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Featured · * ·
MARCH
29
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


JUNE
21
2018

 

The Old Bell
The (Old) Bell is a very old Kilburn Pub. The Bell already existed by 1600. A chalybeate spring was situated near to the Bell - a chalybeate is one where the water is impregnated with iron. In 1714 the spring was enclosed in a brick reservoir and by 1733 was being exploited by the proprietor of the ’Bell’ as a cure for stomach ailments in imitation of Hampstead Wells.

By 1814 the wells were in decline, although the Bell, now called ’Kilburn Wells’, remained popular as a tea garden.

The pub was demolished and rebuilt in 1863 but by then dog-fighting and bareknuckle bouts had become common.

»read full article


JUNE
17
2018

 

Adam Street, WC2N
Adam Street is named after John and Robert Adam, who built the Adelphi development in the 1760s. Few of their buildings remain. Number 7, with honeysuckle pilasters and lacy ironwork, is one attractive survival.
»read full article


JUNE
15
2018

 

Queens Parade, NW4
Queens Parade is a parade of shops along Queens Road, Hendon. It is a typical mid-twentieth century retail development of shops with flats above. Further along, houses retain the Parade name but are missing their shops beneath.
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JUNE
14
2018

 

Elmhurst Gardens
Elmhurst Gardens, in South Woodford, is a park with a variety of mature trees which provide a ’vista’ of colours particularly during autumn months. Also known as Gordon Fields, the gardens have notable beech, oak and lime, and retain much of the original layout as well as a picturesque brick sundial and small pavilion, and an area of formal planting with seats.

The park is laid out on land once part of Elmhurst Estate, acquired by Woodford UDC in 1921. The gardens were opened in July 1927 as Woodford Recreation Ground. The land was purchased from Mr Lister Harrison of Elmhurst, having been separated from the house and remainder of the estate by the railway in 1856.

There is a resting area in the centre of the park that was landscaped in the 2010s and planted with shrubs and bulbs to provide an abundance of colour.

Elmhurst Gardens has a bowling green (where South Woodford Bowls Club plays), a children’s play area, an outdoor gym and tennis courts.
»read full article


JUNE
13
2018

 

Pub location
The Junction Tavern is an imposing Victorian building between Kentish Town and Tufnell Park. The pub dates to 1885, the main bar and dining room reflects its late Victorian heyday. Its 18th century frontage veils an interior of dark-panelled rooms, a bright and airy conservatory and a beer garden.
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JUNE
11
2018

 

Staple Inn Buildings, WC1V
Staple Inn Buildings is part of historic Staple Inn. The current front facade consists of two buildings, one was the original staple Inn (5 bays to the left), the other was a house of similar age (2 bays to the right).

Staple Inn was built in 1585 and was a medieval school providing training in legal practices. Staple Inn was once attached along with neighbouring Barnards Inn to Grays Inn, one of the four inns of courts.

Behind the facade of High Holborn through the Holborn gateway is Staple inn courtyard with the staple inn hall on the opposite side of the courtyard. The old hall was built around 1580 as a banqueting hall.
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JUNE
10
2018

 

Staple Inn
Staple Inn is London’s only surviving sixteenth-century domestic building, situated on the south side of High Holborn. Its timber-framed façade overhangs the roadway.

The building was once the wool staple, where wool was weighed and taxed. It was an Inn of Chancery built between 1545 to 1549. It survived the Great Fire of London and was restored in 1886 and reconstructed in 1937. It was extensively damaged by a Nazi German Luftwaffe aerial bomb in 1944 but was subsequently restored once more. It has a distinctive cruck roof and an internal courtyard.

It was originally attached to Gray’s Inn, which is one of the four Inns of Court. The Inns of Chancery fell into decay in the 19th century. All of them were dissolved, and most were demolished. Staple Inn is the only one which survives largely intact.

It was later rebuilt by the Prudential Insurance Company, and is now used by the Institute of Actuaries and various other companies.

The historic interiors include a great hall, used by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. The ground floor ...
»more


JUNE
9
2018

 

Holborn, EC1N
Holborn commemorates the River Fleet, also known as the Holbourne stream. The road was once lined with coaching inns with the Bull and Gate being particularly noted for being the terminus of stagecoaches from the north. These in turn attracted costermongers who would sell travellers fruit. The sixteenth-century Staple Inn is one of London’s few surviving timber-faced buildings. Otherwise the inns of Holborn were swept away with the coming of the railways.

Two nineteenth century granite obelisks stand on both sides of Holborn at the junction with Gray’s Inn Road marking the entrance to the City.
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JUNE
8
2018

 

Crystal Palace Indoor Bowling
The London County Bowling Club was originally formed on the site of the Crystal Palace tennis courts. WG Grace may have been England’s greatest-ever cricketer but he had interests in many sports and towards the end of his cricketing career in the late 1890s, he began to take a keen interest in bowls.

In 1899, WG Grace accepted an invitation from the Crystal Palace Company to help them form the London County Cricket Club at the Crystal Palace Exhibition complex.

He became the club’s secretary, manager and captain. He was pivotal in establishing the London County Bowling Club in 1901.

On 8 June 1903 in Crystal Palace’s cricket pavilion, a group headed by WG, formed the English Bowling Association with himself as President.

Grace recognised that the popularity of the game was such that bowling in the winter was a viable proposition. In 1905 Crystal Palace Indoor Bowling Club was formed, playing within the Crystal Palace Great Exhibition centre’s main gallery, thereby establishing England’s first i...
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JUNE
7
2018

 

Aldersgate Street, EC1A
Aldersgate Street is located on the west side of the Barbican Estate. The original gate here was made by the Romans some time after the City wall was built in the second century. It was a double gateway strengthened by towers projecting on the outside; part of the western tower was discovered beneath Aldersgate Street in 1939.

The name is Saxon - the gate of Aldred, somebody who perhaps lived above the gate to guard the approach road. Further fortifications and guard rooms were added through the middle ages. Aldersgate was finally demolished in 1761, and now only a plaque marks its site.

Originally Aldersgate Street was only the section starting from the church of St Botolph without Aldersgate running towards Long Lane and the portion from Long Lane to Goswell Road was formerly named Pickax Street.

Barbican station is located on Aldersgate Street and when it was opened in 1865 was named Aldersgate Street station. It was renamed Barbican in 1968.

134 Aldersgate Street for many years had a sign c...
»more


JUNE
6
2018

 

Halbutt Street, RM9
Halbutt Street is one of the oldest streets in the area. Dagenham (’Daecca’s home’) was probably one of the earliest Saxon settlements in Essex: the name is first recorded in a charter of A.D. 687. From the 13th century onwards references to the parish, its farms and hamlets, are sufficiently numerous to suggest a flourishing community. In 1670 Dagenham contained 150 houses.

In the south of the parish the main west-east road from London to Tilbury entered as Ripple Side, known in the 16th century as Ripple Street, and now called Ripple Road. It turned north as Broad Street, formerly French Lane (mentioned in 1540) and then east past the Church Elm (1456), through Dagenham village, as Crown Street, formerly Dagenham Street (1441), and then south-east over Dagenham (or Dagenham Beam) Bridge. Joining that road at the village was one coming south from Becontree Heath. The northern part of this last road, now Rainham Road North, was formerly Spark Street (1540) and later Bull Lane. The southern part, now Rainham Road South,...
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JUNE
5
2018

 

Becontree
The Becontree Estate remains the largest public housing development in the world. The Becontree Estate was developed between 1921 and 1932 by the London County Council as a large council estate of 27,000 homes, intended as ’homes for heroes’ after World War I. It has a current population of over 100,000 and is named after the ancient Becontree hundred, which historically covered the area.

The very first house completed, in Chittys Lane, is recognisable by a blue council plate embedded in the wall. Parallel to Chittys Lane runs Valence Avenue, which is wider than the rest of the streets in the district because a temporary railway ran down the centre of the avenue during the construction of the estate - it was built especially for the building work, connecting railway sidings at Goodmayes and a wharf on the river Thames with the worksites.

At the time people marvelled at having indoor toilets and a private garden, although the sash windows were extremely draughty, there was no insulation in the attics, and during the winter ...
»more


JUNE
4
2018

 

Chittys Lane, RM8
In Chittys Lane, the first houses of the Becontree Estate were built. The Becontree Estate is named after the ancient Becontree Hundred, which historically covered the area.

Because of the lack of available land in the County of London, the Housing Act 1919 permitted the London County Council (LCC) to build housing and act as landlord outside of its territory. On 18 June 1919 the London County Council’s Standing Committee on the Housing of the Working Classes resolved to build 29,000 dwellings to accommodate 145,000 people within 5 years, of which 24,000 were to be at Becontree. Becontree was developed between 1921 and 1935 as a large cottage estate of around 26,000 homes, intended to be "homes fit for heroes" for World War I veterans.

Most of the land was at that time was market gardens, with occasional groups of cottages and some country lanes. It was compulsorily purchased. 4,000 houses had been completed by 1921. The early residents were able to pick rhubarb, peas and cabbages from the abandoned market gardens.
...
»more


JUNE
3
2018

 


Adelaide Cottages stood to the east of London Road behind the former Florida Cinema. In 1875 they were reported as still having no running water or main drainage.

Adelaide Cottages were probably named after Queen Adelaide, the consort of King William IV. Genotin Road was extended south over their site in the late 1960s.
»read full article


JUNE
2
2018

 


Goodwins Field - a field with a story. In 1715, Goodwin’s Field was a field owned by a Peter Lavigne, grocer or perfumier of Covent Garden. He bought it from two brothers, John and Thomas Morgan of Marlborough, Wiltshire in 1699. Goodwin’s Field had been inherited in 1699 by the Morgans under the provisions of the will of their brother Charles Morgan (d. 1682), also a grocer of Covent Garden, who had bequeathed his shop there directly to Lavigne, formerly his ’servant’.

Morgan had bought Goodwin’s Field in 1680 from a William Chare who in turn had inherited it, by the custom of the manor of Earl’s Court, as the youngest son of a John Chare.. The latter had bought it in 1641 from mortgagees of Samuel Arnold, one of a family widely propertied in the vicinity of Earl’s Court. Earlier, in the 1530s to 1550s, Goodwin’s Field had been owned by a family called Thatcher.

Goodwin’s Field passed on Lavigne’s death in 1717 to his widow and then in 1719 to their daughter, at that tim...
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JUNE
1
2018

 

Blue Peter Garden
The original garden, adjacent to Television Centre, was designed by Percy Thrower in 1974. Its features include an Italian sunken garden with a pond, which contains goldfish, a vegetable patch, greenhouse and viewing platform. George the Tortoise was interred in the garden following his death in 2004, and there is also a bust of the dog Petra, sculptures of Mabel and the Blue Peter ship, and a plaque in honour of Percy Thrower.

When the programme’s production base moved to Salford MediaCityUK in September 2011, sections of the garden, including the sculptures and the sunken pond, were carefully relocated to the piazza of the new studio facility.
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