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 left and then clicking Reset Location.
As maps are displayed, click on the markers to view location articles.
You can also view historical maps of London - click on the "pile of paper" control on the top right of a page's map to change to a particular decade.
Latest on The Underground Map...
Dollis Hill Lane is an ancient throughway. At the time of the Enclosure Award of 1816, the area of a 16th century farm at Oxgate, another farm at the top of Dollis Hill, a mansion known as Neasden House and some 75 fields resulting from the enclosure. The region was typical open farming country and the only road across the area was Dollis Hill Lane which traversed it from east to west. Dollis Hill House was built in 1825 and the railway in 1868. By 1895 there was a golf-course to the south west.
Residential building really started in the south-east of Dollis Hill from 1907-08.
Of the major landmarks constructed in the first quarter of the century, the two most noteworthy are St. Andrew’s Hospital, built in 1913, and the Post Office Research Station which rose in 1923 on the site of the old Dollis Hill Farm. In the mid-1920s Edgware Road was developed and there was some small-scale building in the middle of Dollis Hill.
So far a large part of the area still retained much of its rur...
»more
Braddyll Street dates from 1852 Many street names east of Greenwich relate to the Durham coal field. Col. Braddyll was one of the partners in the South Hetton Coal Company. Messrs Braddyll & Co. also then owned Dalden-le-Dale Colliery.
The locomotive ’Bradyll’ still exists and is believed to be the oldest surviving locomotive with six-driving wheels. Bradyll was built by Timothy Hackworth at his Soho Works in Shildon, County Durham in 1840. The locomotive can be seen in the National Railway Museum’s location at Shildon.
The street was labelled ’Braddyle Street’ on the Stanford 1860s map and its alignment followed the modern Thornley Place before it was later extended south.
»read full article
Lea Bridge
Lea Bridge is a district spanning an area between the London boroughs of Hackney and Waltham Forest It is named for a timber bridge built across the River Lea in 1745 which formed the dividing line between Middlesex and Essex. The road leading to it became known as Lea Bridge Road, with a tollhouse at the Middlesex bank. The bridge was rebuilt in 1821 and tolls continued to be levied until 1872.
Lea Bridge gives access to the lower reaches of the extensive Lee Valley Park. To the south are the Hackney Marshes, and to the north the Walthamstow Marshes.
The old Middlesex Filter Beds have been converted into a nature reserve, and on the Leyton side the Essex Filter Beds are now a reserve for birds. Next to the south side of the bridge are two pubs: ’The Princess of Wales’ and ’The Ship Aground’.
Lea Bridge station opened on 15 September 1840 by the Northern and Eastern Railway as Lea Bridge Road and is thought to be the earliest example of a station having its building on a railway bridge, with staircases down to the ...
»more
Beaumont Street, W1G
Beaumont Street is the location of the King Edward VII Hospital and the Marylebone Library Beaumont Street runs from Marylebone High Street to the junction of Westmoreland Street and Weymouth Street. It was named after Sir Beaumont Hotham, local leaseholder in the late 18th century.
The street’s story began soon after the Marylebone Gardens closed in 1776, the line of the northern half being mostly laid out over the site of the gardens. The southern part was already partly developed by then.
Building leases were granted to the Thomas Neales, senior and junior, and John White, among others in the late 1780s. The street was advertised as being in as "pleasant and as healthy a situation as in the country".
Shopkeepers and professionals moved in including a lady perfumer, surgeon, cheesemonger and a bookseller-stationer. Additionally there was a teacher of writing and accounting whose manuscript collection was open to the public.
The first residents in the 1790s included a botanical painter and a celebrated harpist, ...
»more
Thorold Road, IG1
Thorold Road dates from 1889-90 The name Thorold Road might reflect a Lincolnshire association since, while not a village name, there are two pubs called ’The Thorold Arms’ - one in Marston and the other in Harmston. The Reverend Henry Thorold lived in a vicarage in the former. A housemaster at Lancing College, he wrote for the acclaimed ’Shell Guides’ to the counties of England.
More likely is the theory that the name is derived from James Edwin Thorold Rogers (1823-1890) who was Liberal MP for Southwark. He had been influential in the ’National Liberal Land Company’. The company was renamed the ’National Land Company’ in 1893.
While not landowners in Ilford, the Balfour Group and the National (Liberal) Land Company had close political links and it was the Balfour Group - trading locally as Hobbs and Company - which developed Thorold Street.
![]()
»more
Print-friendly version of this page
