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.

Blechynden Street, W10
Credit: User unknown/public domain

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...

Blechynden Street, W10

Blechynden Street is now a tiny street in the vicinity of Latimer Road station, W10 The stump that remains belies its story as one of the main streets of the area.

Blechynden Street crossed a 50-acre estate that a barrister, James Whitchurch, purchased for Â£10 an acre in the early 19th century. He left his home in Blechynden in Southampton and built himself a house in Lancaster Road, North Kensington, now situated at No. 133.

Streets were built on the estate in 1846, and the first were named Aldermaston, Silchester, Bramley and Pamber after four neighbouring villages near Basingstoke, which was where James Whitchurchâ€™s daughter Florence Blechynden Whitchurch was living.

After dividing the land into plots, he leased them to builders such as John Calverley, a Notting Hill builder who named a street after himself.

Other developers involved were Joseph Job Martin, the landlord of The Lancaster Tavern in Walmer Road, as well as the developer of Martin Street. Stephen Hurst, a builder from Kentish Town, was r...

»more

JULY

2021

Eversholt Street, NW1
Eversholt Street connects Euston with Camden Town The origins of Eversholt Street lay in the 1750s when the New Road (later Euston Road) was established to bypass the congestion of London. North of this road were fields, brick works and market gardens. There was an informal path heading south from what later became Camden Town roughly along the line of the later street.

At the end of the 17th century, the Lord Chancellor John Somers acquired the local freehold. The immediate area was, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, known as Fig Mead.

The course of Eversholt Street began in the 1810s as the area developed. It provided a new route from the New Road with Camden Town. The name Eversholt Street was originally given only to its very northern, Bedford Estate part above Cranleigh Street (which was itself formerly Johnson Street). The Eversholt name refers to a village in Bedfordshire, most of the land in the village being owned by the Dukes of Bedford.

Eversholt Street is now ...
»more

JULY

2021

Balcombe Street, NW1
Balcombe Street is possibly a corruption of Batcombe, Dorset, in line with other Dorset-related street names in the area Balcombe Street, Dorset Square and Gloucester Place all date from 1815-1820. Balcombe Street was at first known as Milton Street.

The streets formed part of the Portman Estate. Their layout shows a social hierarchy of square, thoroughfares and side streets mirrored by a hierarchy in the design of houses, from the grand four storey buildings in Dorset Square to the rather less grand terraces and smaller houses in Balcombe Street and Gloucester Place and the significantly smaller scale of the three and two storey â€˜third rateâ€™ houses in the side streets and mews.

There are some 180 grade II buildings including the whole of Dorset Square, most of Balcombe Street and Gloucester Place. The predominant materials are brick and stucco.

The London part of the Portman Estate in Marylebone covers 110 acres and covers 68 streets, 650 buildings and four garden squares. In 1948 the Estate, then valued at Â£10 million, was subject to death duties of Â...
»more

JULY

2021

Oslo Court, NW8
Oslo Court was built between 1936 and 1938 by architect Robert Atkinson Oslo Court was built over the final remaining 30 workmenâ€™s cottages in the St Johnâ€™s Wood area. These were demolished in 1936, after which the gentrification of NW8 was more or less complete (Lisson Grove notwithstanding).

The block consists of seven floors containing 125 flats, 112 of which have a direct view over Regentâ€™s Park.

This work of Robert Atkinson has been described as the style of â€™restrained modernismâ€™ by englishbuildings.blogspot.com. Crittall windows are used and there are small sculptural panels, with Nordic themes such as a reindeer and a long boat. Each flat was designed with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and a small hall. Each also had a balcony, and a restaurant was provided on the ground floor for the use of tenants. The rents varied from Â£140 to Â£250 per annum, according to the outward aspect of the view.

Many blocks in the area had restaurants in days gone by but have, one by one, disappeared. ...
»more

JULY

2021

Waldegrave Road, TW11
Waldegrave Road is named after Frances Waldegrave and was the birthplace of Sir NoÃ«l Coward Waldegrave Road was named after Frances Waldegrave, the widow of the 7th Earl Waldegrave who lived at Strawberry Hill House, situated on the road in the 19th century.

The road is split into two sections - a Teddington (TW11) part and a Twickenham (TW1) section. The Teddington part of Waldegrave Road is noted for late Victorian semi-detached villas.

This road, connecting Teddington with Strawberry Hill, was at first known as Fryâ€™s Lane. In the early nineteenth century it became Factory Lane after Alexander Barclay built a wax manufacturing factory in 1800. After the death of Frances, Lady Waldegrave, in 1879, the name changed to its modern form.

Following enclosure at the beginning of the nineteenth century, a large pond covered the south west part of the road at the centre of Teddington. In 1863, a new railway track was built through the site of the pond. A road bridge was constructed to reunite the two parts of Teddington that had been ...
»more

LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Kathleen Dunloe Avenue, N17 Added: 28 Jul 2021 09:12 GMT	Dunloe Avenue, N17 I was born in 1951,my grandparents lived at 5 Dunloe Avenue.I had photos of the coronation decorations in the area for 1953.The houses were rented out by Rowleys,their ’workers yard’ was at the top of Dunloe Avenue.The house was fairly big 3 bedroom with bath and toilet upstairs,and kitchenette downstairs -a fairly big garden.My Grandmother died 1980 and the house was taken back to be rented again Reply
Kathleen Spigurnell Road, N17 Added: 28 Jul 2021 08:59 GMT	Spigurnell Road, N17 I was born and lived in Spigurnell Road no 32 from 1951.My father George lived in Spigurnell Road from 1930’s.When he died in’76 we moved to number 3 until I got married in 1982 and moved to Edmonton.Spigurnell Road was a great place to live.Number 32 was 2 up 2 down toilet out the back council house in those days Reply
Lewis Addington Added: 27 Jul 2021 20:48 GMT	Ploy Allotment Reply
Talbot Yard, SE1 Added: 27 Jul 2021 14:31 GMT	correction Chaucer did not write Pilgrims Progress. His stories were called the Canterbury Tales Reply
old lady Cheltenham Road, SE15 Added: 19 Jul 2021 11:58 GMT	mis information Cheltenham road was originally Hall road not Hill rd original street name printed on house still standing Reply
Patricia Bridges Lancefield Coachworks Added: 19 Jul 2021 10:57 GMT	Lancefield Coachworks My grandfather Tom Murray worked here Reply
Former Philbeach Gardens Resident Philbeach Gardens, SW5 Added: 14 Jul 2021 00:44 GMT	Philbeach Gardens Resident (Al Stewart) Al Stewart, who had huts in the 70s with the sings ’Year of the Cat’ and ’On The Borders’, lived in Philbeach Gdns for a while and referenced Earl’s Court in a couple of his songs. I lived in Philbeach Gardens from a child until my late teens. For a few years, on one evening in the midst of Summer, you could hear Al Stewart songs ringing out across Philbeach Gardens, particularly from his album ’Time Passages". I don’t think Al was living there at the time but perhaps he came back to see some pals. Or perhaps the broadcasters were just his fans,like me. Either way, it was a wonderful treat to hear! Reply
David James Bloomfield Hurstway Street, W10 Added: 13 Jul 2021 11:54 GMT	Hurstway Street, W10 Jimmy Bloomfield who played for Arsenal in the 1950s was brought up on this street. He was a QPR supporter as a child, as many locals would be at the time, as a teen he was rejected by them as being too small. They’d made a mistake Reply

NOVEMBER

2019

Yabsley Street, E14
Yabsley Street was a rebuilt Russell Street which had existed before the Blackwall Tunnell was built. The Housing of the Working Classes Act of 1890 allowed local authorities in London to build their own housing. It rationalised housing and slum clearance legislation, making it much easier for local authorities to carry out clearance schemes. Under certain circumstances, the councils could also build dwellings with the dual purpose of rehousing and to increase the supply of working-class housing.

Following the Act, the London County Council almost immediately began to build new tenement blocks in Poplar and erected as a result of the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel. The tunnel caused the need for people to be rehoused but also meant the purchase of a considerable area of land for the tunnel, much of which was subsequently available for housing development.

The Council Buildings in Yabsley Street dated from 1893, Toronto Buildings and Montreal Buildings in Cotton Street dated from 1899â€“1901 and blocks in Prestons Road included Baffin, Hudson, Ontar...
»more

NOVEMBER

2019

Orme Square, W2
Orme Square is named after Edward Orme, formerly a printseller in Bond Street. Orme purchased a considerable space of ground lying to the west of Craven Hill, upon which the Square is built.

Buildings to the north-east of Orme Square were erected about 1815, called St Petersburg Place, Moscow Road and Coburg Place. The names commemorate the visit of the sovereigns in 1814.

In the centre of St Petersburg Place, Mr Orme erected a private chapel in 1818.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Lordship Lane (1893)
View along a rural Lordship Lane Looking west towards Wood Green. The Moselle river runs under the white bridge
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Campden Hill Square, W8
Campden Hill Square is a residential square consisting of large family houses. In the Tudor period there was a farm called Stonehills, 20 acres in area, south of what is now Holland Park Avenue. It came into the possession of the Lloyd Family who sold it in 1823 to a developer, Joshua Flesher Hanson.

Hanson designed a square similar to Regency Square which he had built in Brighton in 1818. The new square provided terraced houses around three sides of a large garden enclosure.

Campden Hill Square was originally called Notting Hill Square but the name was changed to Campden Hill Square in 1893. It slopes steeply down to Holland Park Avenue.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

East India Dock Road, E14
East India Dock Road is an important artery connecting the City of London to Essex, and partly serves as the high street of Poplar It takes it name from the former East India Docks and its route was constructed between 1806 and 1812 as a branch of the Commercial Road. The road begins in the west at Burdett Road and continues to the River Lea bridge in the east in Canning Town.

It laid within the parish of Limehouse with the western end in the former Gravel Pit Field.

The westernmost end, west of Stainsby Road and Birchfield Street was built up between 1847 and 1853 (north side) and 1850 and 1860 (south side).
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Langdon Park
Langdon Park is a DLR station in Poplar which opened in 2007. Langdon Park was originally proposed to be called Carmen Street, but later took the name of the adjacent park.

Construction took just over a year at a cost of Â£10.5 million. The Mayor of London presided over its opening ceremony on 10 December 2007.
The station features three art installations by British artist Kate Davis.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Albany, W1J
The Albany is an apartment complex in Piccadilly, divided into apartments in 1802. The Albany was built in the years after 1771 by Sir William Chambers for the 1st Viscount Melbourne as Melbourne House. In 1791, Prince Frederick, Duke of Albany, took up residence. The Duke had lived there for only ten years when his debts and extravagance caught up with him and forced him to sell. In 1802 the Duke gave up the house and it was converted by Henry Holland into 69 bachelor apartments (known as "sets").

The main block was subdivided the main block and its two service wings, and by adding two new parallel long buildings covering most of the garden, running to a new rear gate building on Burlington Gardens.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Enfield Town
Enfield Town is an alternative name for the town centre of Enfield. Enfield was noted as a small agrarian market town in 1303 based around its village green, with further hamlets spread around the royal hunting grounds of Enfield Chase. By 1572 many of the longer roads in the area were in place.

The market was prosperous by the early eighteenth century, but fell into decline soon afterwards. Trading resumed in the 1870s and the market is still in existence, administered by the Old Enfield Charitable Trust.

The New River was built to supply water to London from Hertfordshire and runs immediately behind Enfield Town through the Town Park. The park is the last remaining public open space of Enfield Old Park.

Enfield Town station was opened on 1 March 1849 by the Eastern Counties Railways as simply ’Enfield’. It was renamed Enfield Town in 1886. A
A house which had stood on the site of the later station since the late 17th century is said to have been the birthplace of Isaac D’Israeli...
»more

NOVEMBER

2019

Savage Gardens, EC3N
Savage Gardens connects Crutched Friars in the north to Trinity Square in the south, crossing Pepys Street. The house of Sir Thomas Savage was located here. Savage Gardens was originally Savage Garden - the garden behind Sir Thomas Savageâ€™s home.

In 1626 he was made â€™Commissioner of Ways and Means of Increasing the Kingâ€™s Revenueâ€™, and succeeded so well in the post, selling off some of the royal estates, that Charles I created him Viscount Savage later the same year.

He died here in 1635, aged about 49, â€™of the running goutâ€™.

»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Heruka Buddhist Centre
Heruka Kadampa Meditation Centre (KMC) is the main New Kadampa Tradition Buddhist Centre for north & central London. It is located in Golders Green, and was founded in 1992 aiming "to provide a venue for Kadampa teachings in the London region". Roughly 20 students live and study at Heruka KMC. In addition the main meditation room, the Centre contains a small library and a shop.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Wapping Wall, E1W
Wapping Wall runs parallel to the northern bank of the Thames with many converted warehouses facing the river. The name of Wapping Wall comes from the defensive wall built to prevent the river from flooding the marshland that once covered most of this area of Wapping. Drainage of the marshland and construction of defensive walls had begun around 1327.

On the south side of the street, next to the river, is The Prospect of Whitby pub.

The Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, built in 1890 but closed in 1977 was located here. It is now run as an arts centre and restaurant.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Bell Lane, AL2
Bell Lane nowadays runs parallel to the M25, slightly south of it. It is an ancient lane connecting London Colney and Colney Street. The modern site of the McDonaldâ€™s restaurant is the former site of the Bell Inn.

Arsenal FC has its training ground near Bell Lane.

Thomas Telfordâ€™s London Road (1795) was part of his overall plan for the London to Holyhead road. It was later the A6 trunk road but when the M25 arrived, the eastern end of Bell Lane was diverted near to the Bell to accommodate the motorway.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Execution Dock
Execution Dock, on the shoreline at Wapping, was used to execute pirates, smugglers and mutineers who had been sentenced to death by Admiralty courts. The Admiraltyâ€™s legal jurisdiction was for all crimes committed at sea. The dock symbolised the jurisdiction by being located just beyond the low-tide mark in the river.

George Davis and William Watts, convicted for piracy for the Cyprus mutiny, were the final hangings at the dock on 16 December 1830.

»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Petersham
Petersham is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the east of the bend in the River Thames. Petersham appears in Domesday Book as being held by Chertsey Abbey.

The village was the birthplace in 1682 of Archibald Campbell, later 3rd Duke of Argyll who went on to found the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1727. The explorer George Vancouver retired to Petersham.

In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge to John, Earl Russell, 1st Earl Russell. Lord Russellâ€™s grandson, Bertrand Russell, spent some of his childhood there.

»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

West London Line
The West London Line is a short railway in inner West London that links Clapham Junction in the south to Willesden Junction in the north. The Birmingham, Bristol & Thames Junction Railway was authorised in 1836 to run from the London and Birmingham Railway, near Willesden Junction station, across the proposed route of the Great Western to the Kensington Canal Basin. Construction was delayed by engineering and financial problems.

Renamed the West London Railway (WLR) the line opened on 27 May 1844. The low number of passengers became such a regular target of Punch magazine that the line was called Punchâ€™s Railway. After only six months it closed on 30 November 1844.

An Act of 1845 authorised the GWR to take a joint lease of the WLR - the line was used only to carry coal, and a passenger service was not re-introduced.

An Act in 1859 granted rail companies to construct the West London Extension Joint Railway on the filled-in canal south from the Kensington Basin to the bridge under the Kings Road, to bridge the Thames and to connect near Clapham Junction to railways south of ...
»more

NOVEMBER

2019

Ham
Ham is a suburban district in south-west London which has meadows adjoining the River Thames. Ham lies east of a bend in the river that almost surrounds it on three sides and lies south of Richmond and north of Kingston upon Thames. It is connected to Teddington across the river by a footbridge at Teddington Lock. During the summer months, a pedestrian ferry links Ham to Marble Hill House, Twickenham.

Ham is bounded on the west, along the bank of the Thames, by ancient river meadows called Ham Lands.

Ham is bounded to the east by Richmond Park.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Aldford Street, W1K
Aldford Street is named after Aldford, a property on the Grosvenor familyâ€™s Cheshire estates. It was formerly known as Chapel Street before 1886, as it led to the Grosvenor Chapel.

Building originally dated from 1730. Sir Richard Grosvenor agreed with Grosvenor Chapel builders - Benjamin Timbrell, Robert Scott, William Barlow and Robert Andrews - that in consideration of their â€™hazard and expenseâ€™, he granted them additional land nearby at low ground rents.

They jointly received two blocks on the west side of South Audley Street opposite the chapel. Building continued westward during the next few years, the four partnersâ€™ holding being slightly enlarged in 1737.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Sans Walk, EC1R
Sans Walk was named after Edward Sans in 1893, who was then the oldest member of the local parish vestry. The thoroughfare was created from two public rights of way - Shortâ€™s Buildings and St Jamesâ€™s Walk. The pathway seems date originally from the late eighteenth century - it is missing from the Rocque map of the 1750s but appears on the 1799 map.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Campden Hill Gardens, W8
Campden Hill Gardens runs northwards from Aubrey Walk. During the reign of Elizabeth I, a 20 acre farm named Stonehills lay south of (the now) Holland Park Avenue. Its owner Sir Walter Cope sold it to Robert Horseman in 1599 and it became the possession of the Lloyd Family.

A grocer from New Bond Street, Evan Evans, bought a section of the Lloyd Estate before he died in 1825. His great nephew Robert Evans inherited it.

In 1870, Robert Evans decided to develop the estate and granted leases to local builders John Reeves and George Butt. They bought the freeholds of most of the plots from him and built most of the houses.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Slade Green
Slade Green was originally called Slades Green. The area was sparsely populated and Slades Green had only 66 people in 1848 but in 1849 the North Kent Line was built. Slades Green gained a National School in 1868 and St Augustineâ€™s Church opened in 1899.

Sladesgreen Farm was the centre of a market gardening area known locally as â€™Cabbage Islandâ€™ located between Moat Lane (formerly Whitehall Lane) and Slade Green Road.

Slade Green railway station was opened on 1 July 1900 to serve the developing local community following the construction of a rail depot designed to service steam locomotives for South Eastern and Chatham Railway. It was at first called â€™Slades Greenâ€™ and it was not until 1953 that this was changed to Slade Green.

By 1910 a complete â€™railway villageâ€™ of 158 houses had been built. The significance of the village had increased by 1905 and that it had absorbed historically important Howbury Manor.

Explosions at a former Trench Warfare Filling Fact...
»more

NOVEMBER

2019

Aberdeen Lane, N5
Aberdeen Lane was originally called Ivy Grove Mews. Ivy Grove Mews - later Aberdeen Mews and built at the back of large houses in Aberdeen Park, became Aberdeen Lane by 1916. The street was lengthened in 1924 and 1930.

There had been a project, abandoned in the 1850s, to lay out a 500 acre public park which would have been bigger than Hyde Park. The park would have been bounded by Balls Pond Road, Seven Sisters Road, the Stoke Newington reservoirs and the Great Northern Railway.

The failed park earmarked the area to development with Aberdeen Park and Aberdeen Lane dating from the 1850s.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Elm Park Gardens, SW10
Elm Park Gardens links Fulham Road with Elm Park Road. It is built around the gardens of the same name.

Once a large Chelsea park together with a grand Chelsea mansion house called Chelsea Park Lodge which was surrounded with cedars, mulberries and elms - hence the name.

The existing development was laid out in 1885 by George Godwin.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Mayplace Road East, DA1
Mayplace Road East runs west-east through the DA1 and DA7 postcodes. The road dates from before the suburbanisation of the area, as Mayplace Lane and then Mayplace Road. Mayplace Farm lay along its side as the lodge to Martens Grove was also on the road.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Hockley-in-the-Hole
Hockley-in-the-Hole was an area where bear-baiting and duelling took place in the 18th century. Hockley-in-the-Hole was situated roughly where the Ray Street Bridge stands, north of the junction of Clerkenwell Road and Farringdon Road.

It stood in the valley of the Fleet and its name seems to have been derived from the frequent flooding of the Fleet - Hockley, in old English, meaning â€™a muddy fieldâ€™. By 1756 the locality was narrow, and surrounded by bad housing. Soon after that, the road was widened, raised and drained.

On the later site of the â€™Coach and Horsesâ€™ in Ray Street, stood the Bear Garden, which, in Queen Anneâ€™s time, rivalled the Southwark Bear Garden of Elizabethan days. The earliest advertisement of the â€™amusementsâ€™ here occurred in the Daily Post dated 10 July 1700.

In 1774 the notorious name of Hockley-in-the-Hole was formally changed to that of Ray Street.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

St Augustine Watling Street
St Augustine, Watling Street was an Anglican church which stood just to the east of St Paulâ€™s Cathedral. First recorded in the 12th century, it was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt to the designs of Christopher Wren. This building was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War, and its remains now form part of St Paulâ€™s Cathedral Choir School.

»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Bowes Park
Bowes Park is named after an old manor called Bowes. The Bowes Park area urbanised in the 1880s though the name is recorded in 1274 - by 1822 Bowes Farm was visible on one of the first Ordnance Survey maps in 1822 and 1877. Bowes is ultimately derived from Latin. The first owner of the manor was John de Arcubus (Latin for â€™of the bows or archesâ€™). John de Arcubus was one of many of his family who lived around St Mary-le-Bow church in the City of London.

Bowes Park is a centred around Myddleton Road which houses a number of shops.

Bowes Park railway station was first opened by the GNR in 1880 and is now a short walk from Bounds Green Underground station.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Airlie Gardens, W8
Airlie Gardens is named after the 5th Earl of Airlie (1826-1881), who lived on nearby Campden Hill at Holly Lodge. Holly Lodge - sometimes called Airlie Lodge - was the house where Lord Macaulay spent the last years of his life. It later became part of Queen Elizabeth College.

William Cooke was a Paddington builder who built Airlie Gardens in 1878 on the land of Elm Lodge. That year the Grand Junction Water Works Company surrendered the lease of the lodge. Some of its extensive grounds became the communal gardens for the new houses of Airlie Gardens.
»read full article

PREVIOUSLY ON THE UNDERGROUND MAP...