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.

Amersham

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.

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Amersham

Amersham is a market town 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills, England. It is part of the London commuter belt. Amersham is split into two distinct areas: Old Amersham, set in the valley of the River Misbourne, which contains the 13th century parish church of St. Mary’s and several old pubs and coaching inns; and Amersham-on-the-Hill, which grew rapidly around the railway station in the early part of the 20th century.

Records date back to pre-Anglo-Saxon times, when it was known as Egmondesham.

In 1200 Geoffrey, Earl of Essex obtained a charter for Amersham allowing him to hold a Friday market and a fair on 7 and 8 September. In 1613 a new charter was granted to Edward, Earl of Bedford, changing the market day to Tuesday and establishing a statute fair on 19 September.

The area of the town now known as Amersham on the Hill was referred to as Amersham Common until after the arrival of the Metropolitan Line in 1892. After this date growth of the new area of the town gradually accelerated, with much work being done by the arch...

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NOVEMBER

2023

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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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Peter Gambia Street, SE1 Added: 4 Dec 2023 07:05 GMT	Gambia Street, SE1 Gambia Street was previously known as William Street. Reply
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

Click here to explore another London street
We now have 628 completed street histories and 46872 partial histories

DECEMBER

2019

London Road, Isleworth (1907)
A photo of London Road, Isleworth taken when Isleworth was still otherwise rural.
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DECEMBER

2019

The Ridgeway, NW7
The Ridgeway is a very ancient, perhaps prehistoric, route. Parson Street was the northward continuation of Brent Street in Hendon. This road led via Holders Hill to Bittacy Hill, at the top of which it wase the Ridgeway - already called this by 1471. The Ridgeway followed high ground towards Highwood Hill, where it met a road which ran north-eastward across the parish from a point south of Edgware bridge to Totteridge, passing through the Hale and known in its western portion as Deans Lane, in the centre as Selvage Lane, and in the east as Marsh Lane. Another route established by 1594 left Parson Street and followed Ashley Lane, Dole Street and Milespit Hill, to join the Ridgeway at Mill Hill. A third route ran from the parish church along the present Hall Lane, Page Street, Featherstone Hill and Wise Lane, to join the Ridgeway beside the Three Hammers pub.
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DECEMBER

2019

Colindeep Lane, NW9
Colindeep Lane is a particularly old route. An important route from London via Hampstead, Colindeep Lane entered the parish of Hendon at Golders Hill and joined the Edgware Road north of the Hyde. The route was said in 1593 to be an ’ancient highway now unaccustomed’. Part of Colindeep Lane was known as late as 1863 as Ancient Street. It may have derived from Anselles Street - from the French word for ’pack horse’ or ’donkey’ - an animal which plied the route.

At Collyn Deep there was a ford across Silk stream and in 1826, a footbridge. A permanent bridge for vehicles was built later.
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DECEMBER

2019

Avenue Road, NW8
Avenue Road was an important road on the Eyre estate. In 1794, the Eyre family drew up a development plan based on the model of Bath. The Napoleonic wars intervened and the plan was never executed. From 1802, a new development plan for the Eyre estate was directed by John Shaw, a young architect who had been inspired by the town planning ideals of the late 18th century.

In 1819 Colonel Eyre began the first attempt to promote the construction of a public road through the estate. This was finally successful in the 1826 ’Finchley Road Act’. Avenue Road’s southern part existed by 1824 and the Hampstead portion also on the Eyre estate was built by 1829.

Building spread northward in the salient formed by the Finchley Road and Avenue Road. A building agreement was made in 1838 and several houses - called Regent’s Villas - stood in the Hampstead section of Avenue Road by 1842. Most later houses were detached and built by a number of builders: W. Wartnaby, C. C. Cook, E. Thomas & Son and Thomas Clark.
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DECEMBER

2019

All Souls Church
All Souls Church is an evangelical Anglican church situated at the north end of Regent Street. It was designed in regency style by John Nash and consecrated in 1824. It was designed to provide a vista up Regent Street where the road needed to curve to the left to line up with Portland Place.

By 1820, the construction of both Regent Street and Langham Place were well advanced. Nash already had a clear sense of how the new church should stand: "facing the entrance to Langham Place and central to Chandos Street the Portico advancing westward from the East side of the New Street so that it be a central Object from Oxford Street along the New Street". The name All Souls is said to have been chosen in part because it offered a measure of ‘gratuitous accommodation’ for the whole parish, the poor included. "From the nature of the bend of the Street", Nash further wrote, "the portico and Spire will together form an object terminating the vista from the Circus in Oxford Street – the Spire (I submit) as the most beautiful of forms is most peculiarly appropriate to a ...
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DECEMBER

2019

St John’s Wood
St John’s Wood is an affluent district, north west of Regent’s Park. St John’s Wood was once part of the Great Forest of Middlesex with the name deriving from its mediaeval owners, the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitallers), an Augustinian order. The order took over the land from the Knights Templar in 1323.

After the Reformation and the Dissolution of monastic orders, St John’s Wood became Crown land, and Henry VIII established Royal Hunting Grounds in what became known as Marylebone Park.

Until the end of the eighteenth century, the area was agricultural.

St John’s Wood was developed from the early 19th century onwards. It was one of the first London suburbs to be developed with a large amount of low density ’villa’ housing, as opposed to the terraced housing which was the norm in London up to the 19th century. Parts of St John’s Wood have been rebuilt at a higher density but it remains one of the most expensive areas of London.

St Jo...
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DECEMBER

2019

Northways Parade, NW3
Northways Parade replaced New College which was mainly located in College Crescent New College and much of College Crescent were pulled down in 1934 and replaced by Northways. This was two concrete blocks of flats and shops built by London and City Real Estate.

The period was notable for rebuilding - the whole of the Swiss Cottage site between Finchley Road and Avenue Road was redeveloped with the building in 1937 of the Odeon cinema and, after 1938, of Regency Lodge flats by R. Atkinson.
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DECEMBER

2019

All Souls Place, W1B
All Souls Place is a short cul-de-sac in the shadow of All Souls Church, originating in the eighteenth century as a mews off Edward Street. Early in its history it was called Edward Yard or Court and later, until 1879, Edward or Edward’s Place.

The south side of All Souls Place, largely taken up by the backs of buildings in Riding House Street, was mostly redeveloped in the early twentieth century for the Radium Institute.

Riding House Street had run east from a street called Edward Street which disappeared for the creation of Langham Place in the early nineteenth century. All Souls Church took the site of the original junction.
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DECEMBER

2019

Wildwood Grove, NW3
Wildwood Grove was a terraced row begun in the 1860s. A local builder, T. Clowser, was permitted to build four houses there in 1871 and another six stood there and in Wildwood (probably Wildwood Terrace) by 1882.

Then name ’Wildwood Grove’ was later used for part of the ’Dollywood’ theme park in the United States.
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DECEMBER

2019

Parson Street, NW4
Parson Street was already in existence by 1321. Parson Street was the northward continuation of Brent Street - part of the medieval main route to the north of the parish of Hendon. It road led via Holders Hill to Bittacy Hill, at the top of which it became the Ridgeway, already called that by 1471.

It became the name of a distinct hamlet, still considered part of Hendon.

The oldest remaining building in this part of Hendon is now Hendon Hall, built in 1756 - later a hotel. It is believed that the famous actor David Garrick lived here. A small obelisk in the hotel garden dedicated to William Shakespeare and David Garrick originally stood in Manor Hall Road until 1957. In 1966 the England football team stayed at the hotel during the World Cup.

In the late 19th century nearby Tenterden Grove and Waverley Grove were laid out and several large houses built.
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DECEMBER

2019

Twyford Abbey Road, NW10
The name of Twyford Abbey Road was adopted from the nearby Twyford Abbey. Twyford was listed as ’Tveverde’ in the Domesday book of 1086 and means ’(place beside a) double ford’. In 1474, Sir John Elrington was "lord of the place of Twyford" and his manor house was then probably Lower Place Farm beside Barrett’s Green on Acton Lane.

In 1806 the Twyford manor house was sold to Thomas Willan. Willan engaged the architect William Atkinson to design an extensive ‘Gothick’ mansion around the original house. It was built between 1807-9. Willan gave his house a romantic pseudo-monastic association, calling it ’Twyford Abbey’.

In 1902 the Alexian Brothers bought Twyford Abbey and turned it into a Roman Catholic nursing home. West Twyford Farm remained as part of the grounds.

The road formerly called Twyford Lane was renamed Twyford Abbey Road to avoid confusion with the Acton lane of the same name.

Nearby was the site of the Royal Agricultural Society showgrounds at Park Royal. The Socie...
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DECEMBER

2019

Walnut Tree Walk, SE11
At the beginning of the 18th century Walnut Tree Walk was a lane leading out into the fields from Lambeth. Simon Harding - a gardener - had a cottage there with a small-holding of just over three acres at the beginning of the 1700s. There was no other development until 1755, when Robert Hardcastle, who held land elsewhere in the parish, was granted a 61 years’ building lease of ground on both sides of the road by the St. Olave trustees of the Walcot Estate. Walnut Tree Walk then extended on either side of Kennington Road.

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DECEMBER

2019

Mobile phone images
We try to make the process and rules involving the uploading of photos to The Underground Map straightforward. You remain the copyright owner of each photo that you take and upload to The Underground Map.

We encourage you to contribute to locations - whether a photo, information, history, trivia or simply a tip to share with other users.

Photos you upload should reflect the location at which you have arrived. We understand that mobile phones are quite clever these days and that you may wish to upload instead an image sourced from elsewhere rather than a snapshot. So, please ensure that any third-party copyright and ownership are respected when you upload, and also that the image is relevant to the location.

You are encouraged to add a caption and attribution during the upload process and to confirm finally the Creative Commons licence that you are happy to issue (sharing, copying and other uses of your photo).

Then the photo becomes part of the project.

The catch

TUM Photos can be ephemeral. You m...
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DECEMBER

2019

Plaistow Road (1901)
Looking south towards Plaistow station, railway works on the right. The road on the left is Grafton Road North which has now disappeared.

Tram tracks were laid down in 1903.
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DECEMBER

2019

The Angel Inn
The Angel Inn was a favourite watering hole of Graham Chapman and the Monty Python team - some sketches were written here. A brewery is known to have stood on the site of The Angel Inn before the end of the 15th century.
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DECEMBER

2019

Kennington Road, SE11
Kennington Road was a turnpike road created in 1751. The building of Westminster Bridge caused a large increase of traffic on the Surrey bank. Once outside the immediate vicinity of the bridge, the roads became poor. The ’Turnpike Trustees of Surrey, Sussex and Kent’ were supported by a parliamentary act passed in 1750–1. The Act allowed the Trustees to repair or widen some existing roads and to lay out new ones.

One of the new roads was Kennington Road - at first known as New Road or Walcot Place. It linked Westminster Bridge Road with Kennington Common and was laid out as a straight road across open fields and gardens. It crossed the estates belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Walcot Charity and the Duchy of Cornwall. Most of the road frontage was built up in the early years of the 19th century.

The artist Vincent van Gogh lived at Ivy Cottage, 395 Kennington Road in 1874-5.

As a child, Charlie Chaplin lived at 287 Kennington Road and at various other locations on the road ...
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DECEMBER

2019

North End Avenue, NW3
North End Avenue runs south from North End. On the east side, a second North End House was built by 1913. In 1923 Brandon House and Wyldeways were built north of it.

Myrtle Lodge, still further north was renamed Byron Cottage after Fanny Lucy, Lady Byron and later Lady Houston (1857-1936), who went to live there in 1908.

Pitt House was enlarged by the addition of a billiard room. in 1899 Sir Harold Harmsworth, later Viscount Rothermere, bought it and added a storey. He sold it in 1908 and it was occupied during the First World War by Valentine Fleming MP, and his sons the writers Ian and Peter.
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DECEMBER

2019

Abbey College London
Abbey College is part of a group of independent sixth form colleges which are based in London, Manchester and Cambridge. The oldest of the colleges - DLD - was established in 1931. After ten years located in Marylebone, the College merged with its younger sister Abbey College. It moved in 2015 to brand new, purpose-built facilities in the centre of London, overlooking the River Thames, opposite the Houses of Parliament.
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DECEMBER

2019

Plevna Street, E14
Plevna Street forms part of the St John’s Estate. Building lots on the new streets of Atworth Street, Galbraith Street, Launch Street, Castalia Street and Plevna Street were auctioned in 1881–2 by the British Land Company.

The brochure for the estate claimed that the estate was "within a few minutes ride of the city" - quite an exaggeration!

After Second World War bombing, the St John’s Estate - including a rebuilt Plevna Street - was built by Poplar Borough Council in the the triangle formed by Manchester Road, East Ferry Road and Glengall Grove.
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DECEMBER

2019

Britannia Street, WC1X
Britannia Street, King’s Cross, dates from the 1770s. The patriotic fervour which led builders to name their streets ’Albion’ and ’Britannia’ seems to have been a phenomenon of the Georgian era; since the Hanoverian kings were personally unpopular, loyalty to the motherland was expressed by these vague but loaded names (except when victories occurred, to engender a profusion of Nelsons, Trafalgars Waterloos).

After Victoria’s accession in 1837 the incidence of Albions and Britannias in London shows a marked decrease accompanied by an outburst of Victoria Terraces, followed within the decade by dozens of Alberts.
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DECEMBER

2019

Woburn Mews, WC1H
Woburn Mews ran parallel between Woburn Place and Upper Bedford Place to the west of Woburn Place. Horwood’s 1807 map shows ’Wobourn Place’ but no Mews, instead having a sketched continuation of Great Coram Street. It is shown but not named on the 1819 edition.

It was developed as a mews for Woburn Place.

There is now no trace of its location beneath the vast Royal National Hotel, built in 1974.
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DECEMBER

2019

Manilla Street, E14
Manilla Street was originally Alfred Street, renamed in 1875. Alfred Street was named after Alfred Batson. Its name was changed in 1875, matching the change to international names of other streets in the area.

A Limehouse shipbuilder, Robert Batson, had purchased land in 1793 and rented parcels of it out.

Robert Batson senior died in 1806. His son, also called Robert Batson, set about laying out the first formal streets. One street ran along the southern boundary of the rope walk, and he named this Robert Street. A little further south, he created Alfred Street, named after his younger brother. They were connected by a short street, named Cross Street.

By 1818, a map was showing piecemeal development along Alfred Street. It would be the 1860s before the street was fully developed when newer streets were built in the area.

By 1862, the east end of Alfred Street shared a corner with the fledgling Alpha Road.

The houses were plain: two-up, two-down, terraced cottages with ...
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DECEMBER

2019

Platt’s Lane, NW3
A farmhouse on the edge of the heath was enlarged by Thomas Platt before 1811 and who gave his name to the lane. By the mid 18th century, Platt’s Lane was running from West End and Fortune Green to Hampstead and Hendon.

In the 1830s, farm buildings were erected on Thomas Platt’s estate fronting Platt’s Lane.

On a field of Platt’s estate, four houses fronting Finchley Road were built in the 1840s in the district which was briefly called New West End.

In 1843, T. Howard built Kidderpore Hall, a stuccoed Greek revival house for John Teil, an East India merchant with tanneries in the district of Calcutta from which the house took its name. Its grounds became a private park and two lodges were added, one on Platt’s Lane in the late 1860s. The 1860 Stanford’s map labels it as Pratt’s Lane.

By 1870 the farm buildings at Platt’s Lane had been replaced by a house. Two cottages were built in Platt’s Lane in 1875 and 13 more houses between 1884 and 1886.

In 1890 Kidderpore Hall was acquired by Westfield Col...
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DECEMBER

2019

Woburn Place, WC1H
Woburn Place is situated on the Bedford estate, running north from the east of Russell Square to the east of Tavistock Square. It was laid out on the route of a track along the eastern boundary of the Bedford ducal estate. This was upgraded during the eighteenth century into a private road to improve the Duke’s access to the New Road (Euston Road).

It first appears as Wobourn Place, half-developed on Horwood’s map of 1819 and was named after Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, the principal seat of the Dukes of Bedford,

Its houses were intended for the wealthy and middle classes.
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