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Featured · * ·
MARCH
19
2024
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.


Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence


Click here to explore another London street
We now have 664 completed street histories and 46836 partial histories
Find streets or residential blocks within the M25 by clicking STREETS


AUGUST
31
2015

 

Lullington Garth, WD6
Lullington Garth has a very unusual name! The "poet" roads of Borehamwood had names suggested by David Scott-Blackhall, ultimately of Melrose Avenue, Chief Housing Officer of the Elstree Rural District Council and himself a published poet.

While other roads had standard poetry names - Melrose Avenue, Tennison Avenue etc., Lullington Garth - while poetic - was named after one in Woodside Park, some five miles to the east of here. [[23215|Lullington Garth, N12]] was named after a village in Sussex.
»read full article


AUGUST
30
2015

 


Princess Frederica School on the corner of College Road and Purves Road, NW10. The Princess Frederica School was opened as a National School by the Church Extension Association, working through the Anglican community of the Sisters of the Church in 1889 for boys, girls and infants. It was financed by a parliamentary grant, voluntary contributions, and school pence – and opened by Princess Frederica who was a patron of the Association and a cousin of Queen Victoria. It was reorganised by 1948 and in 1965 was passed to the London Diocesan Board of Education.

It was extended and modernised in 1975 and reorganised again in 1978.
»read full article


AUGUST
28
2015

 

Latimer
Latimer is a village that sits on the border between Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. Latimer was originally joined with the adjacent village of Chenies. Both were anciently called Isenhampstead, at a time when there was a royal palace in the vicinity. However, in the reign of King Edward III of England the lands were split between two manorial barons: Thomas Cheyne in the village that later became called @@@Chenies@@@, and William Latimer in this village. Latimer came into possession of the manor in 1326.

At the time of the English Civil War Latimer belonged to the Earl of Devonshire. When Charles I was captured by the Parliamentarian forces he was brought to Latimer on his way to London.

The small village includes 17th- and 18th-century cottages around a triangular village green with a pump on it. The church of St Mary Magdelane was rebuilt by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1867. The rectory was built in the 18th century in grey and red brick.

The nearest railway station to Latimer is Chalfont and Latimer situated in the near...
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AUGUST
27
2015

 

Ladbroke Square Garden
Ladbroke Square communal garden lies in Notting Hill. The huge Ladbroke Square communal garden is unusual on the Ladbroke estate in being part communal garden accessed from the backs of the houses lining it (on its north side) and part traditional London Square with roads between the houses and the square. It is bordered by Ladbroke Grove on its west side, Kensington Park Road on its east side, and the road called Ladbroke Square on its south side – so the latter is something of a misnomer, being a single long road.

It is one of the largest private garden squares in London and is Grade II listed by English Heritage.
»read full article


AUGUST
24
2015

 

Kensington Park Gardens, W11
Kensington Park Gardens is a street in Notting Hill. Kensington Park Gardens is a broad, open street, connecting Ladbroke Grove to Kensington Park Road at the apex of Notting Hill, with a magnificent vista to St John’s church at the western end. Both sides of the street back onto communal gardens, and St John’s Church was built on its chosen site to close the vista at the west end of the street.

The housing was built in the 1850s during the second great wave of construction on the Ladbroke estate. In the filthy atmosphere of London in the 19th century, a considerable premium was put on being high up, and the land on which Kensington Park Gardens now stands was amongst the most valuable on the estate. The street contains some of the most important and grandest houses in the Ladbroke area.

The original layout plan for the area and designs for the houses in Kensington Park Gardens had been drawn up by the Ladbroke family’s architect and surveyor Thomas Allason in 1849, but he died before it could be ...
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AUGUST
23
2015

 

St Peter’s Italian Church
St. Peter’s Italian Church is a Basilica-style church located in Holborn. It was built by request of Saint Vincent Pallotti, and it is still under the control of the Pallotine order which he founded. He had assistance from Giuseppe Mazzini, who was in London at the time, for the growing number of Italian immigrants in the mid 19th century and modelled by Irish architect Sir John Miller-Bryson on the Basilica San Crisogono in Rome.

It was consecrated on 16 April 1863 as The Church of St. Peter of all Nations. At the time of consecration, it was the only Basilica-style church in the UK. Its organ was built in 1886 by Belgian Anneesen.

The frontal section of the church consists of a loggia and portico with twin arches, above which are three alcoves. The central alcove contains a statue of Christ, whilst the sides contain statues of St. Bede and St. George. Between the alcoves are two large mosaics depicting the miracle of the fishes and Jesus giving the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to St. Peter.

Although the origin...
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AUGUST
22
2015

 

South End Green
South End Green is the focus of a distinct Hampstead community. South End Green has been marked as such on maps since the 18th century, going simultaneously by another name - Pond Street.

The area took more shape along the rough edges of Hampstead Heath in 1835, when the small puddle at the bottom of aptly-named Pond Street was filled in. Much like Parliament Hill on the opposite side of the Heath, the arrival of a tram terminus brought people, shops, roads, homes and large public houses to this once sleepy hamlet by mid-century.
»read full article


AUGUST
21
2015

 

Bridge Approach, NW1
Bridge Approach was once a busy thoroughfare connecting Regents Park Road with the world. Regents Park Road was a major east west route from central London to the east was very busy. To the north lay Bridge Street.

In the 1960s, two children were knocked down and killed at the railway bridge. As a result the bridge was closed to traffic and one of the five entry points into Primrose Hill was blocked to cars whilst still allowing pedestrian access. The road was renamed Bridge Approach.

Regents Park Road was no longer a through route. The massive decrease in traffic flows encouraged restaurants and shops to settle and form a more vibrant Primrose Hill. Although they have many attributes, the presence of busy through routes ultimately prevents the formation of a relaxed village neighbourhood which Primrose Hill has susequently become.
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AUGUST
20
2015

 

Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath railway station has been part of the London Overground since 11 November 2007. In the nineteenth century up to 100,000 people per day used the station at weekends and on public holidays as the Heath was a popular holiday destination for Londoners. The station was rebuilt, after Second World War bomb damage, and in the 1990s in conjunction with works to allow Eurostar trains to use the North London Line.
»read full article


AUGUST
18
2015

 

Benevolent Institution for the Relief of Aged and Infirm Journey
The Benevolent Institution for the Relief of Aged and Infirm Journeymen was founded on 10 February 1837. The work originated with a Mr Stulz, the President of the Society, who, at one of the anniversary meetings, announced to the members that he would present them with a piece of land as a site for an asylum.

Accordingly, upon the sale of the Southampton estate, he made the purchase; and, at his sole cost and charge, erected the chapel, and six of the adjoining houses.

The Asylum was built in the old English style, from the design of Mr. T. Meyer. The first stone was laid by the Marquis of Salisbury, on the 31 May 1842; and the chapel was consecrated by the Bishop of London, on the 24 June. The chapel was endowed by Mr Stulz; and the communion-plate, books, altar-screen, and furniture of the chapel presented by different master members of the institution.

The asylum consisted of the chapel and ten houses; the dwelling at the south end being appropriated for the chaplain. Each house consisted of eight rooms, two being allotted to each pension...
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AUGUST
17
2015

 

Shepherd’s Well
Shepherd’s Well, whose flow was thought to be nearly as pure as distilled water, is the source of the River Tyburn. Also known as The Conduit, the well provided a source of good quality soft drinking water for the residents of Hampstead. The walk to the nearest road meant that well carriers sold water by the pail or two pails because of the yoke needed for carrying the water. The spring never froze and only vary rarely ran dry.

There was an arch over the conduit, and rails stood round it.

At the close of the 1700s Lord Loughborough, its landwoner, tried to stop locals from obtaining the water, by enclosing the well. So great was the popular indignation, that an appeal was made to the Courts of Law, when a decision was given in the people’s favour, and so the well remained in constant use until well into the nineteenth century.

Hone’s Table Book, in the nineteenth century, writes the following about Shepherd’s Well:

The arch, embedded above and around by the green turf, forms a conduit-head to a beautiful spring; the specifi...
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AUGUST
16
2015

 

Belsize Park Mews, NW3
Belsize Park Mews lies in the Belsize Park Conservation Area. The areas of mews to the north of Belsize Lane and either side of Belsize Crescent were
developed initially by Tidey (1850-1870) and later by Willett in the 1870s on a field formerly
associated with Belsize Farm.

The single-aspect, two storey mews terraces are built generally in London stock brick, with red brick detailing, fronting directly onto the narrow streets and courtyards. The properties are generally uniform in their simple elevational treatment providing a rhythm and consistency to the terrace.
»read full article


AUGUST
15
2015

 

Princess Mews, NW3
Princess Mews is a mews of Belsize Park. Princess Mews has been substantially remodelled but the overall scale remains appropriate to the original design.
»read full article


AUGUST
11
2015

 

Belsize Court Garages, NW3
Belsize Court Garages were built by Willett in around 1880 as livery stables. Moving with the times, Belsize Court Garages was originally called Belsize Court Stables and is alternatively called Belsize Court Gardens.

The street forms an attractive group of relatively intact mews terraces, many retaining original
features such as garage doors, sash windows, and a door at first floor to No. 6.

No. 9 has an overtly modern extension but this maintains the building line and scale.
»read full article


AUGUST
7
2015

 

Perivale
Until the 18th century Perivale was called Little Greenford or Greenford Parva. Perivale formed part of Greenford Urban District from 1894 to 1926, and was then absorbed by the Municipal Borough of Ealing. Before the residential building expansion of the 1930s, the fields of Perivale were used to grow hay for the working horses of Victorian London, a scene described in the ending of John Betjeman’s poem ’Return to Ealing’: "...And a gentle gale from Perivale/blows up the hayfield scent."

Although now mainly residential, there are some office blocks and parades of shops. Perivale has two golf courses: Ealing Golf Club and Perivale Golf Course. The BBC Archives are in Perivale.

Perivale is one of the settings of Anthony Trollope’s novel The Belton Estate (1865).

The Great Western Railway opened "Perivale Halt" in 1904 but it was closed when the current London Underground station was opened on 30 June 1947. It was designed in 1938 by Brian Lewis, later Chief Architect to the Great Western Railway, bu...
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AUGUST
6
2015

 

Great Castle Street, W1W
Great Castle Street was one of the main streets of the Harley Estate. The plan for the Harley estate published by John Prince in 1719 accurately foreshadows the position and alignment of Castle Street as well as its name. The origin of the name is mysterious, but the likely reason is that the street pointed eastwards towards traces of one of the biggest of the Civil War fortifications round London. This according to George Vertue was ‘a large Fort with Four half bulwarks, across the road at Wardour Street’, which if accurate would mean it impinged on the line of Castle Street at what is now Berners Street, just beyond the confines of Harley property. The ‘castle’ in question was distinct from a minor fort further east which probably gave its name in the 1670s to Joseph Girle’s Castle Inn, on Oxford Street near Hanway Place.1 In due course Castle Street spawned its own Castle pub, at the southern corner of the former Bolsover Street. It was rebuilt in an equivalent corner position in the 1820s when Regent Street superseded Bolsover Street, acqu...
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AUGUST
5
2015

 

Maple Cross
Maple Cross is a village in Hertfordshire straddling the modern M25. Maple Cross is thought to be a contraction of Maypole Cross and the village was once a place where maypole dancing took place. The nearby village of Mill End is on record as having complained to the lord of the manor about the noise of the dancing in 1588. The village stands on the western edge of the River Colne flood plain with the river a third of a mile to the east. The village has no churches, historically it lacked the population to support one and its residents were part of the parish of St Thomas’s West Hyde a mile to the south.

Until the Second World War, Maple Cross consisted of an inn, a blacksmith’s shop and a few cottages. After WW2 it was intentionally developed as a dormitory for workers in the nearby towns and at the new sewage treatment plant by the river. Today there are around 800 postwar council houses with some of these have been sold into private ownership.

The ancient route known as Old Shire Lane runs in a north south ...
»more


AUGUST
4
2015

 

Grosvenor Place, SW1X
Grosvenor Place is the main road connecting Hyde Park Corner with Victoria. It forms the eastern boundary of Belgravia, extending south from St. George’s Hospital (which later became the Lanesborough Hotel) and overlooking the gardens of Buckingham Palace. It was at the beginning of the nineteenth century described as "a pleasant row of houses".

When George III added a portion of Green Park to his new garden at Buckingham House, he sold the fields on the opposite side of the road for £20,000. The ground was consequently leased to builders, and a new row of houses was erected "overlooking the king in his private walks, to his great annoyance."

In maps of London dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century, the whole of the future site of Belgravia, between Grosvenor Place and Sloane Street, appears still covered with fields. In the centre of Grosvenor Place, at that time, stood the Lock Hospital, which was founded in 1787 by the Rev. Thomas Scott.

This area of countryside was originally known as Five Fiel...
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AUGUST
3
2015

 

The Prince of Wales Cinema
The Prince of Wales Cinema was located at 331 Harrow Road. Located in Westbourne Park, the Prince of Wales’ Cinema was built on the site of an earlier Prince of Wales’ Picture Playhouse (1912-1934) which had 650 seats and was designed by architect M. Wilson. The new cinema was built for W.C. Dawes’ Modern Cinemas circuit, a small independent chain of cinemas in west London.

It opened on 27 October 1934 with Tom Walls in “A Cup of Kindness” and George Arliss in “The House of Rothschild”. Architects J. Stanley Beard and W.R. Bennett designed a pleasing Art Deco style cinema which was equipped for cine/variety programmes. The facade of the building was clad in cream faiance tiles and had three large windows in the centre which let in light to the large foyer. Seating was provided in stalls and balcony levels and the auditorium was illuminated by indirect lighting.

It was taken over by John Maxwell’s Associated British Cinemas (ABC) chain from 19 February 1935 and they continued to ope...
»more


AUGUST
2
2015

 


The Cape Nursery once lay along the south side of Shepherd’s Bush Green. By the early 19th century the north side and west side of Shepherd’s Bush Common were lined with terraces but the southern side remained open land. The lands here were called Charecroft’s - part of the charity estates belonging to the parish.

A Little History Of British Gardening by Jenny Uglow reported that during 1760, James Lee and Lewis Kennedy "started a great nursery in Shepherd’s Bush".

In 1797 the Cape Nursery was reported by a botanist to be owned by two gentleman called Middlemist and Wood, and supplying rare plants: "many novelties from the North African flora were exhibited, the proprietor having resided there during many years"

The London Gazette of 1834 notes: "His Majesty’s Commissioners authorised to act under a Fiat in Bankruptcy, bearing date the 31st day of January 1834, awarded and issued forth against John Middlemist, of Cape’s Nursery, Shepherds-Bush, in the County of Middlesex, Nurseryman, Seedsman, Dealer a...
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AUGUST
2
2015

 

Corner of Johns Hill and Pennington Street (1906)
The corner of Johns Hill and Pennington Street, Wapping, December 1906. The long range of late 17th century dwellings of Pennington Street stood directly opposite the towering walls and warehouses of London Docks, which they pre-dated - hence the raised level of road surface which provided access to the Docks.

By the early twentieth century, many older buildings such as these, offered rooms and lodgings for the working poor, who are gathered here outside their houses.
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AUGUST
1
2015

 

The Load of Hay
The Load of Hay was established by 1721. On Haverstock Hill the Load of Hay was so named by 1723 although it is said once to have been called the Cart and Horses.

It had a varying reputation. Its boisterous landlord Joe Davis (d. 1806) was widely caricatured in prints and patronised by the nobility, whereas Washington Irving remembered it for its rowdy Irish haymakers.

In 1863 the Load of Hay was rebuilt and from 1965 until 1974 it was called the Noble Art in honour of the Belsize boxing club and of a gymnasium behind used by the British Boxing Board of Control.

It was more recently called "The Hill".

Just opposite the Load of Hay lived Sir Richard Steele, in a picturesque two-storied cottage. The cottage was later divided into two and in 1867 was pulled down.
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1900 and 1950 mapping is reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.