1897-1898.

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed the reredos (altar screens) for the high altar in 1930. He also designed the reredos of the Lady Chapel and the Stations of the Cross. In 1878, two years prior to the dedication of the church, contemporary historian Edward Walfor...
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NOVEMBER

2016

Tower Hamlets College
Tower Hamlets College is a large further education and a constituent college of New City College. The college has four different campuses: the largest is on Poplar High Street, about 700 m north of Canary Wharf; the others are at Arbour Square, Bethnal Green and the East India Dock Road. The college is housed in the former School of Marine Engineering and Navigation established by the London County Council opened in 1906.
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NOVEMBER

2016

Home House
Home House is a Georgian town house at 20 Portman Square. James Wyatt was appointed to design it by Elizabeth, Countess of Home in 1776, but by 1777 he had been dismissed and replaced by Robert Adam. Elizabeth left the completed house on her death in 1784 to her nephew William Gale, who in turn left it to one of his aunts, Mrs Walsh, in 1785. Its later occupants included the Marquis de la Luzerne during his time as French ambassador to the Court of St. James’s (1788 to 1791), the 4th Duke of Atholl (1798 to 1808), the Duke of Newcastle (1820 to 1861), Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid (1862 to 1919), and Lord and Lady Islington (1919 to 1926).

In 1926, it was leased by Samuel Courtauld to house his growing art collection. On his wife’s death in 1931, he gave the house and the collection to the fledgling Courtauld Institute of Art (which he had played a major part in founding) as temporary accommodation. A permanent accommodation was not forthcoming, and the Institute remained in the building until 1989, when it moved to its prese...
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NOVEMBER

2016

Eland House, SW1E
Eland House is an office building on Bressenden Place. Eland House was designed by EPR Architects and built by Mowlem for Land Securities, and although finally completed in 1998, staff of the former Department of the Environment had moved in in late 1995/early 1996.

The building is 59 metres tall, with 11 floors providing 35 000 square metres of office space housing 2500 staff. It incorporates a number of environmental features including a cogeneration plant and active solar panels.

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	TIP: You can navigate to different places within the M25 by choosing a location from the list you can see at the top

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