The Underground Map


 HOME  ·  ARTICLE  ·  MAPS  ·  STREETS  ·  BLOG  ·  CONTACT US 
(51.512 -0.132, 51.537 -0.211) 
MAP YEAR:175018001810182018301860190019502024Show map without markers
ZOOM:14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 18 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 18
TIP: Adjust the MAP YEAR and ZOOM to tweak historical maps
Featured · * ·
MARCH
28
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


OCTOBER
20
2017

 

Somerset House, Park Lane
Somerset House was an 18th-century town house on the east side of Park Lane, where it meets Oxford Street, in the Mayfair area of London. It was also known as 40 Park Lane, although a renumbering means that the site is now called 140 Park Lane. The house was built between 1769 and 1770 for John Bateman, 2nd Viscount Bateman and was designed by the master carpenter John Phillips, who was the "undertaker" for the whole north-west corner of the Grosvenor estate.

The new house was built with one side facing Park Lane, the main entrance being from a courtyard which continued the line of Hereford Street. It had four storeys above ground, with bay windows extending through the floors. One bay faced Park Lane, and two more faced the garden, which ran down to North Row. Although all surviving pictures of the house show it cased in stucco, at the outset the facades may have been bare brick, with the windows dressed in Portland stone. On the ground floor, the entrance hall was paved in Portland stone and leading from it were the dining room, the drawing room and a dressing room. The staircase rose from the hall, with stone steps and iron railings, to the second floor, which had three principal rooms, including Lady Batem...
»more


OCTOBER
17
2017

 

Marble Arch
Marble Arch is a 19th-century white marble faced triumphal arch. The structure was designed by John Nash in 1827 to be the state entrance to the cour d’honneur of Buckingham Palace; it stood near the site of what is today the three-bayed, central projection of the palace containing the well known balcony. In 1851 it was relocated and following the widening of Park Lane in the early 1960s is now sited, incongruently isolated, on a large traffic island at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane and Edgware Road.

Historically, only members of the Royal Family and the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery are permitted to pass through the arch; this happens only in ceremonial processions.

Nash’s three arch design is based on that of the Arch of Constantine in Rome and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris. The triumphal arch is faced with Carrara marble with embellishments of marble extracted from quarries near Seravezza.

John Flaxman was chosen to make the commemorative sculpture. After his death i...
»more


OCTOBER
15
2017

 

Pepler Mews, SE5
Pepler Mews is a cul-de-sac off of Cobourg Road. Built in the late nineteenth century, it ran behind a now-vanished road known as Pepler Road. At the end of the Mews by 1900, was the Alpha Works, a collar manufacturers. A laundry was the only other building in the road.

In the twentieth century, Pepler Mews became residential.
»read full article


OCTOBER
14
2017

 

Kensington Square, W8
Kensington Square is a garden square in London, W8. It was founded in 1685; hence it is the oldest such square in Kensington. In London, St. James’s Square, Soho Square and Golden Square are a few years older, but in contrast with these Kensington Square still retains its residential character. 1-45 Kensington Square are listed Grade II for their architectural merit.
»read full article


OCTOBER
13
2017

 

Theobald Street, SE1
Theobald Street is (now) a short street lying off of the New Kent Road. The street was on the map by 1830, marked as Theobalds Street. It run north to a now-gone street known as George Street.

Its notable architectural feature used to be the St Andrew’s Southwark church which was on the corner of Theobald Street and the New Kent Road, The parish of St Andrew, Newington had been formed from Holy Trinity in 1877.

The church, consisted of a chancel with vestry and organ chamber, a nave with north and south aisles, a tower in the west bay of the south aisle and a shallow porch against the tower. It was built of stock bricks with red brick dressings and slate roofs. It was designed in late 13th-century style.

It was damaged in World War 2 and demolished in 1956. The church hall remained but was demolished c 1980, following a fire.

Theobald Street, Southwark is now largely industrial.
»read full article


OCTOBER
12
2017

 


Four Wents was a green which existed as a cross roads until 1873. Four roads met here originally. Two are still main roads - Whitehall Road and Friday Hill. They were joined by Pimp Hall Lane, now a track going to the recycling centre but then the road from Hale End, and Kings Road.

The road layout changed when the railway was built in 1873.
»read full article


OCTOBER
11
2017

 

Queenhithe, EC4V
Queenhithe is a small and ancient ward of the City of London, situated by the River Thames and a minor street. The name of ‘Queenhithe’ today refers essentially to three concepts: (1) The ancient dock by that name. (2) Just to the north of the dock, a street called Queenhithe. (3) The third use of the word is in the Ward of Queenhithe which, obviously, takes its name from the dock.

Queenhithe was a thriving Saxon and medieval dock and is the only inlet now surviving along the City waterfront today. In Saxon times a second dock was also cut into the river bank at Billingsgate which remained until Victorian times when the dock was filled in and a new building called Billingsgate Market was erected on the reclaimed land.

By the 9th century Vikings were occupying the land inside the Roman Wall. In AD 886 the land inside the Roman Wall was reoccupied by King Alfred the Great. Alfred drove the Danes out of the City and is assumed to have established the street pattern to the south of Cheapside. A few years later, in AD 899, a harbour was established at ‘Ethelred�...
»more


OCTOBER
7
2017

 

Mermaid Tavern
The Mermaid Tavern was a notable tavern during the Elizabethan era. Mermaid Tavern was located in Cheapside, to the east of St. Paul’s Cathedral. It had entrances from both Friday Street and Bread Street. The tavern’s sign, not surprisingly, bore a mermaid.

It was the site of the so-called "Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen", a drinking club that met on the first Friday of every month that included some of the Elizabethan era’s leading literary figures, among them Ben Jonson, John Donne, John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont, Thomas Coryat, John Selden, Robert Bruce Cotton, Richard Carew, Richard Martin, and William Strachey.

A popular tradition has grown up that the group included William Shakespeare, although most scholars think that was improbable.

The tavern, the location of which today corresponds to the corner of Bread and Cannon Streets, burned down in the Great Fire of London.
»read full article


OCTOBER
6
2017

 

Street cricket (1953)
Street cricket has been played across London since the rules of the game were formulated. Montford Place is a street near to the Oval cricket ground in Kennington and children in the area have long been fonder of the game than in other areas of London. This photo was taken in 1953.

In street cricket, there is no real rule book. Tennis balls are often used because it is lighter. A dustbin, empty crates, broom sticks or canes serve as stumps at the batsman's end while a piece of brick or a pipe serves as the stumps at the bowler's end. When they are no stumps, the players assume the stumps to be at an imaginary height (usually above the waist level of the batsman). This leads to many arguments as to whether the ball would have hit the stumps or not had the stumps been there for real.

The size of the road or traffic does not hinder the progress of a game; children often wait for the traffic to clear before playing consecutive deliveries.

A very important rule that is almost always used in street cricket is one pitch catch...
»more


OCTOBER
4
2017

 

Acton Central
Acton Central railway station is on the North London Line, now part of the London Overground system, between South Acton and Willesden Junction. The station was opened as Acton on 1 August 1853 by the North and South Western Junction Railway (N&SWJR), but was renamed Acton Central on 1 November 1925.

Between 1875 and 1902 it was connected with St Pancras via the Dudding Hill Line, which branches off the North London Line between Acton Central and Willesden Junction. Harlesden (Midland) railway station was the next stop on the line north. The Dudding Hill Line is still open today, but only carries freight.

Acton Central station was named for closure by the 1963 Beeching Report, also known as the Beeching Axe.

The station is where trains change power supply from overhead line equipment (AC) to Third rail (DC), or vice versa, depending on direction of travel.
»read full article


OCTOBER
3
2017

 

Woodsford Square, W14
Woodsford Square is a 1970s development consisting of a series of interconnecting squares hidden away on the eastern side of Addison Road. The buildings are mainly 4-storey town houses, with some of the corner houses having interesting protruding first floor extensions (painted white) on stilts.

There are a series of communal private gardens with lawns and trees and the whole development is rather hidden and private.

At the north end is Holland Park Tennis Club.
»read full article


OCTOBER
2
2017

 

Holland Villas Road, W14
Holland Villas Road is a wide tree-lined avenue which runs between Upper Addison Gardens and the junction of Addison Crescent and Holland Road. It is considered one of the most desirable addresses in Holland Park.

The buildings consist mainly of large brick detached villas – some are absolutely enormous. Most have front gardens with small driveways and high security gates. Some even have their own swimming pools. At the north end is a modern block of flats called Fitzclarence House. There is also Addisland Court, an 8-storey 1930’s-style block of flats.

The houses in Holland Villas Road are large detached houses of two or three storeys with basements. The builder was James Hall who built the houses over several years from 1857. Hall built about 120 houses in the estate in the 1850s. He also built extensively in the Chepstow Villas and Pembridge Place area. They are similar in size to his houses in Addison Road, but of a more modern design. The central portico entrance door is narrower to make room for large canted bay windows on either side. In place of Georgian balustrades topping the faca...
»more


OCTOBER
1
2017

 

Dallas Road, NW4
Dallas Road is a road running parallel to the Midland railway and M1. By 1906, Sir Audley Dallas Neeld was building on the land that had been Renters Farm, starting with a new road from Station Road to Queens Road, later called Vivian Avenue.

The eventual estate used many names associated with the family: Dallas, Audley, Elliot, Graham, Rundell, Vivian, and Algernon and Neeld.

The M1 was built alongside Dallas Road’s already busy railway setting.
»read full article


OCTOBER
1
2017

 

Edgware Road
Edgware Road station was a station on the world’s first underground railway. The main Edgware Road station now serves the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines. It opened a few months later than other stops on the rest of the Metropolitan Railway between Paddington and Farringdon, opening on 1 October 1863.

A second Edgware Road station was opened on 15 June 1907 by the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR, now the Bakerloo line) when it extended its line from the temporary northern terminus at Marylebone. In common with other early stations of the lines owned by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, that station was designed by architect Leslie Green with an ox-blood red glazed terracotta façade.
»read full article


PREVIOUSLY ON THE UNDERGROUND MAP...



  Contact us · Copyright policy · Privacy policy



w:en:Creative Commons
attribution share alike
Unless otherwise given an attribution, images and text on this website are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence.
If given an attribution or citation, any reuse of material must credit the original source under their terms.
If there is no attribution or copyright, you are free:
  • to share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix - to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution - You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
  • share alike - If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

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.