The Underground Map is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying within the M25.

The aim of the project is to find the location every street in London, whether past or present, and tell its story. This project aims to be a service to historians, genealogists and those with an interest in urban design.

The website is based upon a series of maps from the 1750s until the 1950s. You can see how London grows over the decades.

Download your own maps

The website does not sell maps. Instead it offers a subscription service via Substack.

Paid subscribers have the option of obtaining - at no extra charge than the monthly subscription - full, printable resolution old maps of an area of London, perhaps centred on your house for instance.

The following map series are available to download:

• Ordnance Survey 1895-1900 series (all of the area inside the M25)
• Ordnance Survey 1868-1870 series (nearly all of the area inside the M25)
• Ordnance Survey 1950s series (much of the Greater London area)
• Stanford map of 1865 (covers Golders Green in NW to Blackheath in SE)
• 1800 Milne landuse map (covers Harrow in NW to Eltham in SE)
• Various central London sections of 1829 (Greenwood), 1746 (Rocque)
• Other old maps series are always being worked upon and added

Maps are provided in printable A2 PDF format. Though we will not be printing or framing, you'll be able to take your map to your local print shop/picture framer and let them produce the magic.

For technical reasons, the monthly price is set in euros and the price is €5 - about £4.25 in UK sterling.

Though your continuing support will be (much) appreciated, you can begin a monthly subscription, get the maps you want and then end the subscription. To ensure you have a valid subscription, your sign-up Substack email is checked against our list of current subscribers. Your email is not used for any purpose outside The Underground Map.

How to use the service

1. Go to the website home page https://www.theundergroundmap.com/
2. Navigate to the place you want an old London map of (using the drop-down list or just scrolling the map)
3. Use the zoom control (far top left of the map) and map year control (far top right of the map) to get exactly the map you want
4. Click the "Request this map" button
5. On the page that comes up next, if you like the look of the map you requested, enter your subscriber email address and a title for the map
6. Press "Confirm"
7. You will be sent a link to download your map and additionally your map will be sent as a PDF to you. Check your spam folder if the email doesn't arrive

Please note that to preclude overloading the website, you can only request a map every hour. But there's no limit to the number of maps you can request once you are a subscriber

Subscriber benefits

• Download your own maps
• Ask us to find an old street or area which has disappeared from the modern map
• Historical overviews of areas of London - the history of each street and locations of note
• Regular exclusive Substack articles

Find a street

We aim to have a complete list of London streets, past and present. This is neccessarily, and always, a work in progress since there have been so many streets. Streets can be found in various ways:

• Using the search control at the top right
• Using the maps - you can use the drop down menu at the top left to focus on a new area first
• Using the dedicated streets page. Find streets and buildings in various ways on this page

Contact us

For all other enquires, please use the contact form.

Any other business

Here are some particular pages on the website:

• Copyright notice
• Privacy policy