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

2017

Smithfield
Smithfield is a locality in the ward of Farringdon Without situated at the City of London’s northwest corner. A number of City institutions are located in the area, such as St Bartholomew’s Hospital, the Charterhouse, and Livery Halls including those of the Butchers’ and Haberdashers’ Companies. Smithfield’s meat market dates from the 10th century, and is now London’s only remaining wholesale market in continuous operation since medieval times. The area also contains London’s oldest surviving church, St Bartholomew-the-Great, founded in 1123 AD.

Smithfield has borne witness to many executions of heretics and political rebels over the centuries, including Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace, and Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, among many other religious reformers and dissenters.

Smithfield Market, a Grade II listed-covered market building, was designed by Victorian architect Sir Horace Jones in the second half of the 19th century, and is the dominant architectural feature of the area. Some of its original market premises fell into disuse ...
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JULY

2017

Henchman Street, W12
Henchman Street is a crescent in the Old Oak Estate. Constructed in the early 1920s, it is named after a Bishop of London, Humphrey Henchman (1592–1675).

Henchman was Bishop from 1663 to 1675.

He was born in Northamptonshire, the son of Thomas Henchman, a skinner, and educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge where he achieved BA in 1613 and MA in 1616. He became a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge in 1617.

Ejected as a canon of Salisbury Cathedral, where he had been since 1623, during the First English Civil War, he joined the royalist forces, and had his estates confiscated. He was one of those who helped the future Charles II to escape the country after the Battle of Worcester of 1651. On the Restoration of 1660, he was made Bishop of Salisbury and in 1663 translated to be Bishop of London, where he saw both the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London.

He was also made Privy Councillor and Almoner to the King.

In March, 1665 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
»read full article

JULY

2017

Erconwald Street, W12
Erconwald Street is the main road running through the Old Oak Estate. The 54 acres required for the Old Oak Estate was purchased by the London County Council (L.C.C) in 1905 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 8 acres being re-sold to the Great Western Railway for its Ealing-Shepherds Bush branch.

The estate was constructed in two phases, west of the railway and East Acton Station in 1912-13 and the eastern half in 1920-3. The western half of Erconald Street dates from the first period of construction.
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JULY

2017

Wulfstan Street, W12
Wulfstan Street, like all streets in the Wormholt and Old Oak Estate, was named after a Bishop of London. The Wormholt and Old Oak Estates were constructed between 1912-1928 and represented part of a movement towards higher standards in public housing.

The 54 acres required for the Old Oak Estate was purchased by the London County Council (L.C.C) in 1905 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 8 acres being re-sold to the Great Western Railway for its Ealing-Shepherds Bush branch. The estate was constructed in two phases, west of the railway and East Acton Station in 1912-13 and the eastern half in 1920-3 with fourteen houses added in 1927.

Since they were built, internal standards have continued to rise, but their external quality is now rarely equalled in either private or public housing. Because of their high standard of streetscapes, in May 1980, Hammersmith and Fulham Council decided to designate the estates as a Conservation Area.

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JULY

2017

Braybrook Street, W12
Braybrook Street runs along the west side of Wormwood Scrubs. The street was named after a Bishop of London, Robert Braybrooke. Other Bishops of London who gave their names to nearby streets were Mellitus, Earconwald, Osmund, Wulfstan, Gilbert Foliot, Richard FitzNeal, John Stokesley and Humphrey Henchman.

The street is known as the location of the Massacre of Braybrook Street where three police officers were murdered by Harry Roberts and John Duddy in August 1966.

The officers had stopped to question the three occupants of a car. Roberts shot dead Temporary Detective Constable David Wombwell and Detective Sergeant Christopher Head, whilst John Duddy, another occupant in the vehicle, shot dead Police Constable Geoffrey Fox.

The three suspects went on the run, initiating a large manhunt. All three were eventually arrested and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. Duddy died in prison in 1981. John Witney, the driver of the suspects’ vehicle, was also convicted of the murders; he was released f...
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JULY

2017

Horsenden Lane North, UB6
Horsenden Lane North lies north of the Grand Union Canal. It is known that 2500 years ago Iron Age people settled on what today is called Horsenden Hill as large amounts of pottery have been discovered. It was probably during Saxon times that the hill acquired its name originally ’Horsingdon’ - the last syllable ’don’ meaning hill fortress.

There was probably some settlement at Horsenden from the late 12th century, as there was at least one family who took their name from the place. By 1754 the main areas of settlement were around the crossing of Ruislip Road and Oldfield Lane, and in the north of the parish at Greenford Green, with a few houses round the church and at Brabsden Green, by Horsenden Wood.

Brabsden Green hamlet was inhabited by the 1750s, and the last house was demolished in 1972 to be reclaimed by vegetation - one of the very few examples of de-urbanisation in the London area in recent centuries. A little further south, alongside the lane, there are the remains of a grander house (built i...
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JULY

2017

Horsenden Lane (1910)
This photo, taken in 1910, depicts a scene which has changed remarkably little. It looks north along the final section of Horsenden Lane South before the canal turns it into Horsenden Lane North. Horsenden Farm can be seen in the distance.

The map we have used to illustrate is the 1900 map which does not show these houses - they were new builds when photographed.
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JULY

2017

Shepherd Market
Shepherd Market was described by Arthur Bingham Walkley in 1925 as one of the oddest incongruities in London. It is a small square in the Mayfair area of central London, developed in 1735-46 by Edward Shepherd from an open area called Brook Field, through which flowed the Tyburn and used for the annual May fair from which Mayfair gets its name. The fifteen-day fair took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today and was established by King James II in the 1680s, mainly for the purpose of cattle trading. Over the years the fair grew in popularity and size, attracting both rich and poor. Whilst Queen Anne tried to put an end to the fair, her successor George I was more approving. The gentrification of the area in the eighteenth century killed the festival off, with the building of many grand houses. A local architect and developer (Edward Shepherd), was commissioned to develop the site. It was completed in the mid 18th century, with paved alleys, a duck pond, and a two-storey market, topped with a theatre.

Shepherd Market was associated with prostitutes in the eighteenth cen...
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JULY

2017

St Andrew
The Church of St Andrew, Holborn stands within the Ward of Farringdon Without. Roman pottery was found on the site during 2001/02 excavations in the crypt. However, the first written record of the church itself is dated as 951 in a charter of Westminster Abbey, referring to it as the "old wooden church", on top of the hill above the river Fleet.

The Charter’s authenticity has been called into question because the date is not within the reign of the King Edgar of England who is granting it. It may be that this is simply a scribal error and that the date should be ’959’ (DCCCCLIX). A ’Master Gladwin’, i.e. a priest, held it after the Norman Conquest and he assigned it to St Paul’s Cathedral, but with the proviso that the advowson be granted at 12 pence a year to the Cluniac Order’s, St Saviour’s foundation of what was to become Bermondsey Abbey. This assignment dates between 1086 and 1089. In about 1200 a deed was witnessed by James, the Parson, Roger, his chaplain, Andrew, the Deacon and also Alexander his clerk. In 1280 one Simon d...
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JULY

2017

Holborn Circus, EC1N
Holborn Circus is a junction of five highways in the City of London, on the boundary between Holborn, Hatton Garden and Smithfield. It was designed by the engineer William Haywood and opened in 1867. The term circus describes the way the frontages of the buildings surrounding the junction curve.

On one side lies the church of St Andrew, Holborn, an ancient guild church that survived the Great Fire of London. However, the parochial authority decided, nevertheless, to commission Christopher Wren to rebuild it. Although the nave was destroyed in the Blitz, the reconstruction was faithful to Wren’s original. Many other buildings surrounding Holborn Circus were severely damaged during the Blitz. After the end of the Second World War, many were demolished.

Holborn Circus was described in Charles Dickens’ Dictionary of London (1879) as "perhaps... the finest piece of street architecture in the City".

Read the Holborn Circus entry on the Wikipedia...
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JULY

2017

St Etheldreda’s Church
St Etheldreda’s Church is in Ely Place, off Charterhouse Street in Holborn, London. The Roman Catholic church is dedicated to Ã†thelthryth, or Etheldreda, the Anglo-Saxon saint who founded the monastery at Ely in 673. It was the chapel of the London residence of the Bishops of Ely.

It is one of the oldest Roman Catholic churches in England, and one of two surviving buildings in London dating from Edward I’s reign. The chapel was purchased by the Roman Catholic church in 1874 and opened in 1878.

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JULY

2017

Weybridge
Weybridge is a town by the River Wey in the Elmbridge district of Surrey. It is bounded to the north by the River Thames at the mouth of the Wey, from which it gets its name. It is an outlying suburban town within the Greater London Urban Area, situated 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Woking and 16 miles (25 km) southwest of central London. Real estate prices are well above the national average: as of 2008, six of the ten most expensive streets in South East England (defined as the official government region, which excludes Greater London) were in Weybridge.

Weybridge, based on its parish bounds, forms three wards of the United Kingdom or can be divided into the Thames Street and town centre area, the Queens Road area on top of Monument Hill, most of Brooklands and St George’s Hill. Within the post town, rather than Weybridge’s other boundaries is Oatlands or Oatlands Village.

Until the late 18th century Weybridge was as a very small village with a river crossing, seed milling to make flour and nurseries would continue to prov...
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JULY

2017

Blackbird Hill (1906)
Blackbird Hill was pictured here in 1906 and was then part of Neasden. Blackbird Hill was named after Blackbird Farm. We don’t know when there was first a farm here. There were at least five “villagers” cultivating small areas of land in this part of Kingsbury at the time of the Domesday Book in 1085.

The large field behind it is shown as being leased to John Page, gentleman, by St Paul’s Cathedral (‘The Deane of Powles’), while the land on the opposite side of the main track was held by Eyan Chalkhill, who also had a watermill on the River Brent.

By the time of John Rocque’s map of 1745, there were farm buildings and orchards on both sides of Old Church Lane. These would come to be known as the upper and lower yards of Blackbird (or Blackbird Hill) Farm. Whereas the original farm, or smallholding, was probably growing a mixture of crops, mainly to support the farmer’s own family, by the mid-18th century the map shows most of the fields as pasture land. This was probably for raising lives...
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JULY

2017

Sipson
Sipson is a village in the historic county of Middlesex, England, but since 1965 has been administered as part of the London Borough of Hillingdon. The village’s name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Sibbwines tūn: "Sibbwine’s farmstead". Sipson village adjoins the Bath Road (the modern A4), which linked London to Bath.

The village of Sipson was first mentioned in 1214. By 1337 there were 14 houses at Sipson, surrounded by cultivated land.

The first definite picture of the parish is supplied by Rocque’s map of 1754, where the settlement pattern is clearly shown. At Longford, Harmondsworth, and Sipson there were small, compact groups of houses. Harmondsworth Lane, running east to Sipson, and continuing to Harlington as Sipson Lane, was a track across the open fields. The main settlement at Sipson lay south of Harmondsworth Lane, and was grouped on both sides of Sipson Road; a few houses were situated at Sipson Green where the road joined the Bath Road. From the Bath Road at King’s Arbour to its southernmost point dwellings, collectively known as Heathrow, lined the side of Heathrow Road....
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JULY

2017

Abercorn Place, NW8
Abercorn Place is on the Harrow School Estate and is named after James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn, a governor of the school. Building was begun in the 1830s.

Today, the houses present a fascinating mixture from that date to the present day. Nos 13 and 15 have pretty, early 19th-century facades, overlaid with pebble-dash. Charles Robert Leslie RA lived at No. 2, and T.H. Huxley was at No. 26 from 1861 to 1872.

Number 6 predates the street and is a detached villa built around 1820 - it is shown on Crutchley’s map of London of 1829. It is a handsome Neoclassical villa which remains little altered. From 1879 to 1888 it was the home of Edward John Gregory RA (1850-1909), a noted late Victorian painter and sometime President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours.
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JULY

2017

Blackbird Hill, NW9
The route of Blackbird Hill has been in existence since the Domesday Book. In 1597 many roads converged on Kingsbury Green. One, originally called Ox Street or London Lane and later Kingsbury Road, ran eastward to the Hyde; Buck Lane, earlier known as Stonepits or Postle Lane, ran northward from Kingsbury Green to join Hay Lane, a road mentioned in the 13th century. Another early road in northern Kingsbury was Tunworth or Stag Lane, which ran from Redhill to Roe Green. Church Lane, in 1563 called Northland Lane, ran southward from Kingsbury Green to the church and Green Lane joined the green to Townsend Lane, known as North Dean Lane in 1394 and 1503. On the west Gibbs or Piggs Lane joined Kingsbury Green to Slough Lane or Sloe Street, as it was called in 1428. The southward extension of Slough Lane, Salmon Street, was called Dorman Stone Lane in the 15th and 16th centuries. There was an east-west road joining Hill and Freren farms to Hendon. The portion between Church Lane and Salmon Street, called Freren Lane in 1379, had disappeared by the early 18th c...
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JULY

2017

West Cross Route, W11
The West Cross Route is a 1.21 km-long dual carriageway running north-south between the northern elevated roundabout junction with the western end of Westway (A40) and the southern Holland Park Roundabout. The WCR was formerly the M41 motorway. Its status was downgraded to an A-road in 2000 when responsibility for trunk roads in Greater London was transferred from the Highways Agency to the Greater London Authority.

The WCR was originally the designation for the western section of Ringway 1, the innermost circuit of the London Ringways network, a complex and comprehensive plan for a network of high-speed roads circling central London designed to manage and control the flow of traffic within the capital.

The WCR and the other roads planned in the 1960s for central London had developed from early schemes prior to the Second World War through Sir Patrick Abercrombie’s County of London Plan, 1943 and Greater London Plan, 1944 to a 1960s Greater London Council (GLC) scheme that would have involved the construction of many miles of motorway-standard roads across the city and demolition on a massive scale. Due to the huge construction costs and widespread publ...
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JULY

2017

Charterhouse Street, EC1A
Charterhouse Street is a street on the northern boundary of the City of London. It connects Charterhouse Square and Holborn Circus, crossing Farringdon Road and running along a number of historical sites, including Smithfield Market and the historical headquarters of the Port of London Authority.

Before 1869, the one connection between the Smithfield area and the Charterhouse was an ancient street called Charterhouse Lane. In the seventeenth century this street consisted of a narrow alley which started from the east side of the open space at the bottom of St John Street, then widened a little and swung northwards on a straight line to the gate that protected Charterhouse Yard. The opening-out of the western section when the new Smithfield Market was built in the 1860s destroyed the old lane’s integrity. Less than half its former length remained, renamed as part of the otherwise entirely new Charterhouse Street

Charterhouse Street is perhaps most famous for its gastropubs, such as the Fox and Anchor, that attract local City workers ...
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JULY

2017

Lancefield Coachworks
Lancefield Coachworks was a builder of bespoke bodies for expensive car chassis always introducing sporting elements into designs. Lancefield operated as coachbuilders from 1921 to 1948 then switched their business to aircraft components which had been their wartime activity. They were based in London at Wrenfield Place, Herries Street, Queen’s Park, W10.

It was set up by the Gaisford brothers - Harry, Edwin and Bob - and George Warboys. The Gaisford Brothers had learned the coachbuilding trade at the Grosvenor Carriage Company, as had head designer Jock Betteridge.

Initially known as Gaisford & Warboys they worked from Lancefield Street in Queen’s Park then on moving to nearby Beethoven Street changed their business’s name to Lancefield Coachworks later incorporating a company of that same name.

Early commissions were primarily on Rolls-Royce and Bentley chassis. More than 150 bodies for Rolls chassis were built prior to the outbreak of World War II.

During the Second World War, Lancefield manufactured parts for the De Havilland Mosquito.
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JULY

2017

Ashen Grove, SW19
Ashen Grove was the name of a wood which gave its name to a farm. Ashen Grove Farm in Wimbledon Park had been built in 1633 when the Ashen Grove woodland was cleared.

The road dates from 1909-1910.
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JULY

2017

Kingsgate Street, WC1R
Kingsgate Street ran from High Holborn to Theobald’s Road. It was named after the King’s Gate barrier at its southern end, where King Charles’s coach famously overturned in 1669.

In the eighteenth century Kingsgate Street to Seven Dials (south of Oxford Street) was a traditional route for criminals whipped at the cart’s tail.The Kingsgate Baptist Chapel on Catton Street stood on the corner with Kingsgate Street.

The reforming publisher and journalist Henry Hetherington had a printing business here from about 1815 until 1834.

The street was obliterated in 1902–1906 by the London County Council’s Kingsway improvement scheme.
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JULY

2017

New Wimbledon Theatre
The New Wimbledon Theatre is a Grade II listed Edwardian theatre built by the theatre lover and entrepreneur, J B Mulholland. Built on the site of a large house with spacious grounds, the theatre was designed by Cecil Aubrey Massey and Roy Young (possibly following a 1908 design by Frank H Jones). It seems to have been the only British theatre to have included a Victorian-style Turkish bath in the basement. The theatre opened on 26 December 1910 with the pantomime Jack and Jill.

The theatre was very popular between the wars, with Gracie Fields, Sybil Thorndike, Ivor Novello, Markova and Noël Coward all performing there. Lionel Bart’s Oliver! received its world premiere at the theatre in 1960 before transferring to the West End’s New Theatre. The theatre also hosted the world premiere of Half A Sixpence starring Tommy Steele in 1963 prior to the West End.

With several refurbishments, most notably in 1991 and 1998, the theatre retains its baroque and Adamesque internal features. The golden statue atop the dome is Laetitia, the Roman Goddess of Gaiety (although many refer ...
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JULY

2017

York Way, N1
York Way has been a thoroughfare since the twelfth century. York Way long formed the boundary between the parishes of St. Pancras and Islington. For its entire length York Way now forms the boundary between the London Boroughs of Islington and Camden. It only became York Way in the mid twentieth century but it is one of the most ancient roads in the north of London.

York Way was named ’Mayde Lane’ (1467) and ’Maiden Lane’ (1735) (commemorated in the Maiden Lane Estate, Maiden Lane Bridge - over the Regent’s Canal and the former Maiden Lane railway station). It became York Road in the 19th century, and the current name was adopted in 1938.

The historian Camden says, "It was opened to the public in the year 1300, and was then the principal road for all travellers proceeding to Highgate and the north." It was formerly called ’Longwich Lane’, and was generally kept in such a dirty, disreputable state as to be almost impassable in winter, and was so often complained of that the Bishop of London wa...
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JULY

2017

Shepherd’s Bush Market
Shepherd’s Bush Market is a station on both the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines. The Metropolitan Railway (MR) opened the original station on 13 June 1864 as Shepherd’s Bush on its new extension to Hammersmith. From 1 October 1877 until 31 December 1906 the MR also ran direct services along this line to Richmond via Hammersmith (Grove Road).

The original Shepherd’s Bush station closed in 1914 to be replaced by two new stations which opened on 1 April 1914: the new Shepherd’s Bush station resited a short distance north across the Uxbridge Road, and Goldhawk Road about half a kilometre to the south. Those stations remain in those locations but nothing exists of the former station buildings in the marketplace.

In 1900 the Central London Railway (CLR) opened its Shepherd’s Bush station, now the Central line station, at the other end of Shepherd’s Bush Green. For 108 years there were two Tube stations of the same name a third of a mile apart.

In 2008 the new London Overground Shepherd’s Bush railway station was o...
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