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

MARCH

2019

Leadenhall Street, EC3A
Leadenhall Street - historic home to both the East India Company and Lloyd’s of London. Leadenhall Street links Cornhill and Bishopsgate in the west to St. Botolph Street and Aldgate in the east.

It dates from Roman times - the second century ’Leadenhall Street Mosaic’ was discovered during building work on the East India Company premises but taken to the British Museum in 1880.

In 1879 a telephone exchange was installed at No. 101 Leadenhall Street by The Telephone Company (Bells Patents) Ltd. – one of the first in London.

The street was home to East India House from 1729 until demolition in 1861 when replaced by Lloyd’s of London. The London Metal Exchange is also on the street.

The Aldgate Pump is located at the east end of Leadenhall Street.

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MARCH

2019

Camomile Street, EC3A
Camomile Street is a short street in the City of London Camomile Street runs west from Bevis Marks, continuing that street to Houndsditch.

The houses on the north side are on the site of the wall of London and a plaque on a house at the north-east corner of the street marks the former site of Bishopsgate.

It is possible that the land immediately within the wall was waste land and covered with the chamomile plant.

On a corner of Camomile Street is the Heron Tower skyscraper.
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MARCH

2019

Blessington Road, SE13
Blessington Road dates from the mid-Victorian period. The railway arrived in Lewisham in 1849 and by the 1850s, the first houses were appearing on the new Blessington Road.

Constructed as single middle class family houses complete with accommodation for servants, by the Second World War most houses in the street had been subdivided into flats.

Blessington Road suffered during the Second World War with a deadly bombing taking place on 29 June 1944 destroying houses and lives.

The Mercator Estate is a mixture of a terraces of houses facing onto Belmont Park and another eight houses north of Saxton Close. There are a series of blocks: Chesney House, Ericson House and Clavering House, on Mercator Road and Blessington Road; along with the Rawlinson House tower block.
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MARCH

2019

Clarendon Road, W11
Clarendon Road is one of the W11’s longest streets, running from Holland Park Avenue in the south to Dulford Street in the north. The area was largely open country when Clarendon Road was created during the second great wave of development on the Ladbroke estate in the 1840s. The estate was still owned at that time by the Ladbroke family in the person of James Weller Ladbroke. It was a time when the population of London was growing rapidly and developers saw rich profits to be made in providing the expanding population with housing.

James Weller Ladbroke had detailed plans drawn up for the western part of the Ladbroke estate, including Clarendon Road, in 1843 and 1846. Ladbroke did not undertake the development himself; instead he signed agreements or building leases with builders or speculators under which they undertook to build a certain number of houses on the plot of land covered by the agreement. Once the houses were built, Ladbroke would then give either the builder or a person nominated by him (usually the person who had provided finance for the construction) 99-year leases of the houses....
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MARCH

2019

Glengall Grove, E14
Glengall Grove was named after a major landowner in the Isle of Dogs. Margaret Lauretta, Countess of Glengall was the wife of the 2nd Earl of Glengall. She was the daughter of William Mellish and inherited her father’s considerable estate on the Isle of Dogs in 1834. Many places and buildings on the Island made use of the Glengall name.

One of those was Glengall Road. Glengall Road ran from Westferry Road in the west to Manchester Road in the east, crossing the Millwall Docks. It was renamed Glengall Grove shortly before the Second World War. When road access through Millwall Docks was stopped in 1963, the western half of the road was renamed Tiller Road.

Glengall Road/Grove was probably laid out in the 1850s since it appears first on an 1861 map but not on an 1850 one.

Football club Millwall Rovers’ first ever fixture was held on Glengall Road on 3 October 1885.

Other locations taking the Glengall name included:
- The Glengall Arms. A pub formerly located at 367 Westferry Road.<...
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MARCH

2019

Ainger Road, NW3
Ainger Road lies along the boundary of St John’s Hampstead, a parish which saw rapid development in the nineteenth century. The name commemorates Thomas Ainger, vicar of St John’s from 1841 until his death in 1863, who provided clinics, schools and churches to go with the new houses in the area. Until 1882, this was Windsor Road.

George Pownall was the builder/developer responsible for developing the street. In 1868 Pownall proposed to build several new roads. After building in Albert Park and Oppidans Road, Ainger Road was built in 1869. By 1879, Pownall had built 38 houses, three stables and a workshop.
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MARCH

2019

Latymer Upper School is an independent selective grammar school which accepts boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 19. Latymer Upper School was founded by Edward Latymer in 1624. It is coeducational with over 1200 pupils.

Edward Latymer, a wealthy lawyer and puritan, left part of his wealth for the clothing and education of “eight poore boyes” from Hammersmith. In 1657, a parochial charity school was set up and was rebuilt in 1755. A new facility was built on what is now King Street in Hammersmith in 1863, and was replaced in 1890 with a new building between King Street and the Thames. This structure persists to the present day as the core of the Upper School. The site also includes Latymer Prep School, which takes pupils aged 7 to 11.

The school became fully private in 1975 after being a direct grant school. The Sixth Form has been co-educational since 1996, and in 2004 the main school started to become co-educational.
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MARCH

2019

Lower Marsh Market
Lower Marsh Market is in the Waterloo area of London. Lower Marsh Market and a variety of vintage shops, pubs, bookshops, art galleries, independent coffee spaces and a variety of restaurants featuring food from many ethnic origins.

In 2015, the market was reported as having 77 stalls.

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MARCH

2019

Television Centre
Television Centre is a complex in White City that was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. The first BBC staff moved into the Scenery Block in 1953, and the centre was officially opened on 29 June 1960. Parts of the building are Grade II listed.

It was announced in 2010 that the BBC would cease broadcasting from Television Centre in 2013. Property developers Stanhope plc bought the complex for £200 million.
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MARCH

2019

St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics
St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics was founded in London in 1751 for the treatment of incurable pauper lunatics by a group of philanthropists. It was London’s second public institution in London created to look after mentally ill people, after the Hospital of St Mary of Bethlem (Bedlam), founded in 1246.

In 1786 the hospital moved to purpose-built premises on Old Street, between Bath St and what is now the Old Street Roundabout. The building had a magnificent frontage of brick, 500 feet long and had a central entrance, with the male wards to the left and female wards to the right.

There wered single cells for 300 patients, each with small windows set high in the wall.

All patients were transferred in 1916, and the buildings were acquired by the Bank of England to become the St Luke’s Printing Works, used for printing bank notess. The building was demolished in 1963.
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MARCH

2019

Thames Tunnel
The Thames Tunnel connects Rotherhithe and Wapping and was built between 1825 and 1843. There had been an increasing need for a new connection between the north and south banks of the Thames to link the expanding docks on each side.

In 1818, the Anglo-French engineer Marc Brunel had patented the tunnelling shield, a revolutionary advance in tunnelling technology. Five years later, he produced a plan for a tunnel between Rotherhithe and Wapping, which would be dug using the shield. Financing was found from private investors and the project began in February 1825.

The tunnelling shield was built at Henry Maudslay’s Lambeth works and assembled in the Rotherhithe shaft. Its main innovation was the support for the unlined ground in front and around it to reduce the risk of collapses. Many workers, including Marc Brunel, fell ill from the filthy sewage-laden water seeping through from the river above. The main engineer himsef, John Armstrong, fell ill in April 1826. Marc’s son Isambard Kingdom Brunel took over at the age of 20.
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MARCH

2019

Brunel Museum
The Brunel Museum is a museum at the Brunel Engine House in Rotherhithe. The Engine House itself was designed by Sir Marc Isambard Brunel as part of the infrastructure of the Thames Tunnel. It contained steam-powered pumps used to extract water from the tunnel.

Since 1961 the building has been used as a museum displaying information on the construction of the tunnel as well as other projects by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
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MARCH

2019

Mercator Road, SE13
Mercator Road was at first called Marlborough Road and was first laid out in the 1850s. Ten deaths occurred in Mercator Road as the result of a Nazi raid on 29 June 1944 which destroyed most of the houses.

After the war, the road was cleared and over 80 prefabs were temporarily built on Mercator Road with some on Blessingham Road. This was a stopgap measure and in 1964, the Borough of Lewisham approved the building of the 14 storey Rawlinson House along with the rest of the Mercator Estate. This was built by the Tersons company, who were part of Balfour Beatty.
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MARCH

2019

First Avenue, EN1
First Avenue is an unusual instance of the numbering as opposed to the naming of roads. The area called ’The Avenues’ were built in different years, outside of the sequential order that might be expected.

Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue were built first in 1880 with Sixth Avenue begun in 1883. Seventh Avenue dates from 1884

First Avenue and Second Avenue date from the 1890s but Third Avenue did not appear until 1927.

In 1974 Enfield council compulsorily purchased properties north of Main Avenue and demolished Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Avenues to put up a housing estate.

First Avenue appears on the 1896 Ordnance Survey map with houses on the east side only.
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