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 left and then clicking Reset Location.

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

You can also view historical maps of London - click on the "pile of paper" control on the top right of a page's map to change to a particular decade.

Latest on The Underground Map...

Clarendon Road, WD6

Clarendon Road runs north from Shenley Road. The road is older than most streets in Borehamwood, dating as it does from prior to the First World War. It receives its name from the Earl of Essex and Clarendon who also built the Nascot estate in Watford a few decades previous to its construction.

Clarendon Road and Eldon Avenue are now the two entrances into the BBC Elstree Centre, previously ATV/Central TV and the Rock Studios before that.

»more

MAY

2020

Streatham Vale
The development of Streatham Vale dates from the 1920s Although the Greyhound Inn was established around 1730, the area was rural until the early twentieth century.

In 1875, the western half of Greyhound Lane became Streatham Vale.

From 1922, the Streatham Vale Estate - built largely by two firms, R.H. Miller and Wates of Norbury - kickstarted suburban development.

Around 1930 schools opened on Streatham Vale, the Greyhound Inn was rebuilt and the River Graveney was culverted to prevent flooding.
»read full article

MAY

2020

Abercairn Road, SW16
Abercairn Road was the first road laid out in the Streatham Vale Estate Abercairn Road and its offshoots were first constructed by the builder R.H. Miller in 1922.
»read full article

MAY

2020

Eardley Road, SW16
Eardley Road dates from the 1870s In 1875, the local station was renamed Streatham Common in place of its former name of Greyhound Lane.

Just after this date, the first houses appeared on Eardley Road and a handful of industries were established, bringing local employment opportunities.
»read full article

MAY

2020

Streatham Vale, SW16
Streatham Vale was created when Greyhound Lane was split in two by the arrival of the railway The lane began as a track connecting Mitcham with Norwood. By 1730, the Greyhound Inn was in existance.

The opening of Greyhound^ Lane station in 1862 at first brought few changes to the rural area. In 1875 the station was renamed Streatham Common and after that date half of Greyhound Lane became Streatham Vale.

In 1922, the Streatham Vale Estate was built. The building firm Wates of Norbury built eastwards from Streatham Vale to the railway.

Subsequently, schools opened on either side of Streatham Vale and the Greyhound Inn was rebuilt.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

22 Maxilla Gardens
22 Maxilla Gardens is a now-demolished property.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

24 Maxilla Gardens
This is an article about 24 Maxilla Gardens.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

Dollis Hill House
Dollis Hill House was an early 19th-century farmhouse located on the modern-day northern boundary of Gladstone Park. It was built as a farmhouse in 1825 by the Finch family and later occupied by Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, who subsequently became Lord Tweedmouth. In 1881 Lord Tweedmouth’s daughter and her husband, Lord Aberdeen, took up residence. They often had Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone to stay as a guest. Other guests at the house included Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Rosebery, and Lord Randolph Churchill, father of Winston Churchill.

In 1897 Lord Aberdeen was appointed Governor-General of Canada and the Aberdeens moved out. When Willesden Urban District Council acquired the house and land in 1899, they named the park Gladstone Park after the old Prime Minister who had died the previous year.

Newspaper proprietor Hugh Gilzean-Reid occupied the house after the Aberdeens moved out, and his guests included the American author Mark Twain, who stayed at Dollis Hill house in the summer of 1900. Twain wrote that he had "never seen any place that was so satisfa...
»more

MARCH

2016

Hendon Central (1923)
Photographed in 1923, this stretch of Butchers Lane would soon become Hendon Central Circus and have Watford Way built along the route of the old lane. Taken at the junction of Queens Road, this photograph is taken on more or less the same spot as a 1928 photo (though viewing east rather than north).
»read full article

MARCH

2016

Hendon Central (1928)
Photographed in 1928, this stretch of Watford Way at Hendon Central Circus had recently been built along ancient Butchers Lane and shops were rapidly lining its sides. The United Dairies occupied the domed building, a prestigeous site. Further up Hendon Way you can see an island site between the two carriageways with a pond and war memorial. The houses here were demolished in the 1940s.

Taken at the junction of Queens Road, this photograph is taken on more or less the same spot as a 1923 photo.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

City Racing
City Racing was an artist-run space in Kennington, South London which was active between 1988 and 1998. It was a cooperative by five artists Matt Hale, Paul Noble, John Burgess, Keith Coventry and Peter Owen. They set up the gallery in a former betting shop near The Oval Cricket Ground, hence the derivation of the gallery name. City Racing became an important and renowned exhibition space; its openings provided a networking opportunity for many artists.

In its later years, City Racing was accepted to some extent by the art establishment, and was viewed by some as a route for artists to other more commercial and established galleries.

Read the City Racing entry on the Wikipedia...
»read full article

MARCH

2016

The Royal School, Hampstead
The Royal School, Hampstead, was an independent girls’ day and boarding school. The school educated girls aged 3-16. The Royal School was founded in 1855 as the Soldiers’ Infant Home before becoming the Royal Soldiers’ Daughters’ School on this site in 1867. It was established "to nurse, board, clothe and educate the female children, orphans or not, of soldiers in Her Majesty’s Army killed in the Crimean War".

Old Vane House previously stood on the site - the residence of Sir Harry Vane of the Commonwealth, and later of Bishop Butler. The Home stood on the site of the south wing of this building, and included no part of it.

As the Daughter’s School, as described in 1902: "At the back a large extent of grass playground stretched out westward, and at the end of this there was a grove of trees. On one side of the grass is a large playroom built in 1880 by means of an opportune legacy, and on the other a covered cloister which led to the school, standing detached from the house at the other end of the playground. An old pier burdened with a mass of ivy stood up ...
»more

MARCH

2016

Kemplay Road, NW3
Kemplay Road is a street in Hampstead. In 1873 the contractor John Culverhouse was allowed to enclose waste on the south side of Willow Road, from Willow Cottages to Downshire Hill. The strip was enfranchised and conveyed in 1875 to the British Land Co., which also acquired the Carlile estate, enfranchised in 1873, between Gayton Road and Crescent, Willow Road, and Downshire Hill.

All the roads (Denning, Willoughby, Kemplay, and Carlingford roads and Rudall Crescent) had been laid out on the estate by 1878, and houses there and on the Willow Road frontage were complete by 1886.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

Willoughby Road, NW3
Willoughby Road is a street in Hampstead. In 1873 the contractor John Culverhouse was allowed to enclose waste on the south side of Willow Road, from Willow Cottages to Downshire Hill. The strip was enfranchised and conveyed in 1875 to the British Land Co., which also acquired the Carlile estate, enfranchised in 1873, between Gayton Road and Crescent, Willow Road, and Downshire Hill.

Carlile House made way for Willoughby Road in 1876.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

St John’s Gate, Clerkenwell
St John’s Gate is one of the few tangible remains from Clerkenwell’s monastic past; it was built in 1504 by Prior Thomas Docwra as the south entrance to the inner precinct of Clerkenwell Priory, the priory of the Knights of Saint John - the Knights Hospitallers. The substructure is of brick, the north and south faÃ§ades of stone. After centuries of decay and much rebuilding, very little of the stone facing is original; heavily restored in the 19th century, the Gate today is in large part a Victorian recreation, the handiwork of a succession of architects â€” William P. Griffiths, R. Norman Shaw, and J. Oldrid Scott.

The building has many historical associations, most notably as the original printing-house for Edward Cave’s pioneering monthly, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and sometime workplace of Samuel Johnson. From 1701-1709 it was the childhood home of the painter William Hogarth. In 1703 his father Richard opened a coffee house there, ’Hogarth’s Coffee House’, offering Latin lessons together with the coffee.

For many years the building was used as a tavern. The Gate was acquired in the 1870s by the revived Order of St John and was gradually converted to serve as headquarters of both th...
»more

MARCH

2016

Rudall Crescent, NW3
Rudall Crescent was laid out by a builder John Culverhouse in 1878. In 1873 the contractor John Culverhouse was allowed to enclose waste on the south side of Willow Road. Rudall Crescent was laid out on the estate in 1878.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

Carlingford Road, NW3
Carlingford Road runs between Pilgrim’s Lane and Willoughby Road. In 1873 the contractor John Culverhouse was allowed to enclose waste on the south side of Willow Road, from Willow Cottages to Downshire Hill. The strip was enfranchised and conveyed in 1875 to the British Land Co., which also acquired the Carlile estate, enfranchised in 1873, between Gayton Road and Crescent, Willow Road, and Downshire Hill.

All the roads (Denning, Willoughby, Kemplay, and Carlingford roads and Rudall Crescent) had been laid out on the estate by 1878, and houses there and on the Willow Road frontage were complete by 1886.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

Hampstead Hill Gardens, NW3
Hampstead Hill Gardens is a street in Hampstead. North of Pond Street was a small estate owned by George Crispin, who built Hampstead Hill Gardens in 1873. Most of the houses, nos. 3-21 (odd) and 2-6 (even), were designed for ’gentleman artists’ by Batterbury & Huxley from 1876 as ’rosered villas’ with rubbed-brick ornaments.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

Chester Terrace, NW1
Chester Terrace is the longest unbroken facade of the neo-classical terraces in Regent's Park. Chester Terrace takes its name from one of the titles of George IV before he became king, Earl of Chester.

As with Cornwall Terrace and York Terrace, the architectural plans were made by John Nash but subsequently altered almost beyond recognition by Decimus Burton, who was responsible for the existing design, which was built by his father James Burton in 1825. Nash was so dissatisfied with Decimus's design that he sought the demolition and complete rebuilding of the Terrace, but in vain.

All 42 houses are Grade I listed buildings. At each end there is a Corinthian arch bearing at the top the terrace name in large lettering on a blue background, probably the largest street signs in London. Five houses are semi-detached. One of these, Nash House (3 Chester Terrace, although the main entrance is on Chester Gate), has a bust of John Nash on its west side.
»read full article

MARCH

2016

Queensdale Road, W11
Queensdale Road is a long road stretching from west to east, containing terraces of Victorian houses. Most of the houses consist of 3 storeys and a basement. The houses are painted in different pastel colours. There is a cheerful and bright atmosphere to the street.
»read full article

PREVIOUSLY ON THE UNDERGROUND MAP...