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...

»more

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...
»more

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...
»more

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...
»more

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.
»read full article

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

JANUARY

2020

Grosvenor Buildings, E14
Grosvenor Buildings were a late nineteenth century development. Grosvenor Buildings replaced back-to-back slums in 1885.

Two-hundred old and insanitary buildings - including a farmhouse on Robin Hood Lane - were demolished by the Metropolitan Board of Works to make way for the 500 flats, which had one to four rooms. Each flat was fitted with an inside toilet and piped running water.

In 1964 the Robin Hood Gardens housing estate was built on this site.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

La Trompette
Poplar Baths is a former public bath house dating from 1933. The original Poplar Baths opened in 1852, being built to provide public wash facilities as a result of the Baths and Washhouses Act 1846. A public laundry was located at the rear of the building on Arthur Street.

The Baths were rebuilt in 1933 to a design by Harley Heckford and the larger pool was covered over to convert the building into a theatre. Called the East India Hall, it had seating capacity for 1400 people and incorporated a dance hall, cinema, exhibition room and sports hall for boxing and wrestling programmes.

The main bath hall sustained bomb damage during the Second World War and was forced to close. The baths reopened in 1947 and continued to be used as a swimming facility, before the facility’s eventual closure and conversion to an industrial training centre in 1988.

A campaign to restore the baths won the support of Tower Hamlets Council in 2010 and works created a new leisure centre incorporating a swimming pool, gy...
»more

JANUARY

2020

St Olave Hart Street
St Olave’s Church is a Church of England church located on the corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane. The church is one of only a handful of medieval City churches that escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666.

The church is first recorded in the 13th century as ’St Olave-towards-the-Tower’, dedicated to the patron saint of Norway, King Olaf II. Olaf fought alongside the Anglo-Saxon King Ethelred the Unready against the Danes in the Battle of London Bridge in 1014. St Olave’s was methodologically built on the site of the battle. The Norwegian connection was reinforced during the Second World War when King Haakon VII worshipped there while in exile.

Saint Olave’s was rebuilt in the 13th century and then again in the 15th century. The present building dates from around 1450.

Saint Olave’s survived the Great Fire of London with the help of Sir William Penn, the father of the William Penn who founded Pennsylvania, and men from the nearby Naval yards. He had ordered the men to blow up the houses surrounding the chur...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Byward Street, EC3R
Byward Street was laid out between 1895 and 1906. Byward Street was built because of the construction of the District Line underneath required the demolition of the older Black Swan Court which itself had been built the successor to a Roman thoroughfare.

It provided access to the Crown Gate of the Byward Tower. A byword was a password spoken to and by beefeaters.

A number of retail outlets and restaurants now line Byward Street.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Steen Way, SE22
Steen Way is named after the 17th century artist, Jan Steen. Steen Way is in fitting with the other ’Dutch’ names though Jan Steen (whose surname in Dutch is actually pronounced like ’stain’) has little connection with Dulwich’s twin town of Deventer.

Jan Steen was born in Leiden in 1626, a town where his well-to-do, Catholic family were brewers who ran a tavern for two generations. Steen’s father even leased him a brewery of his own in Delft from the years 1654 until 1657. Like his even more famous contemporary Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen attended the Latin school and became a student in Leiden. He received his artistic education from Nicolaes Knupfer (1603–1660), a German painter living in Utrecht.

In 1648 he moved to The Hague. Steen painted ’A Burgomaster of Delft and his daughter’.

Steen lived in Warmond, just north of Leiden, from 1656 till 1660 and in Haarlem from 1660 till 1670 and in both periods he was especially productive. In 1670, after the death of his wife, Steen m...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Bartlett’s Buildings, EC4A
Bartlett’s Buildings was the name of a street situated off of Holborn Circus The street, also known as Bartlett’s Court, was recorded by 1615 as a street where lawyers had offices. An alley called Bartlett’s Passage ran from the west side of Bartlett’s Buildings to Fetter Lane.

Jane Austen’s ’Sense and Sensibility’ (1811) mentioned the street as the lodgings for the two Miss Steeles lodge when visiting their cousin.

The street was totally destroyed during a Second World War air raid in 1941.

New Fetter Lane was built post war in its place.

»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Golden Lane Estate, EC1Y
The Golden Lane Housing Estate is a 1950s council housing complex in the City of London. It was built in an area devastated by bombing during the Second World War. Only around 500 residents remained in the City by 1950.

The site had been occupied since the mid 19th century by small Victorian industries and businesses, especially metal working.

As part of the comprehensive rebuilding strategy of the City of London, the idea was the provisional of general-needs council housing for the many people who worked in the City. The Estate, when built, fell within the boundary of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, and so many tenancies were also offered to those on the Finsbury waiting list.

A competition for designs was announced in 1951 and was covered in the architectural and popular press. Geoffry Powell won the competition to build the estate in 1952. The three partners-to-be of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon were all lecturers in architecture at Kingston School of Art, and had entered into an agreement that if any of them won the ...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Attleborough Court, SE23
Attleborough Court is one of three blocks of flats on the Sydenham Hill Estate. Each block was named after particular Abbots of Bermondsey Abbey, lord of the manor of Dulwich between 1127 and 1538. Attleborough Court was named after John Attleborough, Bromleigh Court after John Bromleigh and Dunton Court after Richard Dunton.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Plumstead
The eastern end of the site of the former Royal Arsenal forms Plumstead’s northern boundary. It means ’place where the plum trees grew’ and was first recorded around 970 as ’Plumstede’.

For most of its history, the village was of little consequence.

Plumstead station opened in 1859. The Herbert estate was laid out north of Shooters Hill. To the south of the railway, Burrage Road was laid out and the first terraces of ’Burrage Town’ were built on Sandy Hill Road.

Plumstead expanded rapidly in the 1880s with housing developed for Arsenal workers, two-up two-down terraced housing was common in the area close to the river.

The downsizing of Woolwich Arsenal after the First World War brought a decline to Plumstead.

After the Second World War council projects transformed the western side of Plumstead. The largest of these was the Glyndon estate, with almost 2,000 dwellings, which was begun in 1959 and completed in 1981.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Campden Street, W8
Campden Street stretches between Campden Hill Road and Kensington Church Street. Campden Street was built by William Ward on land jointly bought with John Punter in 1822. Ward constructed houses here in a relatively relaxed way over the next 30 years. In about 1850 he sub-contracted the work of building the remaining houses to Henry Gilbert, who was both a builder and a pub owner, and to William Wheeler, a local builder. Ward died shortly afterwards.

The street is on a slight slope. The north side, at the western end, has a uniform terrace of three-storey houses stuccoed up to first floor which abut immediately onto the road. The eastern section of the north side has more varied architecture, mainly houses with attractive ground floor bay windows in differing styles.

The houses on the south side of the street are slightly smaller, mainly brick, with stucco up to the first floor. On the same side is Byam Shaw House, a particularly attractive and unusual block of flats.

The eastern section of the street has some small spe...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Amen Corner, EC4M
Originally called Amen Lane, this short path forms the approach road to Amen Court. John Stow records it as ’a short lane which runneth west some short distance, and is there closed up with a gate into a great house’. This great house was he College of Physicians. Founded in 1518 by Thomas Linacre, the College moved from his own house in Knightrider Street to the site of Amen Corner in about 1540.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Anchor Yard, EC1Y
Anchor Yard is named after a former inn here of this name. During they 18th century the popular Anchor Tavern graced this part of Old Street. In those days the Yard was much larger than it is today, probably with an opening wide enough to accept a dray cart. Here would have stood the empty wooden hogsheads awaiting collection on delivery day, and on summery evenings there would very likely have been multitudes swilling jugs of ale while looking on at a friendly skittle or bowling match.

For nigh on 200 years the Yard has been without its tavern; the Anchor was demolished at the beginning of the 19th century.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Russia Lane, E2
Russia Lane was formerly called Rushy Lane. By 1703, a cottage was mentioned as being found on the lane.

The cottage may have originated as a wastehold property and was in existence by 1648. By 1741 it was an inn - the Blue Anchor - which gave an alternative name to the lane.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Aldenham Street, NW1
Aldenham Street – Richard Platt, 16th century brewer and local landowner, gave land for the endowment of Aldenham School, Hertfordshire. Richard Platt was a native of Aldenham and like many gentlemen of his time, he saw the importance of the new styles of learning then spreading from the continent.

The area had been acquired as pasture land in 1575, and Platt gave the land to the Brewers’ Company in trust for Aldenham School.

Platt was concerned at the state of education in England after the church schools had largely been dissolved by Henry VIII. It was becoming the philanthropic custom for wealthy merchants to give free Grammar Schools in their home towns with London estates of land.

Platt bequeathed three local fields near St Pancras church and, in reverse, some land at Aldenham, including Medburn Farm, to be controlled for the school by the Brewers’ Company.

In 1811 the Brewers’Company obtained an Act of Parliament for ’improving the estate’. Building development began at the southern end on each side of Brewer Street (now Midland Road) and as ...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Bonnington Square, SW8
Bonnington Square was built in the 1870s to house railway workers. Bonnington Square should have been a traditional London square with houses facing a central communal garden. However, the original developers decided to build over what would have been the garden. The sqaure is not a through route and thus has a quiet and intimate character.

The Italian Gothic style terraced houses were built in of 1881.

During the 1960s, the by the run down properties were let at peppercorn rents to groups collectively known as the Bonnington Housing Cooperative. In the early 1990s the Bonnington Square Garden Association began planting street trees, vines and creating small community gardens in the surrounding area which have since matured to great effect.

In the late 1970s, Bonnington Square was compulsorily purchased by the Greater London Council on behalf of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), which intended to demolish it in order to build a new school.

In the late 1970s, Bonnington Square was...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Tiller Road, E14
Tiller Road was part of Glengall Grove before 1963. Glengall Road ran from Westferry Road to Manchester Road, crossing the Millwall Docks.

Shortly prior to the Second World War, it was renamed Glengall Grove. When road access through Millwall Docks was stopped in 1963, the western half of the road was renamed Tiller Road.

A tiller, in the nautical sense, is the lever attached to the rudder and used for steering.

Alexander House, a block of flats on the road, was built in the late 1920s. It was named after Frederick William Alexander OBE (1859-1937), Medical Officer of Health for Poplar and Bromley between 1893 and 1926.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Askew Road, W12
Askew Road is named after a local landowning family, the Askews, who also owned substantial land in Gloucestershire. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the local area was farmland - mainly orchards and market gardens which supplied fresh produce to the city of London. There was a track — Gaggle Goose Green — connecting two main routes into London, the Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk Road. The area halfway along the track was known as Starch Green.

As urbanisation continued, a growing demand for building materials encouraged many farmers to turn to brickmaking since the clay hereabouts was of good quality. The process created many lakes and ponds. Between 1870 and 1890 over 17 million bricks were produced with the 50 acre Stamford Brook brickfield employing 250 people.

In the latter half of the century, new tram and train services made the area attractive to clerks and other City workers and affordable housing started to cover the fields. Askew Road became a commercial centre at this time with a particular specialisation in laundries.

During the Second ...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Plaistow
Plaistow is a district in the London Borough of Newham and forms the majority of the London E13 postcode district. Plaistow Road is a former Roman road.

Plaistow, as a name, is believed to come from Sir Hugh de Plaitz who, in 1065, married Philippa de Montfitchet, whose family owned the district. She is reputed to have named it the Manor of Plaiz. A stow was a place of assembly.

Daniel Defoe’s 1724 work, ’Tour of the Eastern Counties’ mentions Plaistow as a town in which there had been much new building as well as repairs to existing houses.

The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line from Bow to Barking was constructed through the middle of the Parish of West Ham in 1858. The new line opened with stations at Bromley, Plaistow and East Ham.

James Thorne, in his 1876 ’Handbook to the Environs of London’ recounts the changes to the village of Plaistow, with the gentry and merchants having gone and the occupations of the residents changed from agricultural and pastoral to manufacturing.

In 1886...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Railway Tavern
The Railway Tavern was generally known as Charlie Brown’s. The pub lay beside a railway bridge on the corner of Garford Street and close to the gates of the West India Dock.

It was built around 1840 and was greatly extended in 1919.

Charlie Brown, the landlord between 1893 until 1932, hosted in his pub a museum of curiosities gathered from all over the world, brought by seaman sailing to and from the docks. The majority of items in the collection were from the Far East and Pacific. Charlie Brown would pay for any interesting items not already in his collection.

Charlie was a flamboyant character who, alongside being a publican, kept a stable of horses and would ride along the West and East India Dock Roads in riding gear.

Charlie died in 1932 at the age of 72 and his funeral was a renowned East End occasion.

On his death, Charlie Brown’s daughter Ethel took over the Railway Tavern until 1936.

His son - also called Charlie Brown - took over the Bl...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Hog Lane, WC2H
Hog Lane was a lane that went from St Giles’ leper hospital (set up in the 12th century) to the monument to Eleanor at Charing Cross. Also known as Crown Street, like many London streets, Hog Lane became a busy thoroughfare. The name possible derived from the location of a pound at St. Giles, where animals were held as they were driven into London, as a stop before the final journey to the City markets. The road dates from around 1675.

Hog Lane was to eventually form the foundations the part of what we now know as Charing Cross Road north of Cambridge Circus.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Wembley Central
Wembley Central is an interchange station on the West Coast Main Line with the London Overground and the Bakerloo Line of the London Underground. The through line opened on 20 July 1837 as part of the London and Birmingham Railway. Wembley Central opened as ’Sudbury’ in 1842 before becoming ’Sudbury & Wembley’ in 1882 and ’Wembley for Sudbury’ in 1910.

On 16 April 1917, the Bakerloo line service commenced and on 5 July 1948 the station was renamed ’Wembley Central’.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Hampden Street, W2
Hampden Street is a now demolished street. Full of small terraces, Hampden Street ran west from Harrow Road and boasted a pub, the ’Great Western’. The pub was well-named as the street was dominated by the presence of the Great Western Railway at one end of it.

A footbridge from the railway end allowed access to Westbourne Park Villas on the other side of the tracks.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Tower of London
The Tower of London is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames and lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Tower of London was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078

As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion. The general layout established by the late 13th century remains, despite later activity on the site.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Romford
Romford is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering and one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Romford was originally a market town in Essex. The town developed on the main road to London with Romford Market was established in 1247.

The railway station open in 1839 which was key to the development of the Star Brewery. The Eastern Counties Railway services operated between Mile End and Romford, with extensions to Brentwood and to Shoreditch in 1840. A second station was opened in 1892 by the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway, giving Romford a rail connection to Tilbury Docks. The two stations were combined in 1934.

There was a shift from agriculture to light industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and then to retail and commerce.

In the 20th century, Romford significantly expanded, becoming a municipal borough in 1937 and part of Greater London since 1965 when the area was transferred from Essex.

»read full article

JANUARY

2020

North Wembley
North Wembley is an area of the London Borough of Brent, location of the Sudbury Court Estate. North Wembley did not exist as a district before the arrival of the railway.

North Wembley station was first opened by the London and North Western Railway on 15 June 1912 as part of the ’New Line’ between Euston and Watford Junction. Bakerloo line services began on 16 April 1917. Originally to be called East Lane, after the road passing over the railway at this location, it was named North Wembley instead. North Wembley station was built to the same general design as the other new stations on the same line and the layout at North Wembley station makes it almost identical to Kenton two stops to the north.

Sudbury Court Estate was built between circa 1927 to 1935, one of the best surviving ’mock tudor’ housing locally. The estate was built by Captain Edward George Spencer-Churchill who also built the Northwick Park estate further north.

Along East Lane in North Wembley is a small range of shops. The district is one of the most diverse areas in the London.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Frith Street, W1D
Frith Street is named after Richard Frith, a local builder. Frith Street was laid out in the late 1670s but is marked on Rocque’s map mistakenly as "Thrift Street".

After the late 18th century, the street became the home to many artistic and literary people including the artist John Constable, painter John Alexander Gresse, politician John Horne Tooke and John Bell, the sculptor. William Hazlitt wrote his last essays while he was lodging at no. 6.

A young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stayed at no. 20 with his father and sister in 1764–65. From 1924 to 1926 John Logie Baird lived at no. 22 where in 1926 he demonstrated television to members of the Royal Institution.

Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club moved to 47 Frith Street.

In 1989, the Frith Street Gallery was founded here though in 2007 the gallery moved to Golden Square.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Fortis Green, N2
Fortis Green (Road) is one of the ancient east-west routes of this area of Middlesex. Routes in the area largely ran north out of London, dominated by the Great North Road.

Oakleigh Road in Whetstone was an early east-west road with Woodhouse Road - running along the northern boundary of Finchley Common, joining it.

Just west of Colney Hatch, Summers Lane was built in 1754 - a more southerly route across the common from the Great North Road.

On a map of 1754, Cherry Tree Woods (then Dirt House Woods) to the south had been cleared and the land enclosed with at least two large houses.

The only other easterly road was called Park Gate in 1754, Muswell Hill Road in 1814, and Fortis Green Road by 1920 This ran from the Newgate Lane stretch of the Great North Road by High Redings into Hornsey.

More houses were built along the road from the beginning of the 19th century. By the middle part of that century there were about 60 houses, mostly belonging to labourers, which had been erected on the green b...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Pulford Street, SW1V
Pulford Street was a street between its construction in 1848 and demolition after the Second World War. Pulford Street survived for near exactly 100 years. It served the Equitable Gas Company’s Pimlico works which had opened in the 1830s and closed in the late 1920s. The houses on Pulford Street had been dilapidated and run down.

In 1932 the Pulford Street Site Committee was set up to raise funds for a new housing estate to be built.

The Tachbrook estate was built by the Westminster Housing Trust, a consortium of Westminster residents who raised £32,000 to buy the land. The estate opened in two stages. The northern half was opened in the 1930s and the southern half was opened in the late 1940s with the last phase, Harvey House, being formally opened by Princess Margaret on 22 October 1953.

Pulford Street disappeared under the new housing.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Grahame Park
Grahame Park was built on the site of the old Hendon Aerodrome. The estate is named in honour of Claude Grahame-White, the aviation pioneer who established the Hendon Aerodrome and aviation school on the site. Most roads, blocks and walkways have names linked to the aviation history of the site.

The building of the estate was a joint project between the Greater London Council and Barnet Council. The estate was designed in a ’Brutalist. style and the first residents moved in during October 1971. Barnet Council is refurbishing much of the estate with a 2032 completion date.

The Royal Air Force Museum is situated immediately to the south-east of the estate.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Leicester Square, WC2H
Leicester Square is a central tourist attraction of London. Leicester Square is named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, who purchased four acres in St. Martin’s Field in 1630; by 1635, he had built himself a large house, Leicester House, at the northern end. The area in front of the house was then enclosed, depriving inhabitants of St Martin in the Fields parish of their right to use the previously common land. The parishioners appealed to King Charles I, and he appointed three members of the Privy Council to arbitrate. Lord Leicester was ordered to keep part of his land (thereafter known as Leicester Field and later as Leicester Square) open for the parishioners.

The area was developed in the 1670s. It was initially fashionable and Leicester House was once residence of Frederick, Prince of Wales but by the late 18th century, the Square was no longer a smart address and began to serve as a venue for popular entertainments. Leicester House became home of a museum of natural curiosities called the Holophusikon in the ...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Maudsley Hospital
The Maudsley Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in the Denmark Hill area. In 1907, a leading psychiatrist, Henry Maudsley, offered London County Council £30,000 to help found a new mental hospital that would be exclusively for early/acute cases rather than chronic cases. It was to have an out-patients’ clinic and provide for teaching and research.

The Council agreed to contribute half the building costs and then covered the running costs which were almost twice as high per bed as the large asylums.

Construction of the hospital was completed in 1915. Before it could open, the building was requisitioned to treat war veterans.

After the war it was returned to the control of London County Council and it finally opened as the Maudsley Hospital in February 1923.

The Maudsley is now the largest mental health training institution in the UK.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Green Lane, N2
Green Lane is a lost road of Finchley. Also known as Philips Lane in its history, it joined the central portion of East End Road to Long Lane.

Between 1808 and 1835 the lane was the location of a house rented as Finchley’s workhouse and was called Workhouse Lane as a consequence. A bridge over the railway, built in the 1860s, was removed in the 1960s.

The building of the North Circular Road in the 1920s paralleled Green Lane to its west.

Briar Close was partly laid along its course and a remnant, unnamed section exists beyond the railway.
»read full article

JANUARY

2020

Denmark Hill
Denmark Hill is an area named after a street (and hill) in Camberwell. Nearby streets whose names refer to different aspects of the same topographical feature include Dog Kennel Hill, Champion Hill and Red Post Hill. It marks the edge of the Thames valley plain in this area — from here to the river the land is flat.

The original name for the summit was Dulwich Hill. The name of the area was changed to Denmark Hill in honour of the husband of Queen Anne, Prince George of Denmark, who lived there.

The area is home of the Maudsley Hospital and King’s College Hospital, and also of Ruskin Park, named after John Ruskin, who once lived nearby. The preface to Ruskin’s ’Unto This Last’ is dated ’Denmark Hill, 10th May, 1862’.

The Salvation Army’s William Booth Memorial Training College on Champion Park which was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott was completed in 1932; it towers over South London. It has a similar monumental impressiveness to Gilbert Scott’s other...
»more

JANUARY

2020

The Plough
From the sixteenth century onwards, the Plough stood beside the Harrow Road. On the Harrow Road at the turn of the nineteenth century, there were "a few small houses, some in Kensington, some in Willesden parish, formed the picturesque hamlet of Kensal or Kellsall Greene". This part of the Harrow Road was little more than a country lane. It was reported to have been the scene of some of Dick Turpin’s exploits.

In the year 1820, the author Faulkner wrote: “At Kensal Green is a very ancient public house, known by the name of the ’Plough’, which has been built upwards of three hundred years ; the timber and joists being of oak, are still in good preservation.”

This wayside inn may go back as far as Faulkner suggests, for the Parish Registers show that “ Marget, a bastard childe, was borne in the Ploughe, and was baptised the 30th day of August, 1539-” A family named Ilford are said to have been landlords of the ’Plough’ for several generations.

The Plough was the oldest named building in North Kensing...
»more

JANUARY

2020

Vine Hill, EC1R
Vine Hill now displays no evidence on the vines that once flourished in the grounds on which it stands. Vine Hill is a cul-de-sac with a steep flight of steps leads up to busy Rosebery Avenue.

Nearly 500 years ago, the gardens of the Bishops of Ely covered the land between here and their town house east of Hatton Garden.

In the late 16th century, Sir Christopher Hatton - with the help of Queen Elizabeth - had seized most of the estate. The estate then passed down through three generations to Baron Hatton of Kirby in 1640. Financial difficulties caused him to dispose of it and by 1660 Hatton Garden and a series of smaller roads had replaced both house and grounds.

The Hatton vineyard was swept away in about 1710 when this area was developed.
»read full article

MAP YEAR:	1750	1800	1810	1820	1830	1860	1900	1950	2023	Show map without markers
ZOOM:	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17 18	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17 18
	TIP: Adjust the MAP YEAR and ZOOM to tweak historical maps

PREVIOUSLY ON THE UNDERGROUND MAP...