The Underground Map

The Underground Map is a project which is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying inside the M25.

In a series of maps from the 1750s until the 1950s, you can see how London grew from a city which only reached as far as Park Lane into the post war megapolis we know today. There are now over 85 000 articles on all variety of locations including roads, houses, schools, pubs and palaces.

You can begin exploring by choosing a place from the dropdown list at the top.

As maps are displayed, click on the markers to view location articles.

Latest on The Underground Map...

Yiewsley

Yiewsley is a large suburban village in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Yiewsley’s transition from an agrarian community began when the Grand Junction Canal was opened. Construction started in May 1793 and connected the area to the Thames at Brentford, passing through Yiewsley on its way north following the River Colne. An aqueduct was built at Cowley Lock to cross the Fray’s River. In 1794, the canal opened between the Thames and Uxbridge, and in 1795, the aqueduct over the Fray’s River was likely completed.

The following year, in 1796, Colham Wharf, Yiewsley’s first dock, was established near Colham Bridge. In 1801, the Paddington Arm of the canal opened, connecting the area to national trade routes.

The canal played a vital role in transporting Cowley stock bricks, which were made from the abundant brick-earth in Yiewsley. The bricks were transported mainly along the Grand Junction Canal and the Regent’s Canal to supply the demand for building materials in Victorian London.

By t...

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NOVEMBER

2023

South Harrow
South Harrow originally spread south and west from the hamlet of Roxeth as a result of easier access from Central London by rail In the 1890s, the Metropolitan District Railway, which later became the District Line but was operating as an independent company at the time, recognised the inadequate service to Uxbridge and Harrow. To address this, they proposed the construction of a railway line towards both towns, and this led to the formation of the Ealing & South Harrow Railway. The railway line was intended to extend to South Harrow, which was then a rural area located to the south of Roxeth.

Construction of the railway line was completed by 1899, but the District Line faced financial difficulties that delayed its opening until 1903. Consequently, South Harrow became the terminus of a line extending from Park Royal & Twyford Abbey. The location around Northolt Road subsequently developed into South Harrow’s own commercial and residential hub.

The original station building was approximately 170 metres south of the present-day station. This extension marked a significant miles...
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SEPTEMBER

2023

Great Portland Street
Great Portland Street is a London Underground station near Regent’s Park Great Portland Street station was opened on 10 January 1863 as Portland Road, renamed Great Portland Street and Regents Park in 1923 and changed to its present name on 1 March 1917.

The station’s present structure, constructed in 1930, is situated on a traffic island at the intersection of Marylebone Road, Great Portland Street and Albany Street. This building features a steel-framed design with a cream terracotta exterior. The station’s perimeter also houses shops and, in the past, included a car showroom with office spaces above it. Notably, Great Portland Street was a significant sales location for the motor industry. The station’s architectural design, credited to C.W. Fowler, earned it a Grade II listing in January 1987.

The area around Great Portland Street station offers various points of interest. Regent’s Park and the iconic BT Tower are nearby attractions. Additionally, the station’s proximity to Regen...
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SEPTEMBER

2023

Courtfield Gardens, SW5
Courtfield Gardens is named after the field beneath it, cultivated until the 19th century According to 16th-century records, Courtfield Gardens was built on a vast open meadow known as Great Courtfield. This meadow was surrounded by fertile land and small farms and was part of a large area of land that extended from Cromwell Road to The Old Brompton Road in one direction, and from Gloucester Road to Earl’s Court Road in the other direction. Great Courtfield was included in the Earl’s Court ’manor’.

During the 18th century, Earl’s Court House, a grand manor house, was constructed on the land that is now the western terrace of Barkston Gardens. This building replaced an extensive dwelling that was described in 1705 as having fountains, a marble-tiled dairy, engines for water, and impressive gates at its entrance.

In the 19th century, the area surrounding Courtfield Gardens was developed with rows of terraced houses, as the demand for housing in London grew. Earl’s Court House was demolished in the middle of th...
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JUNE

2023

Alba Place, W11
Alba Place is part of the Colville Conservation Area Originally the stable house accommodation for the main houses on Lancaster Road, the primary purpose of the Mews properties is now residential.

Alba Place is located on the site of an original Mews but has been redeveloped to a degree that it no longer contains any surviving Mews properties. It is a gated cul-de-sac off Portobello Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, almost opposite Hayden’s Place (another redeveloped Mews). It contains 16 properties used for residential purposes.

Alba Place was Albion Place until 1937, one of the many patriotic names dating from the period immediately following the Crimean War.
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Eileen Brecknock Road, N7 Added: 10 Nov 2023 09:42 GMT	Brecknock Road Pleating Company My great grandparents ran the Brecknock Road pleating Company around 1910 to 1920 and my Grandmother worked there as a pleater until she was 16. I should like to know more about this. I know they had a beautiful Victorian house in Islington as I have photos of it & of them in their garden. Source: Family history Reply
Squirrel’s Lane, IG9 Added: 6 Nov 2023 16:59 GMT	061123 Why do Thames Water not collect the 15 . Three meter lengths of blue plastic fencing, and old pipes etc. They left here for the last TWO Years, these cause an obstruction,as they halfway lying in the road,as no footpath down this road, and the cars going and exiting the park are getting damaged, also the public are in Grave Danger when trying to avoid your rubbish and the danger of your fences. Source: Squirrels Lane. Buckhurst Hill, Essex. IG9. I want some action ,now, not Excuses.MK. Reply
Christian Cornwall Road, W11 Added: 31 Oct 2023 10:34 GMT	Cornwall Road, W11 Photo shows William Richard Hoare’s chemist shop at 121 Cornwall Road. Reply
Vik Oaks Road, TW6 Added: 30 Oct 2023 18:48 GMT	Old pub sign from the Rising Sun Hi I have no connection to the area except that for the last 30+ years we’ve had an old pub sign hanging on our kitchen wall from the Rising Sun, Stanwell, which I believe was / is on the Oaks Rd. Happy to upload a photo if anyone can tell me how or where to do that! Reply
Phillip Martin Ashburnham Place, SE10 Added: 16 Oct 2023 06:25 GMT	16 Ashburnham Road On 15 October 1874 George Frederick Martin was born in 16 Ashburnham Road Greenwich to George Henry Martin, a painter, and Mary Martin, formerly Southern. Reply
Christine Bithrey Holly Park, N4 Added: 15 Oct 2023 15:20 GMT	The Hollies (1860 - 1900) I lived in Holly Park Estate from 1969 I was 8 years old when we moved in until I left to get married, my mother still lives there now 84. I am wondering if there was ever a cemetery within The Hollies? And if so where? Was it near to the Blythwood Road end or much nearer to the old Methodist Church which is still standing although rather old looking. We spent most of our childhood playing along the old dis-used railway that run directly along Blythwood Road and opposite Holly Park Estate - top end which is where we live/ed. We now walk my mothers dog there twice a day. An elderly gentleman once told me when I was a child that there used to be a cemetery but I am not sure if he was trying to scare us children! I only thought about this recently when walking past the old Methodist Church and seeing the flag stone in the side of the wall with the inscription of when it was built late 1880 If anyone has any answers please email me [email protected] Reply
Chris hutchison Broadhurst Gardens, NW6 Added: 15 Oct 2023 03:04 GMT	35 broadhurst gardens. 35 Broadhurst gardens was owned by famous opera singer Mr Herman “Simmy”Simberg. He had transformed it into a film and recording complex. There was a film and animation studio on the ground floor. The recording facilities were on the next two floors. I arrived in London from Australia in 1966 and worked in the studio as the tea boy and trainee recording engineer from Christmas 1966 for one year. The facility was leased by an American advertising company called Moreno Films. Mr Simbergs company Vox Humana used the studio for their own projects as well. I worked for both of them. I was so lucky. The manager was another wonderful gentleman called Jack Price who went on to create numerous songs for many famous singers of the day and also assisted the careers of Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff. “Simmy” let me live in the bedsit,upper right hand window. Jack was also busy with projects with The Troggs,Bill Wyman,Peter Frampton. We did some great sessions with Manfred Mann and Alan Price. The Cream did some demos but that was before my time. We did lots of voice over work. Warren Mitchell and Ronnie Corbett were favourites. I went back in 1978 and “Simmy “ had removed all of the studio and it was now his home. His lounge room was still our studio in my minds eye!! Reply
Sue L Battersea Added: 13 Oct 2023 17:21 GMT	Duffield Street, Battersea I’ve been looking for ages for a photo of Duffield Street without any luck. My mother and grandfather lived there during the war. It was the first property he was able to buy but sadly after only a few months they were bombed out. My mother told the story that one night they were aware of a train stopping above them in the embankment. It was full of soldiers who threw out cigarettes and sweets at about four in the morning. They were returning from Dunkirk though of course my mother had no idea at the time. I have heard the same story from a different source too. Reply

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

AUGUST

2021

Ivybridge Lane, WC2N
Ivybridge Lane is named after a former ivy-covered bridge. The ’ivy bridge’ crossed an old watercourse on this spot but the bridge itself was demolished sometime before 1600.

Ivybridge Lane was formerly called Salisbury Street.
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AUGUST

2021

Dartford Tunnel, RM19
The original (western) Dartford Tunnel opened in 1963. An idea of a tunnel crossing was proposed by the Ministry of Transport in 1924. Initial reports suggested a crossing between Tilbury and Gravesend, but this was rejected in favour of a route further upstream, near Dartford. By 1929, the total cost of building the tunnel was estimated at £3 million. The tunnel was planned to be part of a general orbital route around London and was provisionally known as part of the ’South Orbital Road’.

The first engineering work to take place was a compressed air driven pilot tunnel, drilled between 1936 and 1938. Work on the tunnel was delayed due to World War II, and resumed in 1959. The two-lane tunnel opened to traffic on 18 November 1963 with the total project being £13 million. It initially served approximately 12 000 vehicles per day.
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AUGUST

2021

The Polygon
The Polygon was an early housing estate, a Georgian building with 15 sides and three storeys that contained 32 houses. In 1784, the first housing was built at the Polygon, Clarendon Square, amid fields, brick works and market gardens on the northern fringes of London. The area appears to have initially appealed to middle-class people fleeing the French Revolution.

Clarendon Square occupied the site formerly covered by the barracks of the Life Guards.

Two of the most famous residents of the Polygon were William Godwin and his wife Mary Wollstonecraft, who died giving birth to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Another former Polygoner was Charles Dickens, who lived at No 17 in the 1820s shortly after his father, John Dickens, was released from debtors prison. Dickens later made the Polygon a home for his ’Bleak House’ character Harold Skimpole, and he in turn may well have been modelled on Godwin. As late as 1832, Somers Town was full of artists

The Polygon deteriorated socially as the surrounding land was subsequently sold off in smaller...
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AUGUST

2021

Bruce Close, W10
Bruce Close replaced the earlier Rackham Street in this part of W10. After a massive WWII bomb hit the area, the 1950s saw a large rebuilding project. A new block called Bruce House was built with a service road behind.

Around 1970, this service road was given a name of its own, Bruce Close.
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AUGUST

2021

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 - Short’s Buildings and St James’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.
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AUGUST

2021

Leman Street, E1
Leman Street was named after Sir John Leman. The street was once officially called Red Lion Street but Leman Street was in use concurrently and pronounced like ’lemon’ locally. ’Leman’ was an old term for a mistress or lover. In 1831 the Garrick Theatre but was demolished in 1891 and the police station rebuilt on the site. There was a local German community which supported a ’Christian Home for German Artisans’ (later a German YMCA) and also a private German hotel.

The Eastern Dispensary was set up in Great Alie Street in 1782 by a group of doctors. This moved to new premises in Leman Street in 1858 but closed its doors finally in 1940.

In 1887 the Co-operative Wholesale Society opened the headquarters of its London operations on the corner of Leman Street and Hooper Street. This was a seven-storey structure in brick, granite and Portland stone incorporating a sugar warehouse and a prominent clock tower.

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AUGUST

2021

Elm Park Gardens, SW10
Elm Park Gardens links Fulham Road with Elm Park Road. Elm Park Gardens 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.
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AUGUST

2021

Brady Street, E1
Brady Street is a road running north-south from Three Colts Lane to Whitechapel Road. Brady Street began its existence as Ducking Pond Lane, a short pathway to the ducking pond which stood at the junction with Ducking Pond Row (later Buck’s Row). By 1800 it had been renamed North Street and was extended northward as Upper North Street during the early 19th century.
The entire thoroughfare was renamed Brady Street on 7th May 1875.

Brady Street Dwellings were built on the western side of the street, to the north of Buck’s Row / Durward Street, in 1889-90. The buildings were demolished in 1979.

Much of Brady Street now consists of early-mid 20th century estates. Mocatta House was built in 1905 by the Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company and was converted into flats in 1980. Much of the southern end is dominated by a Sainsbury’s superstore (1990s, new additions 2010) and Swanlea School (1994). The Roebuck public house, formerly a beershop, stood at No.27 at the corner with Durward Street and was demolished in 199...
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AUGUST

2021

Brixton Road, SW9
Brixton Road leads from the Oval at Kennington to Brixton, where it forms the high street. Brixton Road dates back to the Roman era when it was part of the London to Brighton Way. The River Effra used to be visible near Lambeth Town Hall, but is now underground.

Fronting Brixton Road at the north end is the Neo-Byzantine style Christ Church, opened in 1902. For much of its length Brixton Road remains lined by Regency period terraces of houses that once made a virtually continuous frontage from Kennington to Brixton. These had become semi-derelict by the 1970s when some were replaced, but many were refurbished by the Greater London Council, mostly as social housing.

Brixton Market is located in Electric Avenue near Brixton Underground station and in a network of covered arcades adjacent to the two railway viaducts. The market arcades were declared listed buildings in 2009 following controversial proposals by Lambeth Council to replace them with a large US-style mall. The former "Brixton Oval" is at the southern end with Lambeth Town Hall, the Ri...
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AUGUST

2021

Belsize Avenue, NW3
Belsize Avenue was once the driveway to the former Belsize House. Before suburbanisation the main drive leading to Belsize House (c.1500-1853) corresponded with the line of the present Belsize Avenue. The house itself had a substantial courtyard form and was surrounded by extensive gardens with views over London to the south. The surrounding land was in agricultural production with a combination of arable land and pasture supplying the capital.

Belsize Avenue was the scene of 18th century traffic jams when the grounds were used as a pleasure garden. Until 1835 a five-barred gate closed the east end of Belsize Avenue.

In 1852 Charles James Palmer, a Bloomsbury solicitor, bought the lease of Belsize House, with the intention of building. The Dean and Chapter of Westminster decided to retain control of the Avenue, keeping it undeveloped and so Palmer had to change his building layout plans.

A temporary fire station was established in Belsize Avenue during 1869, and in 1870 the Dean and Chapter finally gave...
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AUGUST

2021

Kilravock Street, W10
Kilravock Street is a street on the Queen’s Park Estate, London W10 The Queens Park Estate is a composition of buildings, streets, trees and open spaces which as a group is an asset to the community. The Estate has a special character which distinguishes it from its
surroundings. It displays the historical associations with the Artizans, Labourers and General Dwellings Company and with the Garden City Movement. The composition of the terraces, the architectural design, construction, detailing of the buildings and layout of the streets, define collectively the Estate’s cohesive townscape.

Much of the Estate’s charm and interesting character derives from the architects’ use of gothic ornamental detail, multi-coloured brickwork, decorative stonework and double hung sash windows. Within the Estate, each property is an integral part of the design. Apart from some exceptions such as the turreted houses, there is little variety between individual houses in the street or between the streets themselves and so each property makes is ...
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AUGUST

2021

Lansdowne Crescent, W11
Lansdowne Crescent has some of the most interesting and varied houses on the Ladbroke estate, as architects and builders experimented with different styles. When James Weller Ladbroke decided in the early 1820s to develop for housing the 170-acres of mostly farmland that he had developed from his uncle, he commissioned the architect/surveyor Thomas Allason (1790-1852) to draw up a plan in which a circular road, more than 500 metres in diameter, was intersected by an axial road on the alignment of the future Ladbroke Grove. In 1825 a short-lived building boom began along Holland Park Avenue. But this quickly collapsed, and the area of the circular road was from 1837 to 1841 occupied by the Hippodrome race- and steeplechase course. That also lost money, and after it closed there began a series of longer-lived building developments, a key part of which was an evolving layout of terraces, crescents and the large Ladbroke Square, each built with a paddock or communal garden. The new layout departed considerably from Allason’s original layout, but it did retain at least some of the crescent forms (including Lansdowne Crescent) near to St John...
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AUGUST

2021

Hopton Street, SE1
Hopton Street was known as Green Walk until the late nineteenth century. Hopton’s Almshouses were built around 1749 for “twenty-six decayed house-keepers, each to have an upper and lower room with £10 per annum and a chaldron of coals.” They have been occupied continuously since July 1752. They were ultimately financed by Charles Hopton - a wealthy merchant and a member of the Guild of Fishmongers. On his death, he left a large sum of money to his sister, and on her death the money was used to build the Almshouses.

Bankside became increasingly industrial as the 19th century progressed and the work it provided was an important factor behind population growth at that time.

Hopton Street had been previously renamed to be part of Holland Street, prior to its modern renaming.
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AUGUST

2021

Spring Gardens, WC2N
Spring Gardens derives its name from the Spring Garden, formed in the 16th century. The word ’Spring’ in this sense meant a plantation of young trees, especially one used for rearing game. The Spring Garden was shown on the Agas map as a little copse enclosed with a fence, and there are later references to pheasants and other "wild fowl" being preserved there.

In 1580 the garden was extended with a bowling green, a birdhouse, a bathing pool and the planting of orange trees. Before the end of James I’s reign, the garden had become a semi-public pleasure ground.

In 1631 a Simon Osbaldeston was appointed to keep "the Springe Garden and of the Bowling Greene there."

There was at least one house in Spring Garden as early as 1635 and more house building occurred over the next forty years. Towards the close of the 17th century, part of the Spring Garden had become a refuge for debtors. One of the most notorious was Sir Edward Hungerford and the Board of Greencloth finally to allow creditors to serve processes on...
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AUGUST

2021

Stoke Newington Church Street, N16
Stoke Newington Church Street links Green Lanes in the west to Stoke Newington High Street in the east. The road was noted as Newington Lane in 1403, then Church Street in 1576 and as Stoke Newington Church Street from 1937.

A number of notable properties flanked it: Newington Hall, Paradise House and Glebe Place amongst others.

Clissold Park is at one end of Church Street. Abney Park Cemetery which dates from 1840 has an entrance on the street. At the junction with Albion Road, was the municipal town hall and assembly hall of the former borough of Stoke Newington (refurbished in 2010). In Abney House, the Newington Academy for Girls of 1824 ran the world’s first school bus from Church Street to Gracechurch Street meeting house in the City, taking the pupils to Quaker worship.

In addition to many public houses and restaurants, the street is home to a wide range of independent shops.
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AUGUST

2021

South Lambeth Place, SW8
South Lambeth Place links South Lambeth Road to Bondway. The road is older than the railway, following an above ground route at first. It was then simply the northern extension of South Lambeth Road which lead to Vauxhall Cross.

For most of its length, it runs through the viaduct bridge below Vauxhall Station. This alignment through the viaduct is due to the presence of the River Effra flowing beneath.

At the Bondway end stands the former Elephant and Castle pub (later a coffee shop). Dating from the mid-late 19th century, its upper floors are in stock brick. The decorative stucco work include elephant emblems and large elephant and castle statues decorate each of the parapets.

In the 2010s, the Vauxhall Street Food market was created underneath the arches.
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AUGUST

2021

St Peter’s Square, W6
St Peter’s Square is a garden square laid out in the 1820s. The square originated in the 1820s when George Scott built a speculative housing development on part of his Ravenscourt Park estate.

From 1827 plots were developed by builders from a master plan. The square was mostly complete by the end of the 1830s.

St Peter’s Church, Hammersmith, completed in 1829, occupies the eastern corner.

The houses are a good example of 19th century square architecture, with paired villas in classical style arranged around a central space.

22 St Peter’s Square, a Grade II listed architect’s studio and office building, was formerly the Island Records headquarters.

The public garden in the centre of the square is Grade II listed. The centre of the garden is occupied by a sculpture, ’The Greek Runner’, by Sir William Blake Richmond, erected in 1926.

Famous former inhabitants have included Alec Guinness (actor), Matthew Pinsent (English rower), John Piper (artist) and Vanessa Redgrave (actor).
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AUGUST

2021

Shillibeer Place, W1H
Shillibeer Place commemorates pioneer busman George Shillibeer. Shillibeer Place is a small street off Marylebone Road and almost opposite the entrance to Lisson Grove. It was named after the 19th-century horse bus operator George Shillibeer and operated from outside the Yorkshire Stingo public house at what became Shillibeer Place.

George Shillibeer was born in St Marylebone and christened in St Mary’s church, St Marylebone, on 22 October 1797. He worked for the coach company Hatchetts, in Long Acre which was the centre for coach-building in London.

In the 1820s Shillibeer was offered work in Paris where he was commissioned to build a much larger horse-drawn vehicle than a normal stage coach. He was asked to build a coach capable of transporting over 20 people within the vehicle. His design was very stable and was introduced on the streets of Paris in 1827.

Once back in London Shillibeer was commissioned to build a vehicle, similar to the one in France, for the Newington Academy for Girls, a Quaker s...
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AUGUST

2021

Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H
Shaftesbury Avenue was named after Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Victorian politician and philanthropist. In his London and Westminster Improved, published in 1766, John Gwynn suggested that a new street should be formed from the top of the Haymarket to Oxford Street and beyond. After the formation of Regent Street the need for further improvement in north-south communication in this part of Westminster was recognised in 1838 by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Metropolis Improvements. The committee was concerned at the volume of traffic from Paddington and Euston Stations that might be expected to converge upon the east end of Oxford Street, and it recommended an improved line of street from St. Giles’s to Charing Cross.

This need was later filled by the formation of Charing Cross Road, but the committee made no recommendation on communication between Piccadilly and Bloomsbury.

In the 1860s and 70s the need for improved communication between Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross, and between Charing Cross and Tottenham Court Road was frequen...
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AUGUST

2021

Saunders Ness Road, E14
Saunders Ness Road was a new name for the eastern section of Wharf Road. Saunders Ness Road was a logical renaming (in 1937) being the area of the Isle of Dogs which ended in Saunders Ness. The road had existed in its Wharf Road incarnation since the 1850s.

This section of the road, stretching east from Island Gardens, served many wharves along its length.

The road was indeed mostly industry with fewer houses. On the first day of the Blitz - 7 September 1940 - a high explosive bomb fell at the south end of Saunders Ness Road with many houses destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Further bombing on the night of 18 September affected the road with 26 killed at Cubitt Town School. Indeed most buildings in the street suffered at least minor damage in the Blitz.

Much later, after the war during the 1970s, many of the industrial buildings and wharves were demolished with the land used by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for the construction of public housing.

Construction of the Docklands Light Railway...
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AUGUST

2021

Petworth Street, SW11
Petworth Street was laid out in the late nineteenth century linking two bridge approaches - Albert Bridge Road and Battersea Bridge Road. In 1771 a bridge across the River Thames at Battersea had been built, but it was not until the construction of Chelsea Bridge in 1851-58 by Thomas Page and the opening of new railway lines, that development was galvanised south of the River Thames.

Meanwhile, by the middle of the nineteenth century, the marshy area known as the Battersea Fields had become an undesirable pleasure ground, where the Red House Tavern was notorious for illegal racing, drinking and gambling. London’s population was expanding rapidly, the industrial revolution was causing increasing pollution and epidemics and slums were the major concerns of the day. By this time, public parks were being recognised as the lungs of the city and part of the solution to overcrowding and illness.

In 1843 Thomas Cubitt and the Vicar of St Mary’s Battersea, the Honourable Reverend Robert Eden proposed a large public park on Battersea Fields allocating 200 acres for a park and 100 acres for the bu...
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AUGUST

2021

Cardinal Cap Alley, SE1
Cardinal Cap Alley is an alley in Bankside. Until the 1600s Bankside was a bawdy place, full of taverns, brothels then called ’stews’ from the stewhouses, which were steam baths doubling as brothels, there was bear and bull-baiting pits and, in the time of Shakespeare, public theatres. Cardinal Cap Alley. off Bankside, used to lead to a brothel called the The Cardinal’s Cap which was so-called because it had been owned by Henry Beaufort, the Bishop of Winchester, who had paraded here, wearing his red hat, after being appointed a cardinal by the Pope.

Until the time of the reformation the Abbot of St Mary Overy, which is now Southwark Cathedral, owned a large part of the area of Southwark, and Cardinal Cap Alley undoubtedly had connections with the Abbey. At some point way back in history, certainly long before 1533, the Abbot built a house on the site of the Alley, which, at the dissolution of the monasteries was seized by the Crown. It is not known whether this house remained standing or a new building was...
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AUGUST

2021

Drayton Road, WD6
Drayton Road is one of the older streets in Borehamwood. The road largely consists of late Victorian terraces.

In 1896 Charles Braithwaite opened a factory at the south end of Drayton Road specialising in making packing material.

Formerly the location of the Borehamwood Times, the local museum, Drayton Road was also the terminus of earlier bus routes.
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AUGUST

2021

Turners Wood, NW11
Turner’s Wood, built in 1916, was the final road of the original Hampstead Garden Suburb before the First World War brought work to an end. It was the last work of architect G.L. Sutcliffe who died soon after its completion. The architecture varies greatly.

Turner’s Wood was very successful architecturally - red brickwork being a major feature.

The road is backed onto by a private woodland of the same name.
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AUGUST

2021

Zoar Street, SE1
Zoar Street is named after the former Zoar Chapel here, named for the Biblical Zoara. Zoar was the Dead Sea city where Lot sheltered - it means (in the biblical sense) ’refuge’ or ’sanctuary’.

The Zoar Chapel was built by the Baptists of Southwark in 1687. It is possible that John Bunyan preached there shortly before his death.
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AUGUST

2021

Bulmer Mews, W11
Bulmer Mews is a tiny mews behind Notting Hill Gate. The entrance to Bulmer Mews is to the right of the Prince Albert pub in Pembridge Road. It runs down the backs of numbers 1-7 (odds) Ladbroke Road and presumably served as stabling for these and for the pub. It was probably first built up in the late 1840s or 1850s, and its original name may have been Victoria Mews – although it is already shown as a nameless alley on the 1862-5 Ordnance Survey map.

By the time of the 1881 census, it had been named Prince Albert Mews or Albert Mews, a name it retained until into the 1930s, presumably because of its proximity to the Prince Albert pub. It seems then to have been renamed Bulmer Mews by association with nearby Bulmer Place, a road which ran roughly where the service road now is for the shops on the north-west side of Notting Hill Gate (and which disappeared in the great 1950s redevelopment of Notting Hill Gate).

Bulmer Place originally had two entrances, both through archways. One was in Pembridge Road dow...
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AUGUST

2021

Brick Lane, E1
Brick Lane runs north from the junction of Osborn Street, Old Montague Street and Wentworth Street, through Spitalfields to Bethnal Green Road. Winding through fields, the street was originally called Whitechapel Lane. Brick Lane was so named as early as 1550 after the two tile garths which stood on its eastern side, these being places where tile or brick clay was dug. The lane already had buildings on it by the 1650s, on the east side as far as modern Hanbury Street and the Fossan estates (which included the Flower and Dean Street rookery) soon followed on the west side.

Land to the north of present Hanbury Street was acquired for the Black Eagle Brewery in the late 1600’s and the earliest reference to the brewing here is a reference to Joseph Truman, brewer ’of Brick Lane’ in 1683. By 1701, the nucleus of the brewery was in evidence.

Building continued in earnest over the next 100 years and by 1746, the street was completely built up. The ’Neuve Eglise’ the former Huguenot Chapel at the corner with Fournier Street was built in 1743 (now the Jamme Masjid Mosque).

The sou...
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AUGUST

2021

Blendon Road, DA5
Blendon Road is one of the older roads in the area. A ’Jordan de Bladindon’ owned a house here in the 14th century and is the first known mention of the road and the hamlet of Blendon. This became in time Blendon Hall and te same house later came into the possession of Jacob Sawbridge MP who was a director of the South Sea Company. The company collapsed in 1720 - this was known as the ’South Sea Bubble’ - an early ponzy scheme which lead to a financial crisis. There was also a connection with John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church.

The Blendon estate was bordered on the west by modern Penhill Road, on the north by Blendon Road, on the east by Elmwood Drive and on the south by the River Shuttle.

A new Blendon Hall replaced the old one in 1763. By the late 1800s, the estate had lodges, cottages and a bailiff’s house. There was a bathhouse on the River Shuttle, an orchid house, peachery kitchen gardens and a mushroom house.

In 1929, Blendon Hall and grounds were bought for �...
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AUGUST

2021

Nutter Lane, E11
Nutter Lane is one of the oldest roads in Wanstead. Nutter Lane was previously called George Lane because of the George pub (George Inn, George & Dragon Inn and George Hotel) located at the end of Wanstead High Street.

In addition to being George Lane, the road has been referred to as George Street and Wanstead Lane. In its Wanstead Lane form, it was already in use during the 16th century. Most of Wanstead’s houses then, were in the present High Street and in Wanstead (Nutter) Lane.

The name change occurred in 1934 as a result of the construction of the Eastern Avenue. The part of George Lane which lay off the High Street became absorbed into Eastern Avenue when the latter was built in the 1920s. Nutter Lane used to be accessible by car from the Eastern Avenue until later in the twentieth century. Nutter Lane became the name of the remainder of the road. Grove Cottage, on the corner of Nutter Lane and Leicester Road, was Wanstead’s oldest building - demolished in 1957.

The name Nutter...
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AUGUST

2021

The Mall, SW1Y
The Mall is the processional route between Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace. During the reign of Charles II in 1660, the King ordered the redesign of St James’s Park. This included a centre piece - a straight canal, 2560ft long and 125ft wide, lined on each side with avenues of trees.

The origins of the name The Mall was as a field for playing pall-mall. In the 17th and 18th centuries it became a fashionable promenade.

Traffic was permitted on The Mall in 1887 and in the early 1900s, it was repurposed as a ceremonial route in honour of Queen Victoria. As part of the early 20th century development, a new façade was constructed for Buckingham Palace, and the Victoria Memorial was erected, designed by Aston Webb.

During state visits, the monarch and the visiting head of state are escorted in a state carriage up The Mall and the street is decorated with Union Flags and the flags of the visiting head of state’s country. The surface of The Mall is coloured red to give the effect of a giant red carpet leading...
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AUGUST

2021

Montpelier Row, TW1
Montpelier Row was developed early in the 1720s by Captain John Gray. Montpelier Row lies to the west of Marble Hill Park in Twickenham.

Developer John Gray appears to have acquired the land but then subcontracted to it to other builders. Originally Montpelier Row consisted of a row of seventeen houses, the Montpelier Chapel - demolished in the 1940s - and a further five houses ending with South End House. The names given to most of the houses are of 19th and 20th century origin.

Why it was called Montpelier Row is not known, although it may have resembled the health resort of Montpellier in France, where the Earl of Clarendon spent some of his last years in exile.

Residents tended to be more aristocratic as the 18th century progressed, and included Lady Bute, the Earl of Macclesfield and the Lord Hillsborough.
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