The Underground Map is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying within 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.
The aim of the project is to find the location every street in London, whether past or present. You are able to see each street on a present day map and also spot its location on older maps.
There's a control which looks like a 'pile of paper' at the top right of the map above. You can use it to see how an area has changed on a series of historic maps.
Mill Lane, NW2
West of the bridge over the railway, Mill Lane enters the NW2 postcode. At its corner with the Edgware Road, in this section, stood Kilburn Mill which gave Mill Lane its name. The mill burnt down in the 1860s and not a trace remains.
Although Edgware Road and Haverstock Hill shared the combination of accessibility to London with a rural setting, this area did not attract gentry and London merchants in the same way, possibly because it lacked the height to give fine views. Indeed cottages on the Earlsfield in Mill Lane disappeared between the 1740s and 1762 - a sort of reverse urbanisation.
The Powell- Cotton family owned vast tracts of the land along the Edgware Road (Kilburn High Road) and gradually started the process of cashing in on their land as demand for housing development grew after the arrival of the railways in the nineteenth century. In the 1890s building on the Powell-Cotton estate spread north of Mill Lane. Fordwych Road was extended north of the lane by 1892 and most of the 57 houses built in the road between 1...
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Mill Lane, NW6
Mill Lane forms the boundary between Fortune Green and West Hampstead. Mill Lane was formerly Shoot-up-Hill Lane. The present name is derived from a mill which stood in the Edgware Road, and was burnt in 1861, owing to the friction caused by the high velocity of the sails in a gale of wind.
A building called Kilburn Mill marked the western end of the lane.
According to ’The Fascination of Hampstead’ written by Mrs Geraldine Mitton in 1902: "Mill Lane was widened by the Vestry, and now runs between rows of small houses, all of modern date. At the top of Aldred Road is a big brick building, the Field Lane Boys’ Industrial School. At the corner of the same road stood an unpretentious little church, built in 1871; it has been pulled down in the last few years. A little further eastward in Mill Lane is a national school looking rather like a chapel."
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Welsh Harp (Brent Reservoir)
The Brent Reservoir (popularly called the Welsh Harp) is a reservoir between Hendon and Wembley Park. It lies on the boundary between the boroughs of Brent and Barnet. The reservoir takes its informal name from a public house called The Welsh Harp, which stood nearby until the early 1970s.
By 1820 there was not enough water to supply the Grand Union Canal and the Regent’s Canal so having obtained an enabling act of Parliament in 1819, the Regent’s Canal Company decided to dam the River Brent to create a reservoir and cut a feeder channel from it to an upper point on the Grand Union Canal. The reservoir is fed by the Silk Stream and the River Brent. Its main outflow is the River Brent.
The reservoir was constructed by contractor William Hoof between 1834 and 1835. The water flooded much of Cockman’s Farm, to supply the Regent’s Canal at Paddington. Its owner gave it the name of its then-parish it was named Kingsbury Reservoir.
Additional building was completed in December 1837 to extend the reservoir. In 1841 after seven days of c...
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Staples Corner
Staples Corner is named after the Staples Mattress Factory - Harold Heal commissioned its design and building of the- which stood here from 1926 until 1986. Staples Corner has two linked roundabouts and flyovers, which connect the A406 North Circular Road with the A5 Edgware Road and the start of the M1 motorway.
Originally built in the 1920s, the Staples Corner junction was built in accordance with plans from the 1960s to continue the M1 further south to West Hampstead. The plan was cancelled in 1973.
There is a large retail park at Staples Corner, located between the A5 and the railway line. Close by is the Brent Cross Shopping Centre.
On 11 April 1992, a Provisional IRA van bomb devastated Staples Corner, causing serious damage to roads and nearby buildings and the closure of the junction. Another bomb exploded near the junction on 8 October 1993, causing damage but no injuries.
The B&Q DIY store damaged by the bomb (on the site of the original mattress factory) was demolished, and replaced by a branch of Staples office supplies.
The format of the Staples Corn...
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M1 motorway, NW4
The southernmost section of the M1 was built in 1977. First opened in 1959, the M1 is one of Britain’s major motorways. It links London to the city of Leeds in West Yorkshire.
The London terminal of the M1 is at Staples Corner - named after the Staples Mattress Factory which stood at the junction from 1926 until 1986.
The final section of the M1 was opened to Junction 1 at Staples Corner in 1977.
The M1 motorway was planned to run all the way into Central London, The original M1 route would have gone through Cricklewood, past Kilburn and Maida Vale and through St John’s Wood. If the planners had had their way,the M1 motorway would have terminated just north of Marble Arch in the vicinity of Montague Square. The scheme was never fully realised and the motorway now terminates in the suburbs, approximately 6 miles from Marble Arch.
The layout of the Staples Corner junction was originally built in accordance with these plans although most of the London Ringways Plan had been cancelled by 1973.
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Stephenson Street, NW10
Stephenson Street was built in 1889 by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) for its employees. Originally, the estate appears to have been the private property of the LNWR, simply called Railway Cottages. The Borough of Acton may have named the streets when they were adopted, choosing names like Stephenson Street, Crewe Place and Stoke Place for their railway associations. The Railway Institute club, and a mission church and school were added within a few years.
On this Old Oak Lane Estate, the few densely packed streets of terraces display a characteristic layout, with small gardens, and narrow back alleys. This form is not too dissimilar from the ‘back-to-back’ estates in which many industrial workers of the 19th century were forced to live. All available space is allocated to buildings, small gardens and road access. Street trees, verges or any other than hard surfacing played no part in the original layout, although some planting, including a line of street trees on Old Oak Road, has occurred recently.
The Mission Church and parts of three...
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Old Oak Lane, NW10
Old Oak Lane runs from Victoria Road to Willesden Junction. Old Oak Common was said to contain 200 acres of oak and hawthorn scrub in 1590, and commoners, supervised by the parish overseerer, enjoyed rights of grazing cattle and pigs. It was also a noted duelling ground and prize fight venue, while the Household Cavalry exercised at Wormwood Scrubs.
A lane led southward to East Acton and was called Worton Green Lane in 1639 and Batteridges Lane, after a local inhabitant, in 1746. East Acton was connected with Uxbridge Road by a lane from the west end of the green. The lane also ran across the green to the Hammersmith boundary and thence northward to Old Oak common as Old Oak Lane in 1720 and Old Oak Common Lane in 1866.
The parishioners received compensation for the loss of grazing land in 1805 for the construction of the Grand Union Canal and in
1837 from the Great Western Railway. Under pressure from local landowners most of the common was enclosed in 1862 under protest from the commoners, although a small area ...
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Black Horse Inn
The Black Horse is a red-brick pub with an early-18th-century exterior. By the early 17th century several buildings had been erected on both sides of Blackhorse Lane. To the north-east lay a group which in the early 17th century seems to have comprised the rectory house, South Mimms poorhouse, Shenley poorhouse, and the later Black Horse inn. Two other inns existed briefly: the Prince’s Arms, which later formed part of the Clare Hall estate, was recorded in 1683, and the Red Bull, adjoining Chantry mead, in 1714.
South Mimms laid on a main road to St Albans, and later many hostelries joined the Black House. Scattered inns faced the St Albans road as it passed through Kitts End and Dancers Hill. At Mimms Wash stood the Five Bells and the Badger, which was part of the Bridgefoot estate. The approach to South Mimms village was marked by another concentration of inns. Apart from the Black Horse and the Queen’s Head in Blackhorse Lane and the Cross Keys, where the post office was housed in 1845 between the church and the White Hart. The Grey...
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West Hendon Playing Fields
West Hendon Playing Fields is a 62 acre public park. The park formed part of the extensive open spaces owned by Hendon Borough Council in 1932.
It is a large grassed area with scattered mature trees. It has two tennis courts, several football pitches, a children’s playground, a private bowls club, a basketball shooting hoop and a car park.
The park is bordered on the south by the Brent Reservoir (Welsh Harp) nature reserve, and on the east by Silver Jubilee Park.
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The Burroughs, NW4
The Burroughs, now simply a road, referred to a hamlet until the 1890s. The name from 1316 - its first mention - until the 19th century was spelled as ’the burrows’, and may refer to a place of rabbits. Hendon was always an area of scattered hamlets - the local soil is heavy clay, which better sustains woodland. Clearings for pasture and small hamlets rather than large open fields and villages of corn-growing areas developed. Hilltop sites were chosen for their good drainage right up to the 19th century.
The White Bear Inn existed from the 16th century onwards. By 1697 this inn was the location for Hendon’s Whitsun fair. Also here at the inn, the leet courts, based on feudal tradition, were held as late as 1916, to ensure the rights of the Lord of the Manor.
From 1735 until 1934 a poorhouse with six cottages used to house older parishioners stood where Quadrant Close was built in 1936.
Grove House, built before 1753, was a private psychiatric hospital between 1900 and 1933. The grounds...
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St John, Hendon
St John is a church built by Temple Moore (1856–1920) was an English architect who was born in Tullamore, Ireland. In 1875, Moore was articled to George Gilbert Scott, Jr. Moore set up an independent practice in 1878, but continued to work with Scott for some years, and completed some of his commissions. Temple Moore was mainly a church architect, designing some 40 new churches and restoring or making alterations and additions to other churches.
Built in 1895, St John was never completed, and consists only of the nave and the south aisle.
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Watford Way, NW4
Watford Way runs from Hendon Central circus to Apex Corner. It was opened in 1923 as part of a great roadbuilding programme in north London in the years after the First World War as use of the motor car increased.
The North Circular Road was built during the same period. To alleviate growing congestion, it was decided to bypass Barnet with its inconvenient hill. Thus the A1 was rerouted in a large swathe between Highgate and South Mimms. The ’Barnet By-Pass’ dissected Hampstead Garden Suburb, through Henley’s Corner, Fiveways Corner to Apex Corner and then north.
At the same time it was decided to create a new trunk route - the A41 from Watford into London. This new route from Watford joined the new A1 at Apex Corner, diverting at Fiveways Corner and running through Brent Cross to the Finchley Road, south of Childs Hill.
The roadbuilders took advantage of the building of the Northern Line extension north of Golders Green and ran the new road through the new Handon Central circus beside a new ...
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St Mary’s Church, Hendon
St Mary’s Church in Hendon may date back to the Anglo-Saxon period. A priest is mentioned in 1086 in the Domesday Book probably implying a church. There are also probable Anglo-Saxon burials. The first definite date is the church built around 1080, and a Norman font is still in use. The building still has a thirteenth-century nave, chapel, north aisle and south aracade, together with traces of painting on the walls.
One of the most important memorials in the church is to Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, who lived locally at Highwood Hill.
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Nantes Passage, E1
Nantes Passage (also Church Passage) was built for Huguenot weavers. Since the late 15th century many of the houses situated around the area of Spital Fields had been occupied by Flemish protestant weavers. They had built up a reputation for fine quality products and a century later the number of workers in the trade had increased. An order proclaimed by the French authorities in 1598 – the Edict of Nantes – gave religious freedom to French protestants, known as Huguenots. Its revocation in 1688 caused thousands of refugee Huguenot silk weavers to leave France and set up their workshops near to the Spital Fields.
By the early 1700s the number of weavers employed was over 30,000 and it is estimated that there were some 15,000 looms in operation. The weavers adopted as their spokesman and campaigner, a local landowner by the name of George Wheler. Having recently returned from France, he understood the lives of the Huguenots, showed sympathy to their needs and built them a small chapel on the site of this Passage. It was the first of t...
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Thornbury Gardens, WD6
Thornbury Gardens runs from Kenilworth Drive to Arundel Drive. It was almost the oldest road on the proposed Boreham Wood Estate (South) which John Laing’s proposed to build.
Aiming for a more upmarket development than subsequently happened - Laing’s plans for Boreham Wood aimed at being Britain’s version of Hollywood.
As with the other earlier planned roads, it was named after either a farm or a castle. Thornbury Castle is a castle in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire. It was begun in 1511 as a home for Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham. It is not a true castle (designed to serve as a fortress), but rather an early example of a Tudor country house, with minimal defensive attributes. It is now a grade I listed building.
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Wellington Arch
Wellington Arch is located to the south of Hyde Park at the western corner of Green Park.
Both the Wellington Arch and Marble Arch (originally sited in front of Buckingham Palace) were planned in 1825 by George IV to commemorate Britain’s victories in the Napoleonic Wars. The Wellington Arch was also conceived as an outer gateway to Constitution Hill and therefore a grand entrance into central London from the west.
The presence of a turnpike gate at this point had led, in the 18th century, to a strong perception that this was the beginning of London (reflected in the nickname for Apsley House as "No 1, London") and the arch was intended to reflect the importance of the position.
The arch was built between 1826 and 1830 to a design by Decimus Burton. It was planned as part of a single composition with Burton’s screen that forms the Hyde Park Corner entrance to Hyde Park. The arch was originally positioned directly to the south of the screen, with the end of Constitution Hill re-aligned to meet it squarely, to form a corresp...
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Bull and Tiger (Directors Arms)
The Directors Arms was formerly known as the Bull and Tiger. The Bull and Tiger was one of the larger pubs of the post-war Borehamwood estate. It is the only known pub in the UK which had this name and was situated prominently on a roundabout where Cranes Way, Ripon Way and Manor Way met. The landlords were a couple called Tom and Eileen in the 1970s when it was still the ’Bull and Tiger’.
In the early 2000s, the pub underwent a re-branding after a prominent drugs bust in the late 1990s put paid to the reputation of the pub under its previous name. The ’Directors’ name referred instead to the film history of the town.
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Hasmonean High School is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status for pupils from Orthodox Jewish families. The school was founded by the late Rabbi Dr Solomon Schonfeld (1912–1984) as Hasmonean Grammar School. Dr Schonfeld had rescued thousands of Jews from the Holocaust and pioneered Jewish day school education. Dr Schonfeld saw that the area had high numbers of Orthodox Jews but did not have a religious school to cater for them. Jewish law discourages mingling of the sexes when possible, especially when they are unmarried, so two separate schools needed to be set up, one for boys and one for girls.
The boys’ school became a voluntary aided Local Authority School in 1957. In September 1975, the girls moved to the present purpose-built Page Street site in Mill Hill. In 1984, voluntary aided status was extended to the girls’ school, and the two sections joined as one.
The total school capacity is 1494.
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Hasmonean High School
Hasmonean High School is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status for pupils from Orthodox Jewish families. The school was founded by the late Rabbi Dr Solomon Schonfeld (1912–1984) as Hasmonean Grammar School. Dr Schonfeld had rescued thousands of Jews from the Holocaust and pioneered Jewish day school education. Dr Schonfeld saw that the area had high numbers of Orthodox Jews but did not have a religious school to cater for them. Jewish law discourages mingling of the sexes when possible, especially when they are unmarried, so two separate schools needed to be set up, one for boys and one for girls.
The boys’ school became a voluntary aided Local Authority School in 1957. In September 1975, the girls moved to the present purpose-built Page Street site in Mill Hill. In 1984, voluntary aided status was extended to the girls’ school, and the two sections joined as one.
The total school capacity is 1494.
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Silk Stream
Silk Stream is just over 4 kilometres long and lies entirely within the current London Borough of Barnet. The name is believed to derive from Sulh or Sulc, the Old English for plough or furrow.
The Silk Stream winds from the area near to Edgware Hospital and flows into the Welsh Harp. Silk Stream is a tributary of the River Brent. Its own main tributary - Burnt Oak Brook - runs for about 1.5 kilometres from near the M1 motorway and meets the Silk Stream at Burnt Oak. It has several other tributaries including Edgware Brook, the Edgwarebury Brook and Deans Brook.
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Sunnyhill Park
Sunny Hill Park is a 22 hectare park, situated within the angle formed by the A1 and the A41. Sunnyhill Fields was an area of Church Farm, very popular as a site for viewing the planes at the adjacent Hendon Aerodrome.
In 1921 Hendon Council - the local authority - purchased 16 acres for a park, which opened in 1922, and in 1929 it was enlarged when further land was acquired.
An area in the south-east corner was formerly part of St Mary’s Churchyard, an important archaeological site with evidence of Roman and Anglo-Saxon occupation.
It is a hilly site about 900 metres long and 400 metres at its widest. The park still has hedgerows showing former field boundaries and mature trees. Together with the neighbouring Hendon Churchyard, it is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation.
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Magpie Alley, EC4Y
Magpie Alley marks the position occupied by the dorter (dormitory) of the Friary of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, commonly called the Whitefriars Monastery After the dissolution of the monasteries the whole of this area became infested with thieves and all sorts of law breakers. They came here claiming sanctuary from the jurisdiction of the City, a liberty enjoyed by the friars before them.
It seems that, along with many other taverns, the Magpie was flourishing in Whitefriars Street during the mid-18th century. The food dished up by the landlord was so poor that the place earned the title of the ‘maggot pie’. Naturally, later landlords were overjoyed that the corruption process had been at work and along the way it had been changed to the Magpie.
Over the years the layout of Magpie Alley and its neighbours seems to have become just a little confused. At one time the Alley left Whitefriars Street approximately opposite to the Harrow public house, but that access has now been stopped. Access from the main street is now via Brittons Court. Complications are further deepened through the obliteration of Geor...
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Abbots Gardens, N2
Abbots Gardens is a circular road with an entrance onto East End Road. From 1683 until 1700 Richard Cromwell - son of Oliver Cromwell - lodged in the house of Thomas Pengelly, thought to be located where Abbots Gardens are today. This later became named Cromwell Hall.
During the war a V2 Rocket landed in Abbots Gardens.
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College Yard, NW6
College Yard is a small alleyway off of Winchester Avenue, NW6. The yard dates from the first decade of the twentieth century.
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Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability
The Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability is located in London Borough of Wandsworth. The Royal Hospital is an independent medical charity that provides rehabilitation and long term care to people with complex neurological disabilities caused by damage to the brain or other parts of the nervous system. This damage is often caused by traffic accidents and progressive neurological conditions such as Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis. It is one of the 200 largest UK charitable organisations ranked by annual expenditure.
The Hospital was established in July 1854 at a meeting held at the Mansion House, chaired by the Lord Mayor of London. The hospital’s founder, Andrew Reed, had a record as a practical philanthropist, having previously set up four other charities, and Charles Dickens, the celebrated author, was one of the first high-profile figures to show his support by helping Reed raise funds for it.
The RHN was originally known as the Hospital for Incurables. It was based in a converted workhouse in Carshalton, Surrey,...
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Garrett Lane, SW18
Garratt Lane connects Wandsworth High Street to Tooting Broadway and is approximately 4 kilometres long. Garratt Lane has mixed usage along its length. In the north it contains newly developed stores including a large single-storey shopping mall with parking above. The stretch between Allfarthing Lane and Burntwood Lane is mainly diverse shophouses including a few professional services. The southern portion is mainly residential, although around Summertown there are a few light industries and the Wimbledon Stadium.
The southernmost part of Garratt Lane is unusual in that two parallel streets exchanged names. The original Garratt Lane was a narrower street than Garratt Terrace, which was the main connection to Tooting Broadway. Many people mistakenly called it Garratt Lane, so it was agreed to exchange the names.
The south-east end of Garratt Lane, running from the junction with Fountain Road and Upper Tooting Road was previously called Defoe Road.
Most large public houses have survived along Garratt Lane, including The Old Sergeant and the Lea...
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Ashcroft Technology Academy is a state secondary school within the English academy programme. It accepts students between the ages of 11 and 18. The school also offers further education for students aged 16–18 (academic years 12 and 13) in their Sixth Form. The academy underwent a multi-million pounds refurbishment programme which was completed in Summer 2010. This included a purpose built sixth-form and an Autism Resource Centre. The total school capacity is 1300.
ADT College was established in 1991 as a City Technology College, funded by donations from various organisations including ADT Security Services (whose owner at the time was Baron Michael Ashcroft), Unisys, British Gas and Young’s (who sponsored the schools "music bunker"). In 2007, the school was converted into an academy and renamed Ashcroft Technology Academy after its main private benefactor. Preceding this period the Building was the site of Mayfield School, an all-girl’s comprehensive
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Putney High School is an independent girls school. It admits students from the ages 4–18. Founded in 1893 it is a member of the Girls’ Day School Trust, a union of 26 schools with 19,500 students and 3500 staff.
Formerly, there were three school houses Austen, Bronte and Eliot, named after well-known female authors, all of whom felt that their sex gave them a disadvantage and used pseudonyms when writing. George Eliot lived for a time in Holly Lodge, Southfields, a house within walking distance of the Putney High School site.
As of September 2013, the school uses an updated system of four houses, Ferrier, Stark, Hepburn and Burton, named after influential women all of whom were nominated by the students (Kathleen Ferrier, Freya Stark, Audrey Hepburn and Beryl Burton).
The school is situated on Putney Hill and the total school capacity is 988. There are no nursery classes.
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Cressida Road, N19
Cressida Road partially lies along the line of an old footpath. The local Vestry announced, in the Times of 4 April 1891, replace an ancient footpath with a road. Cressida Road was completed by the end of 1892. The stretch of Gresley Road running between Cheverton and Whitehall Park was added to it by the LCC.
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The Underground Map is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying within the M25.
