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

DECEMBER

2021

Long Lane, UB10
Long Lane runs roughly parallel with and about half a mile east of the River Pinn. Until the 20th century, there were only two major roads: the road from the district towards Harefield (later Park Road) and Long Lane running south from Ruislip and Ickenham to the London road east of Hillingdon village.

Ickenham village was situated at the junction of the modern Swakeleys Road and Long Lane. At this junction Long Lane widened to form a roughly triangular village centre for Ickenham. Until the 1930s most of the local houses were grouped around this spot.

Ickenham began to change after the sale of most of the Swakeleys estate in 1922. By 1934, larger dwellings and blocks of flats had been built along Long Lane.

Early 20th-century expansion was to transform the formerly distinct settlements of the area. By 1934 private housing estates and access ways covered much of the triangular area between Hillingdon village, Colham Green, and Goulds Green. Further private building was concentrated north of Hillingdon village along Long ...
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DECEMBER

2021

Hyde Park Corner, W1J
Hyde Park Corner is a major road junction at the southeastern corner of Hyde Park. Six streets converge at the junction: Park Lane (from the north), Piccadilly (northeast), Constitution Hill (southeast), Grosvenor Place (south), Grosvenor Crescent (southwest) and Knightsbridge (west).

Hyde Park Corner tube station, a London Underground station served by the Piccadilly line, is located at the junction, as are a number of notable monuments.

Immediately to the north of the junction is Apsley House, the home of the first Duke of Wellington; several monuments to the Duke were erected in the vicinity, both in his lifetime and subsequently.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the space that is now the Hyde Park Corner traffic island was not entirely surrounded by roadway. In its centre stands the Wellington Arch (or Constitution Arch), designed by Decimus Burton and planned as a northern gate to the grounds of Buckingham Palace. In execution it was laid out as a gate into the Green Park, and was originally sited directly opposite Bur...
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DECEMBER

2021

Hackford Road, SW9
Hackford Road is the former home of Vincent van Gogh. Hackford Road stands where there was once open countryside and in historical documents is often referred to as part of Stockwell.

Originally known as St Ann’s Road, Hackford Road is a mixture of housing styles from the 1840s onwards.

In fact the first appearance of building were small houses and shops at the north end of the street in the 1820s.

By the 1880s, cottages on the west side of the street and some on the east side were demolished and the terraces that stand today were erected.

Vincent van Gogh lived at No. 87 in 1873.

Reay Primary School was built in the early 1900s and was originally a school for boys. The school was built on the site of the 1820s shops to the north of the street.
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DECEMBER

2021

Gun Street, E1
Gun Street was part of the Old Artillery Ground - land formerly designated one of the Liberties of the Tower of London. It was converted to an artillery ground in 1538 for the use of ’The Fraternity or Guild of Artillery of Longbows, Crossbows and Handguns’. This group were later known as the Honourable Artillery Company and used the ground in conjunction with the Gunners of the Tower.

In 1658 the Honourable Artillery Company moved to a new ground at Bunhill Fields, leaving the Gunners of the Tower in possession of the area until 1682, when it was sold off to speculative builders. These latter developed the area for housing, designating the streets with their present names of Fort Street, Gun Street, Artillery Passage and Artillery Lane.
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DECEMBER

2021

Cromer Street, WC1H
Cromer Street originally gave access from Gray’s Inn Road to Greenland Place and a bowling green. Cromer Street was originally to be called Lucas Street but was renamed soon after its construction in 1818. The line of the future street as a path can be seen on the 1750 and 1800 maps.

Situated on the street, the Church of the Holy Cross was built by Joseph Peacock and dedicated in 1888.

After most of the original 105 houses on the street were demolished, Cromer Street was largely been rebuilt and now consists of over 1000 council and housing properties.

The Boot Tavern, on the corner of Cromer Street, was the headquarters of the Gordon rioters and later was mentioned in Charles Dickens’ book, Barnaby Rudge. It was rebuilt in 1801.
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DECEMBER

2021

Raymede Street, W10
Raymede Street, after severe bomb damage in the area, disappeared after 1950. For some years after the construction of the Hammersmith and City Railway, cricket fields lay to the north of the railway embankment. Here on one occasion the Notting Hill Flower Show and Home Improvement Society held its Exhibition, and the Duke and Duchess of Teck, accompanied by their young daughter, distributed the prizes. But in the middle seventies a series of residential roads were planned running parallel with the railway, and as these roads were continued east across Ladbroke Grove, they linked up this district with the smaller houses of the Portobello Road area.

The plan of 1865 shows that building plots along the south end of Ladbroke Grove had been leased by Colonel St. Quintin to Charles H. Blake, Esq., who already owned much property on the top of St. John’s Hill.

Shortly after the St Michael and All Angels church was opened, the freehold of eleven acres of Portobello Estate was obtained for St Charles’s College, and by 1874 a h...
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DECEMBER

2021

North End Road, NW11
North End Road ultimately links Hampstead with Hendon. It has for centuries been a thoroughfare which diverted from the Hampstead to Highgate Road (Spaniard’s Road) at the highest point in north London, beside Jack Straw’s Castle.

Then it ran towards Hendon - long ago the major settlement in this part of Middlesex.

It was called North End Road because it ran past North End - part of Hampstead beside the old Bull and Bush Pub. The name was interchangeable with Golders Green Road.

East of what become the Finchley Road when that road was laid out in the 1830s, North End Road was often called Golders Green Road.

West of that junction, Golders Green Road has similarly been North End Road at times.

A little known fact is that one single road under multiple names runs north from Trafalgar Square and only reaches its conclusion at a T junction in Mill Hill village at a pub called the Rising Sun. (South to north: Charing Cross Road, Tottenham Court Road, Hampste...
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DECEMBER

2021

Northfields, SW18
Northfields takes it name as being the North Field of the ancient manor of Dunsford. North Field lay between West Hill and the River Thames and was much larger than the current road of this name which runs to the east of Wandsworth Park.

It road began in the 1860s a path running parallel to Point Pleasant backing onto the ’British School’. To the west of the road were allotments.

Before the turn of the twentieth century, Wandsworth was a heavily industrial suburb centred around the River Wandle with an iron mill, brass industry and a brewery. The Northfield Nursery was a final bulwark of green stopping the westward march of industry.

The London County Council had seen the creation of public parks as one of its primary concern. In 1897, Wandsworth District Board were given the opportunity to buy eight hectares of land between the south bank of the River Thames and Putney Bridge Road, consisting of allotment gardens interspersed with public footpaths. Northfield became its eastern edge.

Wandsworth P...
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DECEMBER

2021

The Bermondsey mug
https://the-underground-map.myshopify.com/products/bermondsey The Bermondsey mug is an 11 ounce ceramic mug.
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DECEMBER

2021

Watergate Street, SE8
Watergate Street is an old Deptford street giving access to the river. Watergate Street was formerly known as King Street.

Many large houses were built in the street during the 17th and 18th centuries and lived in by those connected to the maritime trade.

By the twentieth century the street had became a slum and post-war, new housing was built.
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DECEMBER

2021

George Street, E1
George Street was a street running north-south from Flower and Dean Street to Wentworth Street, crossing Thrawl Street approx. half way along its length.. It was laid out by Thomas and Lewis Fossan c.1657.

As with the other streets in the neighbourhood, it had become known for its common lodging houses by the 1880s.

George Street was at the centre of the Flower and Dean Street rookery and consequently its slum buildings were completely demolished to make way for the Charlotte De Rothschild Dwellings and Lolesworth Buildings on its west side (1886), Ruth and Helena Houses (1895-7) on the east side and finally Keate and Spencer Houses (1908) also on the east side.

It was renamed Lolesworth Street on 11 July 1893.

After the demolition of the model dwellings (1973-80) and the building of the Flower and Dean Estate (1982-4) Lolesworth Street ceased to exist, though the present Flower and Dean Walk marks the approximate route. The Rothschild Buildings arch to the south of the estate stands at the former junction of George and Wentworth Streets.
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DECEMBER

2021

Bryony Road, W12
Bryony Road was one of the main roads of the 1920s Wormholt Estate. The land for the Wormholt Estate was purchased from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1919 with construction work on the Wormholt Estate beginning around 1920. The estate when finished consisted of 590 homes and was built on 125 acres of land. It was the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith’s first major housing development. The estate was partly designed for ex-servicemen although takeup was initially poor.

In 1926–28, the London County Council (LCC) built 783 more houses. Plans for 37 shops were dropped.

The designs of buildings on the estates were influenced by both the Garden City movement and the Arts and Crafts movement. The estate was designed by the LCC’s Architects’ Department, particularly F J Lucas, A S Soutar and J M Corment, using Hampstead Garden Suburb as a reference.

The cottages shared a common style but were deliberately different from each other. While every cottage and maisonette had a scullery and...
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DECEMBER

2021

Ashcombe Street, SW6
Ashcombe Street was part of the Morrison’s Farm Estate. By 1895, Fulham was undergoing a property boom - large areas that were farms and market gardens were having housing built on them. One of these was Morrison’s Farm, situated to the west of Wandsworth Bridge Road and which stopped being a farm in 1894.

The Premier Land Company Limited had bought the farm’s freehold and drawn up a street plan to replace the fields. The streets were called Ashcombe Street, Beltran Road, Clancarty Road, Friston Street, Narborough Street, Settrington Road and Woolneigh Street.

William Gilbert Allen won the contract to build the estate.
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DECEMBER

2021

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

Arsenal FC has its training ground near Bell Lane.

Thomas Telford’s London Road (1795) was part of his overall plan for the London to Holyhead road. It was later the A6 trunk road but when the M25 arrived, the eastern end of Bell Lane was diverted near to the Bell to accommodate the motorway.
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DECEMBER

2021

Saville Road, E16
Saville Road is famous as the street featured in the credits of the TV series "Call The Midwife". When originally laid out, Saville Road crossed Drew Road meeting the boundary of the dock. Drew Road School was situated in this ’lost’ section of Saville Road.

Saville Road is the setting for a famous photograph of the Dominion Monarch in the King George V Dry Dock, pictured immediately behind Saville Road’s dock fence. The ship was part of the Shaw Saville Line. The Dominion Monarch was launched in 1939 and broken up in 1962. It was in the King George V dock for a clean up of its bottom and a repaint.

The dock has now been partially filled in and the DLR station for the City Airport can now be seen from the street instead of the dock.

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DECEMBER

2021

Percy Circus, WC1X
Percy Circus was once referred to as "one of the most delightful bits of town planning in London". Percy Circus was begun in 1841 but not completed until 1853. Around the railed central garden are still fifteen of the original twenty-seven houses.

It has five unevenly-spaced entry points and is laid out on the side of a hill.

On 15 May 1941, parachute mines and high explosive bombs fell in Holford Square and Percy Circus causing widespread devastation in the immediate vicinity.

The damage inflicted on this rare survival in London continued well into the 1960s when, in 1969, some of the remaining authentic Victorian houses were demolished to make way for a new hotel.

Despite the best attentions of the Luftwaffe and post war London planners the Circus still retains, in part at least, some of its old world charm.
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DECEMBER

2021

Old Castle Street, E1
Old Castle Street runs north-south from Wentworth Street to Whitechapel High Street, the southern section of which incorporates the former Castle Alley, murder site of Ripper victim Alice McKenzie. Castle Alley appears (though unnamed) in maps as early as 1676, joining Castle Street via a narrow passage to Whitechapel High Street. By the mid-18th century, Castle Street had been given the ’Old’ prefix and the future Castle Alley was known as ’Moses and Aaron Alley’ a name it appears to have kept until c.1800. In 1830, it appears as ’Castle Court’. The name Castle Alley was certainly in use by the mid-19th century.

The Whitechapel Wash House (built 1846-51 in Goulston Street) backed onto Castle Alley, which at this time was extremely narrow and entered via a covered archway from Whitechapel High Street. Castle Alley was lined on its west side by warehouses and the Wash House and on its east side by smaller properties. The confluence of the alley and Old Castle Street took the form of a sharp bend which was to be the site of the Old Castle Street Board School, built 1873. The narrowest part of the alley was also earmarked for widen...
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DECEMBER

2021

Mornington Crescent, NW1
Mornington Crescent was named after Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington. Garret Wesley was a talented composer from County Meath in Ireland who in 1760 was created Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley. The future victor at the Battle of Waterloo - Arthur Wellesley who became the Duke of Wellington - was Garret Wesley’s third son.

He also had a daughter Anne who married local landowner Henry FitzRoy in 1790. Owning this patch of Camden, Henry named Mornington Crescent, Mornington Place, Mornington Terrace and Mornington Street after the title of his father-in-law.

Mornington Crescent was begun in 1821 although the northernmost part of the crescent was called Southampton Street until 1864.

The Crescent became quite an artists’ colony in the latter part of the nineteenth century with Spencer Gore, Frederick Pickersgill and Walter Sickert residing there.

The Mornington Crescent Gardens were designed for the enjoyment and leisure of the residents but were built over in 1928 when the Carreras cigarette factory was built.
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DECEMBER

2021

Merton Road, SW19
Merton Road has connected Merton High Street to Wimbledon since the 18th century. The name Merton dates from the 10th Century, and means ’farmstead by the pool’.

The road formed the western boundary of the 160 acre Merton Place estate. In 1801, Horatio Nelson separated from his wife Fanny. His mistress, Emma, Lady Hamilton found Merton Place situated next to the Wandle River. Lord Nelson paid £9000 for it in 1803.

After his death, Nelson left Merton and its contents to Emma, but within three years, her mounting debts caused her to sell it.

After standing empty for many years, the estate was eventually auctioned ’into lots adequate for detached villas’ in 1823. It was finally pulled down in 1846 - no attempt was made to save it for the nation.

Merton Road became a mix of residential and commercial.

Just after the dawn of the 20th century, Wimbledon entertainment venues were lining Merton Road: the Apollo Electric Theatre (the first cinema in the area), the Wimbledon Theatre and King’s Palace Theatre.
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DECEMBER

2021

Mapesbury Road, NW2
Mapesbury Road is named after Walter Map, prebendary from 1173–1192. Mapesbury was formerly the name for this whole area of Middlesex - Willesden Lane was known as Mapes Lane until the 1860s. It was countryside until the 1860s - after that residential development began and by 1875 there were a number of large suburban villas in the area.

Mapesbury Road laid out in 1894 over the lands of the former Mapesbury Farm and its was developed between 1895 and 1905. In 1982 Mapesbury Road became part of a conservation area.
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DECEMBER

2021

Green Dragon Lane, N21
Green Dragon Lane, an old thoroughfare, started to be urbanised in 1907. The ’Green Dragon’ inn is reputed to have opened in 1726 on the junction of Green Lanes and Green Dragon Lane, with the latter road named after it. That pub moved to its current location at the bottom of Vicars Moor Lane near the end of the eighteenth century. In 2017, a micropub called the Little Green Dragon was opened near to the site of the original eighteenth century Green Dragon at the end of Green Dragon Lane.

In 1754 the Lane was called Filcaps Lane after Filcaps Farm which stood on its north side. Cary’s Map of Middlesex from 1789 shows it as Chace Lane, and the Edmonton Enclosure Award of 1801 calls it Old Park Road since it formed the southern boundary of Old Park. Henrietta Cresswell in 1912 called it Dog Kennel Lane - a document of 1721 refers to the cutting down of an oak tree near the dog kennel on the Chase.

A builder Richard Metherell arrived in London from Devon to London in the 1870s. He formed a company - R. Methere...
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DECEMBER

2021

Gower Street, WC1E
Gower Street is named after Gertrude Leveson-Gower, the wife of John Russell, the 4th Duke of Bedford. Leveson-Gower was noted as a formidable adviser to her husband who held various political roles during the reigns of George II and George III, including Lord Privy Seal and Ambassador to France at the end of the Seven Years’ War.

The Gower baronetcy was a subsidiary title of the Duke of Sutherland, held in the Leveson-Gower family until 1963.

The area now known as Bloomsbury had come into the possession of the Russell family in 1669. That year the 5th Earl of Bedford’s son married Lady Rachel Vaughan, daughter of the 4th Earl of Southampton.

Southampton had started developing the area in the 1660s. John Russell died in 1771 and Gower Street was laid out from the 1780s onwards under Lady Gertrude’s supervision. During its development, a square was proposed near the northern end but the land was taken instead for University College London. The university was founded to provide an alternative to the Anglican-dominated colleg...
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DECEMBER

2021

Glenfarg Road, SE6
Glenfarg Road was one of the roads built by Archibald Cameron Corbett. Archibald Cameron Corbett, a Scot, inherited his father’s property business during 1880.

He purchased 278 acres of land from the Earl of St Germans’s North Park Farm near to the new Hither Green railway station and then spent three years building over 3000 high quality homes for working class and middle class tenants between 1896 and 1911.

Many of the roads such as Glenfarg Road, Balloch Road and Muirkirk Road, are named after Scottish villages. He later became an MP and was elevated to the peerage as Lord Rowallan.

Originally called the St Germans Estate, the area become known as the Corbett Estate.

By 1910 there were six churches, four schools, six shopping parades, a railway station and a library.

After loaning the South Eastern Railway £3400 to build a more convenient entrance, the railway company agreed to sell cheap season tickets to Corbett tenants, a major selling point for prospective bu...
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DECEMBER

2021

Fentiman Road, SW8
Fentiman Road is named after local mid-19th century developer John Fentiman. Fentiman Road is a broad, attractive road aligned northwest to southeast and has a leafy residential character.

On the north side, Vauxhall Park has a long frontage enclosed by railings and lends a leafy character to this end. Along from the park gate are the red brick, Tudor-revival Noel Caron Almshouses (1854) which have been established locally since the 17th century. Next to these are a row of 1830s stucco villas.

The south side of Fentiman Road is characterised by late 19th century terraced housing in two distinct groups.

Forming an attractive landmark at the junction with Meadow Road is the Cavalry Church, red brick in the Perpendicular style.
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DECEMBER

2021

Central Square, NW11
Central Square was the original centre of Hampstead Garden Suburb due to the further development of the Suburb in the 1920s and 1930s, it is now located towards the west. Raymond Unwin’s 1905 preliminary plan of Hampstead Garden Suburb defined a central area containing churches and public buildings with a formal approach road from the Heath.

By 1908 the design had become formalised with two central churches and The Institute, dedicated to adult learning. The Institute subsequently became Henrietta Barnet School. It was not possible to mirror the houses on the west of North Square with some on the due to the then land ownership.

Sir Edwin Lutyens finished designs for St Jude’s and the Free Church between 1908 and 1910. The final Central Square layout was complete in 1912.

Central Square was designed as a focus for the spiritual, recreational and community needs of Suburb residents. The centre of the Square is a public garden with tennis courts. The housing was designed for affluent residents but Southwood Court and Bigwood Court were originally intended as flats for the bereaved families of servicemen.
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DECEMBER

2021

Bransford Street, W10
Bransford Street became Porlock Street before vanishing altogether. Porlock Street is now simply a stump of a street, a cul-de-sac without its own name. Before the 1960s it ran up to Barlby Road from Treverton Street.

Formerly Bran(d)sford Street, it had become Portlock Street in 1917. After the Second World War, it became Porlock Road for a while.
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DECEMBER

2021

Heathrow Road, TW6
Heathrow Road is now buried beneath the runways and terminal buildings of Heathrow Airport. Heathrow or as two words - Heath Row - was a small hamlet along a minor country lane called Heathrow Road in the ancient parish of Harmondsworth, Middlesex.

The settlement of Heath Row was spread out in a straggling manner along Heathrow Road. The whole road and all of its buildings was obliterated by the construction of Heathrow Airport in the late 1940s. The farms and houses were demolished, the orchards grubbed up and the market gardens bulldozed. Everything disappeared under concrete and tarmac.

Note: A lot of the following is based on work by a local historian Philip Sherwood, and featured on a lost website which campaigned against the expansion of Heathrow Airport.

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During the Second World War, the decision was made to locate Britain’s principal civil airport at Heathrow. The use of wartime powers circumvented the need for a public inquiry.

Along with the village of Heath Row itself, there wer...
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DECEMBER

2021

Heath Row
Heath Row was a medieval settlement which gave its name to the airport. Until 1819, the area bounded by Heathrow Road, Tithe Barn Lane and Bath Road was one of the open fields of Harmondsworth Parish and was known as Heath Row Field. In 1819 came enclosure.

The settlement of Heath Row was spread out in a straggling manner mostly on the west side of Heathrow Road. The name described its layout - a row (of houses) by a heath. On one side were smallholdings and farms of fields and orchards which ran for a little over one mile. The name Heath Row with this spelling dates to 1453.

The area to the south and east of Heathrow Road was common land of the parish and formed the western edge of Hounslow Heath: a mixture of pasture, hunting and foraging land on less fertile heath.

Although most of the agricultural land in West Middlesex was in use for market gardening, mixed farming was also practised at Heath Row itself. Later, this made it more attractive than the rest of the locality - mixed farming, unlike marke...
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DECEMBER

2021

Heathrow
Heathrow Airport itself began in 1944 - its underground station opened in 1977. Heathrow Central station opened on 16 December 1977 as the final terminus of the Piccadilly line’s extension from Hounslow West to Heathrow Airport. The preceding station on the line - Hatton Cross - had opened as a temporary terminus in 1975.

At its opening, Heathrow Central station served as the terminus of what then became known as the Heathrow branch of the line. Previously the branch had been called the Hounslow branch. 1977 was the first time that an airport had been directly served by an underground railway system.

With the development of the airport’s Terminal 4, this station renamed Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, 3 on 6 October 1986. With the closure of Terminal 1, a new renaming occurred.
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DECEMBER

2021

Bermondsey Street, SE1
Bermondsey Street was named for the Abbey of St Saviour’s. Towards the southern end of Bermondsey Street stood the Abbey of St Saviour’s, founded by Alwin Childe in 1081.

Tucked away behind London Bridge station, Bermondsey Street was once a centre for the leather and other noxious industries that the City of London didn’t want within its walls.

All the raw materials for tanning leather were easily at hand. As early as 1392, butchers were permitted to dump their refuse in Southwark. Water was available from the Neckinger stream and oak bark was sourced from south London woods.

The accompanying photograph was taken by Henry Dixon. The photograph includes two leatherworkers - either shoemakers or cobblers - standing at the entrance to their establishment.

At the time Bermondsey was an area of biscuit making, leather working and tanneries - nearly all the tanneries of London were situated within Bermondsey’s borders.
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DECEMBER

2021

Jamaica Road, SE16
Jamaica Road was named after a house which sold limes, oranges and rum. A pleasure garden - Cherry Garden - was founded hereabouts in Bermondsey during the 17th century. Samuel Pepys visited what he called Jamaica House at Cherry Gardens in 1664. A Jacobean building, Jamaica House stood in Cherry Garden Street until the 1860s, named after the newly-acquired Jamaica. It was possibly a place where limes, oranges and rum were available to serve guests of Cherry Garden.

Part of the line of Jamaica Road was already present albeit in a very short stretch, surrounded by market gardens, on Rocque’s 1756 map. Jamaica Road was named after the house, and named variously as Bermondsey New Road and then Jamaica Row as it was extended later in the eighteenth century.

In 1829. St James’ Church was built near Jamaica Road by James Savage.

By the late Victorian era, Jamaica Road had taken a turn seriously downmarket - housing of appalling condition filled the area and many residents were very poor. Little of...
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