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

APRIL

2022

Rook Street, E14
Rook Street - at first called Mary Street - ran between Poplar High Street and East India Road. Rook Street ran where the Will Crooks Estate stands today.

Before the building of the East India Dock Road in 1806 the only roads running north from the High Street were North Street (leading to Bow Common) and Bow Lane/Robin Hood Lane, which merged to form a single road leading to Bromley.

The Wade estate lay to the north of Poplar High Street and had been in the hands of the Wade family since the early 1700s. A century later was held by a widow - Mary Wade.

The area between the new East India Dock Road and Poplar High Street was first developed in the early nineteenth century. Building lots along them were sold around 1810. By 1815 the area contained ’a great number of very small and dilapidated Tenements’. The leases expired in 1818 and more systematic development followed the division of the land among Mary Wade’s daughters in 1823. A modified street layout was created and building took place during the remainder of ...
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APRIL

2022

Savoy Circus, W3
Savoy Circus was officially Western Circus when it opened in 1921. The Western Avenue through the area was built in 1921. At its junction with East Acton Lane, a roundabout was laid out.

Western Circus became known as Savoy Circus when the Savoy cinema opened at the junction in 1931. The roundabout here caused severe congestion which caused its replacement by traffic lights.
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APRIL

2022

Wyleu Street, SE23
Wyleu Street arrived during the 1880s. In September 1882, the Kentish Mercury reported: "A new estate, known as the Woolmore Estate, situated between the Brockley Jack, Brockley Road, and the Freeholds, Forest Hill, is being laid out for building purposes, the roads on which have already been marked out, and will be known as Stoneden Park (sic), Court Rai Road (sic), Padbury Street, Holmesley Road, Tatnell Street, Riseldine Street, Gabriel Street, Kilgour Street, Honor Oak Park, Wyleu Street, and Maclean Street."
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APRIL

2022

Lavie Mews, W10
Lavie Mews, W10 was a mews connecting Portobello Road and Murchison Road. Lavie Mews was a tiny mews with bends in it, serving a warehouse.

It disappeared as part of the Wornington Estate redevelopments in the early 1970s.
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APRIL

2022

Ealing Broadway to Ealing Common walk
A walk full of literature and culture - all in Ealing! Ealing Station, where this walk begins, was located in the small village of Haven Green when it opened on 1 December 1838 as a station on the Great Western Railway line. Trains ran to Paddington from here and three decades later, the District Line opened its station here.

We walk straight out of the front entrance to the station, which has undergone a complete transformation to accompany the arrival of the Elizabeth Line.

Directly opposite the station, down some stairs and into an alleyway called Haven Place, was the location for the now legendary Ealing Club

Started by Alexis Corner and Cyril Davis in early 1962, the Ealing Club kickstarted the British R&B boom.

Regular players at the Saturday night blues sessions included Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Graham Bond, Jack Bruce, Malcolm Cecil, Eric Clapton, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Paul Jones, Rod Stewart, Dick Taylor, and Charlie Watts.

Manfred Mann pla...
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APRIL

2022

Whitehouse Avenue, WD6
Whitehouse Avenue was originally to be called Cornwall Avenue. Whitehouse Farm was situated on Furzehill Road, dated to the 18th century and originally spread over 200 acres. It was owned by the Church of England.

After the railway became established in the area, the population grew and as new industries were introduced more houses and roads were required, Drayton Road being the first in Boreham Wood. Developers began buying plots of land, mainly off of Shenley Road and Whitehouse Farm began to shrink. Road building off the north side of Shenley Road reached by 1918 as far to the east as Clarendon Road.

Between the wars, the founding of the film studios and work starting on the Laings estate off Elstree Way, resulted in large areas of farmland being lost. Postwar, the London County Council needed land to house London’s ‘population overspill’ and made a compulsory purchase of Laing’s land off Elstree Way, as well as farmland to the east of Theobald Street.

Whitehouse Avenue was start...
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APRIL

2022

Pratt Street, NW1
Pratt Street was named for Charles Pratt, 1st Earl of Camden. Charles Pratt was the Lord Chancellor between 1766 and 1770 and had been Attorney General.

The development of Camden Town started with the ’Kentish Town Act’ of 1788. This allowed Charles Pratt and his heirs to lay out streets on his property. There were building leases for 1400 houses.

Pratt Street named after the Earl, was started in 1791.

In the 1950s, Pratt Street was known as ’Greek Town’ due to the number of Greek Cypriots who lived here. This community disappeared as a new centre of Cypriot life began in Green Lanes, Haringay.
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APRIL

2022

Houghton Street, WC2A
Houghton Street is a street which has been ’demoted’ over time. In the early eighteenth century John Strype described Clare Street, Houghton Street and Holles Street as "well built and inhabited", but he also noted pockets of poverty in small courts north of the market.

The area went rapidly downhill in the years after, turning into a ’rookery’, until the rebuilding of the whole area to create Aldwych and Kingsway in 1904-5.

Having been founded in 1895, the LSE was looking to establish a campus which didn’t happen until after the First World War. The foundation stone of the London School of Economics ’Old Building’, on Houghton Street, was eventually laid by King George V in 1920 and the building was opened in 1922.

The LSE’s neighbours had been small businesses and shops such as Meakin’s the grocer at 18 Houghton Street, Lynn and Harding publishers at no. 17 and the Three Tuns public house at the corner of Houghton Street and Clement’s Inn Passage.
...
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APRIL

2022

Fournier Street, E1
Fournier Street is a street running east-west from Brick Lane to Commercial Street alongside Christ Church. The last street to be laid out on the Wood-Mitchell estate (which also included Princelet, Hanbury and Wilkes Streets), building began with the south side in 1726 as Christ Church was being built. Early depictions of the street reveal that its western end, the junction with Red Lion Street, was rather obstructed, which no doubt contributed to its desirability as a residential thoroughfare, especially since the properties on the south side are considered to be the finest on the estate. It was then called Church Street.

The building leases on several houses featured a restrictive covenant respecting its use for noxious trades, however silk-weaving and worsted-dying were not included and many of the properties became occupied (usually in part) by firms connected with the silk industry, some as early as 1743.

The rectory of Christ Church at No.1 Church Street (now 2 Fournier Street) was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James and was built in 1726-9. Th...
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APRIL

2022

Ladbroke Terrace, W11
Ladbroke Terrace was one of the first streets to be created on the Ladbroke estate. Building started in the 1820s at the Holland Park Avenue end, on the eastern side with four villas between the Avenue and what was to become Ladbroke Road. Others followed within ten years.

The normal development pattern seems to have been followed with James Weller Ladbroke first giving building leases, and then once the houses were constructed giving 99-year leases of the buildings at a relatively low ground rent to the developer, who could then sell the leaseholds or sublet the houses to recoup his outlay.
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APRIL

2022

Market Estate, N7
The Market Estate is situated to the north of Caledonian Park, named after the Metropolitan Cattle Market which operated on the site until the 1960s. The Market Estate is a public housing estate consisting of 271 flats and maisonettes.

Three of the six blocks that make up the estate are named after breeds of animal that were traded in the market: Tamworth (pigs), Kerry (cows) and Southdown (sheep). The remaining three blocks are called the Clock tower blocks after the market’s clock tower (which still stands) in Caledonian Park. This clock was used as a prototype for the mechanism of Big Ben.

The estate was built by the Greater London Council who had purchased the site from the Corporation of London. It was completed in 1967 to a design by architects Farber & Bartholomew. The estate became run down, neglected and plagued by anti-social behaviour.

Walkways connecting the blocks were mainly removed in the 1990s when gardens were created for most ground floor flats.

Following the death of a young boy on the estate, Christopher Pullen, residents set up the Market Estate ...
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APRIL

2022

St George’s Hill
St George’s Hill is an upmarket area of Weybridge. St George’s Hill is a private gated community having golf and tennis clubs, as well as approximately 420 houses.

The summit is 78 metres above mean sea level. In April 1649, common land on the hill had been occupied by a movement known as The Diggers, who began to farm there. They are often regarded as one of the world’s first small-scale experiments in socialism. The Diggers left the hill following a court case five months later.

With its broad summit, the hill results in views of Surrey varying from one observation point to another. This spurred on the idea for the development with views along the estate roads.

St George’s Hill first served as a home and leisure location to celebrities and successful entrepreneurs after its division into lots in the 1910s and 1920s when Walter George Tarrant built its first homes.

Land ownership is divided between homes with gardens, belonging to house owners and ...
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APRIL

2022

Sun in the Sands
The Sun in the Sands is a pub between Blackheath and Shooter’s Hill. The pub lends its name to the adjacent junction, where the A2 between central London and Kent meets the A102, which provides access to the Blackwall Tunnel.

The upland heath ridge to its east was a meeting point since the Middle Ages. It was a stopover of King Henry VIII when riding from Greenwich to Shooter’s Hill with his first Queen.

The present pub dates from around 1745 - its name comes from the sight of the setting sun amidst dust, kicked up by sheep herded by drovers from Kent headed to London. It was at first an isolated inn on heathland, frequented by highwaymen in one period known as The Trojans.

The junction was built in stages to bypass the old Roman Road between Blackheath and Dartford.
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APRIL

2022

Epsom
Epsom in Surrey lies 22 kilometres south of central London. Epsom was first recorded as Ebesham in the 10th century with its name probably deriving from that of a Saxon landowner. The street pattern is thought to have become established in the Middle Ages.

Like many other nearby settlements, Epsom is located on the spring line - where the permeable chalk of the North Downs meets impermeable London Clay.

By the early 18th century, the spring on Epsom Common was believed to have healing qualities. The mineral waters were found to be rich in magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts). Charles II was among those who regularly took the waters. The popularity of the spa declined rapidly in the 1720s.

Organised horse racing on Epsom Downs has taken place since the early 17th century. The popularity of Epsom grew as The Oaks and The Derby were established in the late 18th centruy. The first grandstand at the racecourse was constructed in 1829.

The opening of the railway station in 1847, along with th...
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APRIL

2022

Caledonian Road, N1
Caledonian Road runs north from King’s Cross. Caledonian Road was constructed in pursuance of an act of Parliament, obtained by the Battle Bridge and Holloway Road Company. The company then built the Caledonian Road in 1826 as a toll road to link the New Road at King’s Cross with the Holloway Road (part of the Great North Road), providing a new link to the West End from the north.

The first residential buildings on the road were Thornhill Terrace built in 1832 - other terraces were built in the 1840s.

Originally known as Chalk Road, its name was changed after the Royal Caledonian Asylum (for the children of poverty-stricken exiled Scots) was built here in 1828. Pentonville Prison was built in 1842 immediately to the south of the asylum.

The asylum building was demolished and its site is now occupied by local authority housing - the Caledonian Estate built 1900–7.

Between 1837 to 1849, cottages in gardens were built between Brewery Road and the site of the railw...
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APRIL

2022

Blendon
Blendon is a neighbourhood within the London Borough of Bexley, located between Bexleyheath and Sidcup. Blendon is probably named after the Bladindon family who owned land in the area.

Blendon Hall, built in 1763, was sold to a local housing developer in 1929. It was demolished to make way for suburban housing.
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APRIL

2022

The Temple
The Temple is one of the main legal districts in London and a notable centre for English law. The Temple consists of the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, which are two of the four Inns of Court. The associated area is roughly bounded by the River Thames to the south, Surrey Street to the west, Strand/Fleet Street to the north and Carmelite Street/Whitefriars Street to the east.

The Temple contains barristers’ chambers and solicitors’ offices and notable legal institutions such as the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

The name is recorded in the 12th century as Novum Templum meaning ’New Temple’. It is named after holdings once belonging to the Knights Templar. After the Knights order was suppressed in 1312, the area was divided into Inner Temple and Outer Temple (denoting what was within the City of London and what was without).

King Edward II bestowed it on his favourite, Hugh le Despencer. On Hugh’s death in 1326 the Inner Temple passed first to the mayor of London and then in 1333 to William de L...
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APRIL

2022

Bromley & Sheppard’s Colleges, BR1
Bromley and Sheppard’s Colleges today provide accommodation for retired clergy and their dependents. Founded in the 17th century, with later additions and extensions, the property includes three listed buildings.

Bromley College was founded in 1666 in the Will of John Warner, Bishop of Rochester, to provide housing for twenty poore widowes of orthodoxe and loyall clergiemen. Numerous others have since contributed further funds.

The first almshouses were built in 1670–72 around a quadrangle. A second quadrangle was instigated by Zachary Pearce, and completed in 1805. After 1821 land to the east was purchased and improvements were made to the grounds. It is the oldest building in Bromley.

Bromley College provides 40 self-contained dwellings, and Sheppard’s College a further seven.
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APRIL

2022

Parsons Green, SW6
Parsons Green is both a road and the name of the green bounded by it. Parsons Green is bounded on its three sides by the New King’s Road, the A308 and Parsons Green Lane. It is named after the rectors of the parish of Fulham whose residence once adjoined this land - subsequently, the name was adopted for the district.

From the late 17th century, the area surrounding the green became the site for fine houses and grounds built by merchants and the gentry within easy distance of London. A number of Georgian houses have survived, some of them replacing earlier Tudor and Elizabethan buildings.

An annual fundraiser called ’Fair on the Green’ is held on the green.

Fulham F.C. had their ground in Parsons Green for two years from 1889.
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APRIL

2022

Aylesbury
In 1868 the Aylesbury & Buckingham Railway - later part of the Metropolitan Railway - reached Aylesbury. The Metropolitan Railway opened from Chalfont Road in 1892 to a separate station named Aylesbury (Brook Street) adjacent to the GWR station. It closed in 1894 when services were diverted to the GWR station.

The Metropolitan Railway ran through trains from Baker Street to Verney Junction via Aylesbury and which operated until 1936. From 1948 to 1961 Aylesbury was the terminus of the Metropolitan’s main line, on which trains had to change between electric and steam locomotives at Rickmansworth. Following electrification from Rickmansworth to Amersham, Aylesbury stopped being served by London Underground trains.

The Great Central Railway reached Aylesbury in 1899 from Annesley Junction just north of Nottingham on its London extension line to London Marylebone. Until 1966 Aylesbury was an intermediate station on the former Great Central Main Line between London Marylebone and Sheffield Victoria and on to Manchester London Road via the Woodhead Tunnel....
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APRIL

2022

Stoke Mandeville
Stoke Mandeville was a station on the Metropolitan Line. Stoke Mandeville station was opened on 1 September 1892, by the Metropolitan Railway, when its main line was extended from Chalfont Road to Aylesbury Town. The Great Central Railway served the station from 1899, connecting the station to Leicester, Nottingham, and Sheffield.

London Transport services ceased in 1961.
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APRIL

2022

Wendover
Wendover was a station on the Metropolitan Line. Wendover station was opened on 1 September 1892 by the Metropolitan Railway when the railway extended to Aylesbury. London Underground services finished in 1961 when the main line took over - now Chiltern Railways.
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APRIL

2022

Great Missenden
Great Missenden once had its own Metropolitan Line station. Great Missenden is a large village in the valley of the River Misbourne in the Chiltern Hills lying between Amersham and Wendover. It is a few kilometres to the south of the prime minister’s country residence at Chequers and the village is now best known as home to the late Roald Dahl.

In 2019 the local postcode of HP16 was noted as the most affluent place in England.

Great Missenden station was opened on 1 September 1892 by the Metropolitan Railway when the railway was extended from Chalfont Road (now Chalfont and Latimer) to Aylesbury Town. The Great Central Railway also served the station from 1899 onwards, linking the station with Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield.

After the Metropolitan Railway became Metropolitan line of the London Underground, the line was fully electrified in the early 1960s only as far as Amersham. This meant that Great Missenden would now only be served by main line services. Responsibility for the railway...
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APRIL

2022

Kennington Tollgate
The Kennington toll gate stood at the intersection of Kennington Park and Camberwell New Road/Brixton Road. The Kennington Turnpike was one of a number of ’turnpike’ roads that sprang up. Roads were improved and then charges levied, following the General Turnpike Act of 1773. Turnpike trusts were created as a result. However, the act that created this turnpike was passed in 1751.

The Kennington Turnpike lay on the main route for coaches and omnibuses to and from the south. The toll gate stood on the junction where the two old Roman roads out of London diverged.

The toll was abolished on 18 November 1865.
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APRIL

2022

Grove Farm
Grove Farm changed usage between a farm and a house before being overwhelmed by suburbia. Around 1754, there were about 16 houses with small gardens in Golders Green, most of them built on the side of the road. In 1814 Golders Green was reported as containing ’many ornamental villas and cottages, surrounded with plantations’. In 1828 detached houses spread on both sides of the road as far as Brent bridge. Grove Farm - or Grove House - was one of these.

The villas in their wooded grounds, which gave Golders Green its special character, disappeared rapidly with the growth of suburban housing after the extension of the Underground.

The name of the building was preserved in the road name The Grove which was built over the top of the original house.
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APRIL

2022

Arundel Gardens, W11
Arundel Gardens was built towards the end of the development of the Ladbroke Estate, in the early 1860s. By the 1850s the Ladbroke family, who owned this land was beginning to sell off freehold parcels of undeveloped land, one of which consisted of the land between the south side of Arundel Gardens and the north side of Ladbroke Gardens.

This was acquired in 1852 by Richard Roy, a solicitor who had already been involved in building speculation in Cheltenham. He appears to have done nothing with the Arundel Gardens part of his land until 1862-3, when building leases were granted for the houses on the south side (numbers 1-47). Around the same time, leases were granted to three other builders to build houses on the north side (Edwin Ware for Nos. 2-14). The survey done by the Ordnance Survey in 1863 shows that the south side was complete by then, but only a few houses had been built on the north side, at the Kensington Park Road end. Building clearly proceeded apace, however, as an 1865 plan, done when the street was given its current name and numbers (it was originally cal...
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APRIL

2022

Corringway, NW11
Corringway included a unique Hampstead Garden Suburb feature - a large block of garages (now demolished) The rigidity of Edwardian society is shown by the way the chauffeurs’ flats were built directly over the garages. The houses on each side of Corringway were specifically intended for members of the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust’s staff.
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APRIL

2022

Silverdale Road, WD23
Silverdale Road lies between Aldenham Road and Grange Road. The road dates from the Edwardian era.
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APRIL

2022

Sumatra Road, NW6
Sumatra Road, NW6 dates from the 1870s. New roads were constructed in the late 1870s. 346 houses were built between 1882 and 1894 in Sumatra Road, Solent Road, Holmdale Road, Glenbrook Road, Pandora Road, and Narcissus Road, mostly by JI Chapman of Solent Road, GW Cossens of Mill Lane, Jabez Reynolds of Holmdale Road and James Gibb of Dennington Park Road.

The area suffered during the Second World War, although not so badly as to necessitate large-scale rebuilding. One bomb site included nos. 76-86 Sumatra Road and nos. 9-17 Solent Road. There were replaced by an open space and clinic.
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APRIL

2022

Wentworth Street, E1
Wentworth Street runs east-west from the junction of Brick Lane, Osborn Street and Old Montague Street to Middlesex Street. The street forms part of the boundary between Spitalfields and St Mary’s Whitechapel.

The earliest depiction of Wentworth Street appears c.1560, bounded by hedges. However the area immediately east of Petticoat Lane (Middlesex Street) was built up by the 1640s with substantial houses divided by yards and gardens. The southern side of Wentworth Street had properties whereas the northern side formed the boundary of the Tenter Ground, an open space used for stretching and drying silk (there were several ’tenter grounds’ in the immediate area). The northern side east of Brick Lane formed the southern boundary of the Fossan Estate.

The street was so named after Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Cleveland who owned much land in the area in the 1630s and 1640s, although early maps call it ’Wentford Street’ and ’Winford Street’, probably both unintentional errors.

The entire length of Wentworth Street from Petticoa...
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APRIL

2022

Holborn Viaduct, EC1A
Holborn Viaduct is a road bridge in London and the name of the street which crosses it. It links Holborn, via Holborn Circus, with Newgate Street, in the City of London financial district, passing over Farringdon Street and the subterranean River Fleet. The viaduct spans the steep-sided Holborn Hill and the River Fleet valley at a length of 430 metres and 24 metres wide. City surveyor William Haywood was the architect and the engineer was Rowland Mason Ordish.

It was built between 1863 and 1869, as a part of the Holborn Valley Improvements, which included a public works scheme which improved access into the City from the West End, with better traffic flow and distribution around the new Holborn Circus, the creation of Queen Victoria Street, the rebuilding of Blackfriars Bridge, the opening of the Embankment section into the City, the continuation of Farringdon Street as Farringdon Road and associated railway routes with Farringdon station and Ludgate Hill station. It was opened by Queen Victoria at the same time as the inauguration of the other thoroughf...
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