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.
Latest featured streets on The Underground Map
Regency Street, SW1P
Regency Street connects Vauxhall Bridge Road to Horseferry Road. The former Regent Street (created in 1816) became called Regency Street in 1877.
The area’s character was originally influenced by Millbank Penitentiary, Britain’s first national prison. The prison was marked by high walls and a surrounding ditch that ran along Causton Street and behind the current Peel House site.
The area was undergoing swift urbanisation by the time of the street’s 1877 name change - it was the location of modest terraced houses. The neighbourhood became increasingly impoverished and overcrowded as the Victorian era drew to a close. Booth’s 1891 notebooks record that the eastern side of Regency Street had been demolished during slum clearance initiatives. The same year saw the demolition of Millbank Penitentiary.
The early 1900s brought significant transformation to the area. Most buildings standing in the street date from this period. The 1910 Ordnance Survey map reveals that by then, the majorit...
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Pulford Street, SW1V
Pulford Street was a street between its construction in 1848 and demolition after the Second World War. Pulford Street survived for near exactly 100 years. It served the Equitable Gas Company’s Pimlico works which had opened in the 1830s and closed in the late 1920s. The houses on Pulford Street had been dilapidated and run down.
In 1932 the Pulford Street Site Committee was set up to raise funds for a new housing estate to be built.
The Tachbrook estate was built by the Westminster Housing Trust, a consortium of Westminster residents who raised £32,000 to buy the land. The estate opened in two stages. The northern half was opened in the 1930s and the southern half was opened in the late 1940s with the last phase, Harvey House, being formally opened by Princess Margaret on 22 October 1953.
Pulford Street disappeared under the new housing.
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Milton Street, EC2Y
Milton Street was formerly known as Grub Street. Grub Street, situated near London’s impoverished Moorfields district, ran from Fore Street east of St Giles-without-Cripplegate to Chiswell Street until the early 19th century. The street was characterised by narrow alleyways and courts, often named after early signboards. Its bohemian atmosphere thrived amidst low-rent lodgings, brothels and coffeehouses.
The area became renowned for its concentration of struggling writers, poets and small-scale publishers, existing on the fringes of London’s literary scene. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary defined it as a place "much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries and temporary poems", noting that "any mean production is called grubstreet". Johnson himself had resided there early in his career. Alexander Pope further popularised this image in his work, The Dunciad.
The street’s name likely derived from a nearby refuse ditch, with historical variations including Grobstrat, Grobbe...
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Bradley Street, E16
Bradley Street was a former street in an area called Cherry Island. In 1866, Canning Town expanded eastward into Cherry Island, a small market garden partially encircled by marsh ditches. Around 1868, a speculator established Edwin Street, Bradley and Street and Thomas Street on this land, constructing numerous substandard cottages. These dwellings proved troublesome for the local board for many years.
Cherry Island was also frequented by Romani travellers. Interestingly, their tidy and well-organised camp stood in stark contrast to the poor conditions of the nearby cottages, offering an unexpected comparison between the two communities in this rapidly developing area.
Bradley Street, along with Cherry Island and its unusual name, was swept away in post-war redevelopment.
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The Underground Map is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying within the M25.
