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

JULY

2022

Wallwood Road, E11
Wallwood Road is named after an old house. The area between Preston Road, Colworth Road and the A12 was part of the manor of Ruckholt which was once owned by Stratford Langthorne Abbey.

Historian Frederick Temple believed that Walwood House included the land northeast of Colworth Road as far as the boundary fences of the gardens to properties in Whipps Cross Road. He places Walwood House itself on what became Chadwick Road and Whipps Cross Road.

Walwood House, with just over five acres of land, was sold in 1894 to Thomas Ashbridge Smith, a businessman from Whitechapel, for £4000.

The solicitors employed in this transaction and many other were Fladgate & Company and Maple, Teesdale and Company. These three provided the names of three new roads.

Smith appointed a syndicate who were instrumental in laying out the roads, the general development and sales.

Joseph Holland, a Leytonstone builder, was responsible for the erection of practically the whole of ...
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JULY

2022

Beaumont Road Estate
Beaumont Road is a housing estate located in Leyton and the largest housing estate in the borough of Waltham Forest. The Beaumont Road Estate became the final high rise estate (with 20-plus-storey towers) in Leyton.

The estate was built in two stages. Stage 1 consisted of one 20-storey tower called All Saints’ Tower, while an extension to Stage 1 (approved in 1965) consisted of another 20-storey tower called St Paul’s Tower. Stage 2, approved in 1966, consisted of one 20-storey tower called St Catherine’s Tower.

In addition, 23 low rise blocks were also approved in 1966.

The original estate comprised:

All Saints Tower
St Cathrine’s Tower
St Paul’s Tower
St Thomas Court
St Elizabeth Court
St Edward’s Court
St Josephs Court
St Mathews Court
St Mark’s Court
St Lukes Court
Flack Court
Emanuel Court
Ayerst Court
Muriel Court
Russel Court
Osbourne Court
Howell Court
Kings Close
Dar...
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JULY

2022

Adelaide House, EC3R
Adelaide House is a Grade II listed Art Deco office building in the City of London. On King William Street adjacent to London Bridge, Adelaide House is an example of the ’Steel Frame’ technique. When it completed construction in 1925, it stood as the tallest office building in the City of London at 141 feet. The technique used to build this iconic structure later became an integral part of the construction of skyscrapers worldwide.

The building’s name honoured King William IV’s wife, Queen Adelaide, who had, in 1831, performed the opening ceremony of London Bridge.

It was designed in an Art Deco style by Sir John Burnet and Thomas S. Tait. There were Egyptian influences, popular at the time because of the recent discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb.

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JULY

2022

Ladbroke Grove, W10
Ladbroke Grove runs from Notting Hill to Kensal Green, and straddles the W10 and W11 postal districts. Only during the last half of Victoria’s reign was the northern portion of Ladbroke Grove begun. Whether by accident or design, continuing the line of Ladbroke Grove in the same direction meant that it met a footbridge over the canal south of the Kilburn Lane/Harrow Road intersection. The road was subsequently built and originally took the name Ladbroke Grove Road in the northern section.

By 1859 the effects of the over-building of early 1850s Notting Hill were diminishing; empty houses were being occupied for the first time, and half-finished shells were being completed, particularly on and near the Ladbroke estate, where early in 1860, new financial backers were found. With confidence thus restored, the maintenance of the boom in northern Kensington was principally due to the re-opening of the West London Railway to passenger traffic in 1863 and the opening of the Hammersmith and City Railway, which traversed the fields of Notting Dale, in 1864. In anticipation o...
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JULY

2022

Old St Pancras Churchyard
Old St Pancras churchyard, served not only as a burial place for the parishioners but also for Roman Catholics from all around London. St Pancras Old Church claims to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in the world. With the original graveyard design dating back to the church’s Saxon period, it must be regarded as one of the oldest Christian burial places in England.

Many French refugees who had fled the Revolution were buried here. Many foreign dignitaries and aristocrats were buried in the graveyard - they are commemorated on the Burdett-Coutts Memorial Sundial placed here.

The architect John Soane designed a tomb for his wife and himself in the churchyard. This mausoleum may have provided the inspiration for the design by Giles Gilbert Scott of the iconic red telephone boxes.

Mary Wollstonecraft was originally buried here, though her remains now lie in Bournemouth.

Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley planned their 1814 elopement over meetings at the grave of Mary Wollstonecraft - her mother.

Charles Dickens mentioned...
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JULY

2022

Houghton Street (1906)
A greengrocer’s on the corner of Houghton Street and Clare Market (behind The Strand) in 1906 just before demolition. The thoroughfare known as Clare Market, leading eastwards into Lincoln’s Inn Fields, was so called in honour of the Earl of Clare, who lived "in a princely mansion" adjacent. His name is inscribed as a parishioner of St. Clement Danes in the ratebooks of 1617. In Howell’s "Londinopolis" of 1657 we read: "Then is there, towards Drury Lane, a new market, called Clare Market; then is there a street and palace of the same name, built by the Earl of Clare, who lived there in a princely mansion, having a house, a street, and a market both for flesh and fish, all bearing his name." It is also mentioned by Strype:- "Clare Market, very considerable and well served with provisions, both flesh and fish; for, besides the butchers in the shambles, it is much resorted unto by the country butchers and higglers. The market-days are Wednesdays and Saturdays."

"This market," says Nightingale, in the tenth volume of the Beauties of England and Wales, "stands on what was...
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JULY

2022

The Hare
The Hare is situated at 505 Cambridge Heath Road. The Hare has existed on this site since the 1770s. The current building dates from around 1860.
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JULY

2022

Portman Square, W1H
Portman Square part of the Portman Estate, located at the western end of Wigmore Street. It was built between 1765 and 1784 on land belonging to Henry William Portman. It included residences of Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton, Sir Brook Bridges, 3rd Baronet, Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, George Keppel, 6th Earl of Albemarle, Sir Charles Asgill, 1st Baronet and William Henry Percy. Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife maintained his London residence at 15 Portman Square.

Montagu House, at the northwest corner, was built by James Stuart for Elizabeth Montagu. She used to give a roast beef and plum pudding dinner for chimneysweeps and their apprentices on Mayday. One of them, David Porter, grew up to be a builder and named Montagu square in her honour.

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JULY

2022

Adelaide Road, NW3
Adelaide Road was begun in 1837 as William IV’s reign drew to a close. Queen Adelaide was the consort of King William IV, whom he married in a vain attempt to provide an heir to the throne.

Eton College had owned the land hereabouts but, as late as 1811, there were still only six houses on their entire estate.

The first proposals to develop the estate were made in the early 1820s, encouraged by the building boom nearby, especially around Regent’s Park to the south.

On the advice of its London solicitor, Eton College appointed John Shaw, the developer of St John’s Wood, as surveyor and in 1826 obtained an Act to grant 99-year building leases. Shaw refrained from drawing up a scheme for the whole estate because the market for such projects had collapsed.

Throughout the 1830s Eton considered ambitious plans for the southern part of the estate- for a giant mausoleum at Primrose Hill, a cemetery full of classical buildings, and a botanical garden. But in 1842 the hill was acquired for pu...
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JULY

2022

Ampthill Square Estate
The Ampthill Square Estate (also known as the Ampthill Estate) is a housing estate built in the mid 1960s to replace Victorian housing in the area. The Ampthill Square Estate was originally composed of eight 6-storey blocks on its east side and three distinctive 21-storey high rises on the west side. In total, the estate had 366 flats and maisonettes, 240 of which are in the towers.

The site was formerly known as Fig Mead, developed as a garden suburb by the Duke of Bedford in the nineteenth century. The estate took names from Ampthill, the Bedfordshire town where the Dukes of Bedford owned Houghton House. Half of Ampthill Square itself was bought by the London and Birmingham Railway for its tracks into Euston station. While Ampthill Square itself previously had two bridges that crossed the railways into Euston, the rebuilt estate is separated from the western side of the railway.
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JULY

2022

Lidlington Place, NW1
Lidlington Place, named after a village in Bedfordshire, connects Houghton Place and Eversholt Street. The land west and north of Somers Town, bounded by the Hampstead Road and Crowndale Road, belonged to the Bedford Estate.

It was shown planned for development on Britton’s map of 1834. Its main features are three irregular-shaped "squares": Ampthill Square (crescent-shaped), Harrington Square (a triangle) and Oakley Square.

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JULY

2022

Tavistock Road, W11
Tavistock Road was developed in the late 1860s alongside the Hammersmith and City railway line from Westbourne Park station. Tavistock Road was originally Tavistock Terrace until 1870. On the 1900s Charles Booth map, Tavistock Road is described as comfortable mixed/fairly comfortable.

The 1968 Notting Hill Fair/Carnival concluded at the London Free School ’shanty town’ adventure playground between Tavistock Crescent and Tavistock Road, with an ’open air dance’ featuring the mod band the Action, Ginger Johnson, Pure Medicine and a steel band.

The St Luke’s Road corner of Tavistock Road hosted the Metro Youth Club, the scene of Alton Ellis and Aswad gigs and various police incidents in the 1970s.

During the 1976 Carnival Tavistock Road became the riot frontline between the police and youths. The junction with Portobello also appears in the car chase in ’The Squeeze’ film, starring Stacy Keach and Freddie Starr.

The Tavistock junction with Portobello has been a pedestrian precinct since 1982, known as Portobello or Tavistock square, piazza or plaza.
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JULY

2022

St Mary Abbots Hospital
St Mary Abbot’s Hospital operated from 1871 to 1992. From 1846 to 1869 the site housed the Kensington Parish Workhouse. The hospital had both medical and surgical wards and the medical wards held forty beds and included dementia patients.

The grounds had two nurses homes: one for the incoming trainees and one for nurses who had completed the three month preliminary training and a nurses training school. There were operating suites a laboratory with area for postmortems, emergency dept and out patients. There was an administration building which also held doctors quarters. Everything was spread out over quite a large area. The hospital’s school of Midwifery was also in the grounds.

The hospital was badly bombed in 1940 which resulted in an open bomb site within the hospital grounds. Four people were killed and a block destroyed. In 1944 a V-1 flying bomb scored a direct hit. The south end of the 1847 main block, Stone Hall, and 1871 infirmary were destroyed. Five nurses, six children and seven adult patients died. The other 33 casualties were transferred to St Georg...
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JULY

2022

Jewin Crescent
Jewin Crescent - as The Crescent - existed from the end of the eighteenth century. Jewin Crescent was a narrow street with tall buildings on either side. The Crescent became Jewin Crescent in 1878. Prior to the erection of the Crescent in 1799, the site was occupied by Bull Head Court and Nixon’s Square.

It lay within the ward of Cripplegate Without which meant that it was outside the City wall.

“There is a green hill far away, without a City wall.” Outside the Christian city meant that a non-Christiam cemetery could be placed here and Jewin Crescent marks the site of what was the only permitted Jewish cemetery in England up until 1177.

At the end of Jewin Crescent stood an eighteenth-century Wesleyan Chapel. This was sold in the 1870s with the receipts being passed over to the Wesleyan Chapel in City Road.

The Jewin Welsh Presbyterian Chapel (Eglwys Gymraeg Jewin) stood on Jewin Crescent between 1822 and 1879, after which it moved to Clerkenwell.

The 1897 Great Fire in Crip...
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JULY
18
2022

Ravenscourt Park
Ravenscourt Park is served by the District line and is located between Hammersmith and Stamford Brook stations. Ravenscourt Park station shares its name with the nearby Ravenscourt Park open space.

The line through the station was opened on 1 January 1869 by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) on a new branch line to Richmond. Ravenscourt Park station was opened as Shaftesbury Road by the L&SWR on 1 April 1873.

On 1 June 1877, the District Railway opened a short extension from its terminus at Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR tracks east of Ravenscourt Park station. The District then began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond.

The Richmond branch was a major stimulus to residential development along the route and traffic on the line was high. On 1 March 1888, the station was given its present name in advance of the nearby park being opened to the public. Following the electrification of its tracks north of Acton Town in 1903, the District funded the electrification of the tracks through Ravenscourt Park in July 1905.
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JULY
17
2022

The Grapes
The Grapes is a Grade II listed public house situated directly on the north bank of the Thames in Limehouse with a veranda overlooking the water. To its landward side, the The Grapes is found at number 76 Narrow Street, flanked by former warehouses now converted to residential and other uses.

The current building dates from the 1720s and is on the site of a pub built in 1583. It was formerly a working-class tavern serving the dockers of the Limehouse Basin.
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JULY
16
2022

Finborough Road, SW10
Finborough Road derives its name from the country seat in Suffolk of the local landowning Pettiward family. Finborough Road was built as part of the Redcliffe Estate by builders William Corbett and Alexander McClymont.

While the layout of local roads dated from 1864, it took until 1882 for the approximately 82 acres of the Redcliffe Estate to be completed. The majority of the estate was constructed by Corbett and McClymont who, in 1878, were declared bankrupt.
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JULY
15
2022

Severnake Road, NW3
The Isokon building is a concrete block of 34 flats designed by architect Wells Coates for Molly and Jack Pritchard, as an experiment in communal living. Early famous residents of the Isokon Flats included Bauhaus émigrés Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy, architects Egon Riss and Arthur Korn, Agatha Christie (between 1940–46) and Adrian Stokes. Jack and Molly Pritchard lived in the penthouse. The British architect Sir James Frazer Stirling was a resident during the 1960s.

A number of 1930s Isokon residents were later identified as Soviet agents and in the 1930s and Cold War period the building under surveillance by the British security services. In the mid-1930s Flat 7 was occupied by Dr Arnold Deutsch, the NKVD agent who recruited the Cambridge Five.

The communal kitchen was converted into the Isobar restaurant in 1937, to a design by Marcel Breuer.

The Isokon company folded during World War II. In 1969 the building was sold to the New Statesman magazine and the Isobar was converted into flats. In 1972 the building was sold to Camden London Borough Council, and gr...
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JULY
14
2022

Embankment to Charing Cross walk
Arguably the shortest walk between two stations of the London Underground .
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JULY
14
2022

Bread Street Hill, EC4V
Bread Street Hill was the southern continuation of Bread Street, running between Old Fish Street and Thames Street. Before Queen Victoria Street was laid out between 1867 and 1871, Bread Street continued south to the River Thames.

The earliest record of Bread Street itself was 1189. Back then, bread was baked on premises in Bread Street and sold in the market in Cheapside. Before the 17th century, it is likely that Bread Street Hill was then known as part of Bread Street.

John Donne was born in the street in 1573.

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JULY
13
2022

Pavilion Road, SW1X
Pavilion Road is London’s longest mews and runs parallel to Sloane Street. In 1771, builder Henry Holland and his architect son, also Henry, forward an ambitious scheme for 89 acres of fields which then belonged to the heirs of Sir Hans Sloane and was later part of the Cadogan estate.

The agreement covered the area from Knightsbridge in the north to Turk’s Row and White Lion Street in the south. Building was delayed and in 1776 Holland proposed a building lease for 34 acres.

Sloane Street was laid out and leases for houses on the west side of Sloane Street date from 1777. Some leases for houses in the mews behind Sloane Street (now Pavilion Road) date from 1788.

An unusual feature of the building scheme was Hans Place. It was laid out by Holland on part of the 47 acres he held in reserve. He took three acres to the south of it to build a house for himself , framed by the southern opening of Hans Place and which he occupied by 1789. It was initially called Sloane Place but later ’The Pavilion’, a ...
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JULY
12
2022

Michelin House
Michelin House was opened in 1911 as the first permanent UK headquarters for the Michelin Tyre Company Ltd. Michelin House is an example of late Modern Style (British Art Nouveau) and early Art Deco. It was designed and built at the end of the Art-Nouveau period.

Designed by François Espinasse, the building has three large stained-glass windows based on Michelin advertisements of the time. At the front of the original building there are decorative tiles showing famous racing cars of the time that used Michelin tyres.

In April 1969 the front section of the Michelin Building was Grade II listed.

Michelin moved out of the building in 1985 and it was purchased by restaurateur/retailer Sir Terence Conran and publisher Paul Hamlyn. They embarked on a major redevelopment and restoration project and in 1987 the building reopened as mixed-use - with stores, a restaurant, bar and office space.
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JULY
11
2022

Walton Street, SW1X
Walton Street is a major road of Chelsea. The road was named after George Walton Onslow, a former trustee of the Smith’s Charity.

Running parallel to Brompton Road between South Kensington and Knightsbridge, Walton Street in Chelsea is now filled with boutiques and galleries. Though flanked by Harrods and The Conran Shop, it’s an enclave of independent shops.

Back in the day, Walton Street also had a panache for hosting a series of independent shops. The photo features shops repairing furniture, selling blinds and offering "shampooing". Fashionable, well-dressed Edwardians feature in the photograph - the street was once home to the humorist P.G. Wodehouse

Most notably in the image though, compared with modern days, is the health and safety nightmare of a ladder running from the pavement all the way to the roof.
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JULY
10
2022

Lennox Gardens, SW1X
Named after Lord William Lennox, Lennox Gardens skirts the central gardens of the same name. Lennox Gardens was built over the final remaining market garden in the area which still existed during the 1870s.

Building in the Queen Anne style took place piecemeal over most of the Cadogan Estate after 1874. In Hans Town the Estate engaged in wholesale rebuilding as well as developing the remaining open land, seeking a style and type of building which united the area with the upper middle-class areas to the east.

The red-brick and terracotta Queen Anne style was radically different from the existing stock brick and stucco in neo-classical or Italianate style that existed in Hans Town and neighbouring Belgravia. The style was used in this new form for mainly speculative building.

The Queen Anne version developed here, with forms and motifs borrowed from 17th-century Flemish town houses, emphasized the individuality of each house.

The 54 houses of Lennox Gardens were under construction in 1882 and completed by 1886. In the ...
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JULY
9
2022

Cadogan Hall
Cadogan Hall is a 950-seat capacity concert hall in Sloane Terrace. Cadogan Hall is a former Church of Christ, Scientist church, completed in 1907 to designs in the Byzantine Revival style by architect Robert Fellowes Chisholm. It replaced another church on the site and the building was listed Grade II on the National Heritage List in April 1969. The stained glass is by the Danish sculptor and stained-glass artist Arild Rosenkrantz. The church had a three-manual pipe organ built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd in 1907 and installed in 1911. The organ was removed in 2004.

By 1996, after the congregation had diminished, the building had fallen into disuse. Cadogan Estates purchased the building in 2000 and it was refurbished in 2004 by Paul Davis and Partners Architects.

The resident music ensemble at Cadogan Hall is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), the first London orchestra to have a permanent home. Cadogan Estates offered the RPO the use of the hall as its principal venue in late 2001.
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JULY
8
2022

Wedlake Street, W10
Wedlake Street arrived as the second wave of building in Kensal Town was completed. Although a small street, Wedlake Street led first to a ferry which cost a halfpenny to cross the canal, and later to steps over the canal to the Harrow Road.

A night market was held on Saturdays on the site of Wedlake Street - it was notorious for rowdy scenes until an iron chapel was built on the site.

Wedlake Street baths was constructed in the street.
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JULY
7
2022

Osborn Street, E1
Osborn Street is a short road leading from Whitechapel Road to the crossroads with Brick Lane, Wentworth Street and Old Montague Street. Originally a narrow continuation of Brick Lane, it once went under the name of ’Dirty Lane’, being paved and widened c.1778. It was named after the Osborn family of Chicksand Priory, Bedfordshire who were prominent landowners here.

Most of the street was destroyed during the Second World War and thus most surviving buildings are post-1945.
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JULY
6
2022

Ludgate Circus, EC4M
Ludgate Circus is a junction in the City of London where Farringdon Street and New Bridge Street cross Fleet Street/Ludgate Hill. The name ’Ludgate’ was derived from the belief that the gate had been created by the pre-Roman British king of London, King Lud. When a new gate was built, a statue on it depicted King Lud, along with one of Queen Elizabeth I.

In time, the site of Ludgate Circus - also originally known as Farringdon Circus - replaced the gate. The River Fleet, long since buried, was crossed by Fleet Street here. Fleet Street was the only direct road between the City of London and Westminster until the Embankment was opened in 1870. The facades of the buildings facing the Circus were constructed between 1864 and 1875 - the facing was of Haytor granite from Dartmoor transported via the prototype Haytor Granite Tramway.
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JULY
5
2022

Fulham
Fulham is an area in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 (the successor to the Metropolitan Borough of Fulham). Fulham lies on the north bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It was formerly the seat of the diocese of Fulham and Gibraltar, and Fulham Palace served as the former official home of the Bishop of London (now a museum), the grounds of which are now divided between public allotments and an elegant botanical garden.

The area is home to the Fulham Football Club stadium Craven Cottage and the Chelsea Football Club stadium Stamford Bridge and the various flats and entertainment centres built into it.

Famously exclusive sports club, the Hurlingham Club, is also located within Fulham. With members having included British monarchs, the waiting list for membership currently averages over fifteen years.

Fulham Broadway has undergone considerable pedestrianisation and is home to a number of cafes, bars and salons.

Fulham has severa...
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JULY
4
2022

Hampstead Grove, NW3
Hampstead Grove runs parallel to Heath Street and leads south to Holly Bush Hill. The oldest mention of a thoroughfare at what was later Hampstead Grove is that outside ’Ostend’ - the first name for Fenton House which is dated 1693. There was a nearby windmill nearby from the early 1600s. In 1666 Robert Dixon conveyed seven cottages, with land called ’Millhill’, to a brickmaker. Millhill, where there were grants of waste in the 1680s, was presumably Windmill Hill, named in 1709.

The west side of Hampstead Grove is now largely made up of the boundary wall to Fenton House whose entrance faces Windmill Hill. On the east side is the mansion block Heath Mansions. Old Grove House and New Grove House are listed early 18th century houses that back onto The Mount Square.

Admiral’s Walk linking Hampstead Grove to Lower Terrace is dominated by Admiral House at its western end.

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JULY
3
2022

Brudenell Road, SW17
Brudenell Road leads southeast from Upper Tooting Road. Brudenell Road was built in the first decade of the twentieth century. It was named after George Brudenell-Bruce, the 4th Marquess of Ailesbury (1863–1894) by his widow, Lady Brudenell-Bruce who financed the building of All Saints Church, a little way along the street in 1906. Lady Brudenell-Bruce wanted to place the church in a ’godless part of South London’ and Tooting was chosen!

The church is known for its interior - referred to as ‘The Cathedral of South London’ by John Betjeman. It is also renowned for its acoustics which has attracted recording artists such as Paul McCartney, Luciano Pavarotti and Kiri Te Kanawa. There are regular concerts here.

Opposite the Upper Tooting Road end of the street are the oldest surviving original buildings in the area from the late 17th century.

The nearby Balham Telephone and Labour Exchange (built in 1937) was where comedian Paul Merton worked here for seven years as a clerical officer.
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JULY
2
2022

Woolwich Ferry
The Woolwich Ferry is a free vehicle and pedestrian ferry across the River Thames. A ferry has operated at Woolwich since the 14th century, and commercial crossings operated intermittently until the mid-19th century. The free service opened in 1889 after tolls were abolished on bridges to the west of London.

Traffic increased in the 20th century due to the rise in motor vehicle traffic and it remained popular because of the lack of nearby bridges. Pedestrian use dropped after the construction of a parallel foot tunnel and the extension of the Docklands Light Railway to Woolwich Arsenal station. Alternatives such as the Thames Gateway Bridge and Gallions Reach Crossing have been proposed as replacements, but there are no plans to discontinue the Woolwich Ferry.

Around two million passengers use the ferry each year.

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JULY
1
2022

Brick Lane Music Hall
Brick Lane Music Hall is located in the former St Mark’s Church, Silvertown. St Mark’s Church, Silvertown was founded as a joint church and school, housed in an iron building and opened in 1857.

The building survived the war but a major fire in 1981 largely destroyed the roof, which was replaced between 1984 and 1989.

After the fire, the Brick Lane Music Hall moved there, converting it to its present use in 2003 to host traditional music hall shows. The music hall had opened in 1992 in the former Truman’s Brewery building in Brick Lane, before moving to Shoreditch and then to here. It was established by Vincent Hayes, who had previously run and performed in Music Hall shows at the Lord Hood pub, where he was landlord during the 1980s.

The church’s exterior was left largely unchanged, whilst a stage, bar, kitchen and lighting and sound equipment were added to the interior, with offices housed in the church’s former vestry.
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