The Underground Map

The Underground Map is a project which is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying inside the M25.

Great Portland Street

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.

Latest on The Underground Map...

Great Portland Street

Great Portland Street is a London Underground station near Regent’s Park. Great Portland Street station was opened on 10 January 1863 as Portland Road, renamed Great Portland Street and Regents Park in 1923 and changed to its present name on 1 March 1917.

The station’s present structure, constructed in 1930, is situated on a traffic island at the intersection of Marylebone Road, Great Portland Street and Albany Street. This building features a steel-framed design with a cream terracotta exterior. The station’s perimeter also houses shops and, in the past, included a car showroom with office spaces above it. Notably, Great Portland Street was a significant sales location for the motor industry. The station’s architectural design, credited to C.W. Fowler, earned it a Grade II listing in January 1987.

The area around Great Portland Street station offers various points of interest. Regent’s Park and the iconic BT Tower are nearby attractions. Additionally, the station’s proximity to Regen...

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SEPTEMBER

2023

Courtfield Gardens, SW5
Courtfield Gardens is named after the field beneath it, cultivated until the 19th century According to 16th-century records, Courtfield Gardens was built on a vast open meadow known as Great Courtfield. This meadow was surrounded by fertile land and small farms and was part of a large area of land that extended from Cromwell Road to The Old Brompton Road in one direction, and from Gloucester Road to Earl’s Court Road in the other direction. Great Courtfield was included in the Earl’s Court ’manor’.

During the 18th century, Earl’s Court House, a grand manor house, was constructed on the land that is now the western terrace of Barkston Gardens. This building replaced an extensive dwelling that was described in 1705 as having fountains, a marble-tiled dairy, engines for water, and impressive gates at its entrance.

In the 19th century, the area surrounding Courtfield Gardens was developed with rows of terraced houses, as the demand for housing in London grew. Earl’s Court House was demolished in the middle of th...
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JUNE

2023

Alba Place, W11
Alba Place is part of the Colville Conservation Area Originally the stable house accommodation for the main houses on Lancaster Road, the primary purpose of the Mews properties is now residential.

Alba Place is located on the site of an original Mews but has been redeveloped to a degree that it no longer contains any surviving Mews properties. It is a gated cul-de-sac off Portobello Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, almost opposite Hayden’s Place (another redeveloped Mews). It contains 16 properties used for residential purposes.

Alba Place was Albion Place until 1937, one of the many patriotic names dating from the period immediately following the Crimean War.
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JUNE

2023

Canary Wharf to Canada Water walk
An unusual walk between stations on the Jubilee Line which involves asphyxiation One of my series of walks
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MAY

2023

Dunk Street
Dunk Street ran parallel to Great Garden Street (now Greatorex Street) to the west, and King Edward Street, which has also ceased to exist, to the east Dunk Street stretched approximately 200 metres from Old Montague Street to Hanbury Street, situated about 300 metres east of Baker’s Row, which is now the southern section of Vallance Road.

In 1643, Edward Montague, William Montague, and Mawrice Tresham acquired property from William Smith and others in the future Mile End New Town and Spitalfields areas.

This property comprised around forty-two or forty-three acres, which included five enclosed fields, a nursery, and a garden plot. A portion of this land would later become the southern half of Mile End New Town. Edward Montague eventually came into possession of all this land by approximately 1680.

The name Pelham Street was derived from Edward Montague’s wife, Elizabeth Pelham, who held ownership prior to their marriage.

In 1691, Elizabeth Pelham obtained a private Act that allowed her to grant leases for the rebuilding of dilapidated properties on her estates i...
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Sue Meyrick Road, SW11 Added: 24 Sep 2023 19:09 GMT	Meyrick Rd My family - Roe - lived in poverty at 158 Meyrick Rd in the 1920s, moving to 18 Lavender Terrace in 1935. They also lived in York Rd at one point. Alf, Nell (Ellen), plus children John, Ellen (Did), Gladys, Joyce & various lodgers. Alf worked for the railway (LMS). Reply
Michael Tyrrell Avenue, DA16 Added: 20 Sep 2023 21:10 GMT	Momentous Birth! I was born in the upstairs front room of 28 Tyrrell Avenue in August 1938. I was a breach birth and quite heavy ( poor Mum!). My parents moved to that end of terrace house from another rental in St Mary Cray where my three year older brother had been born in 1935. The estate was quite new in 1938 and all the properties were rented. My Father was a Postman. I grew up at no 28 all through WWII and later went to Little Dansington School Reply
Mike Levy Arbour Square, E1 Added: 19 Sep 2023 18:10 GMT	Bombing of Arbour Square in the Blitz On the night of September 7, 1940. Hyman Lubosky (age 35), his wife Fay (or Fanny)(age 32) and their son Martin (age 17 months) died at 11 Arbour Square. They are buried together in Rainham Jewish Cemetery. Their grave stones read: "Killed by enemy action" Reply
Lady Townshend Bridge House Added: 8 Sep 2023 16:02 GMT	Tenant at Westbourne (1807 - 1811) I think that the 3rd Marquess Townshend - at that time Lord Chartley - was a tenant living either at Westbourne Manor or at Bridge House. He undertook considerable building work there as well as creating gardens. I am trying to trace which house it was. Any ideas gratefully received Reply
Alex Britton Roding Valley Added: 30 Aug 2023 10:43 GMT	Late opening The tracks through Roding Valley were opened on 1 May 1903 by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) on its Woodford to Ilford line (the Fairlop Loop). But the station was not opened until 3 February 1936 by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER, successor to the GER). Source: Roding Valley tube station - Wikipedia Reply
Kevin Pont Roding Valley Added: 30 Aug 2023 09:52 GMT	Shhh.... Roding Valley is the quietest tube station, each year transporting the same number of passengers as Waterloo does in one day. Reply
Kevin Pont Dollis Hill Added: 30 Aug 2023 09:47 GMT	The connection with Bletchley Park The code-breaking computer used at Bletchley Park was built in Dollis Hill. Reply
Kevin Pont Hampstead Added: 29 Aug 2023 15:25 GMT	The deepest station At 58m below ground, Hampstead is as deep as Nelson’s Column is tall. Source: Hampstead tube station - Wikipedia Reply

Click here to explore another London street
We now have 628 completed street histories and 46872 partial histories

NOVEMBER

2016

Rupert Street, W1D
Rupert Street – after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, noted 17th century general and son of Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I. Cutting across Shaftesbury Avenue from Chinatown up into Soho, Rupert Street was named in 1676 after Prince Rupert of the Rhine: the nephew of King Charles I. Rupert was a charismatic figure who rode into battle with his pet poodle.

Between the site of Panton Square and Colman Hedge Lane (now Wardour Street) lay a plot of ground bounded on the south by the lane leading from the Military Yard to Piccadilly (now Coventry Street), and on the north by Knaves’ Acre. A map of 1664 marks the whole plot as ’parish Land’.

After the Restoration the whole of the Bailiwick of St. James, of which this ground formed a part, was leased by Queen Henrietta Maria and her trustees to the trustees of Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans. In 1676 Charles II granted the freehold of the plot to St. Albans in exchange for the surrender by the latter of his leasehold interest in Nell Gwynne’s house in Pall Mall. The ground was then described as a long slip of...
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NOVEMBER

2016

George Lane, N2
George Lane ran from Hampstead Lane to East End Road. In the south part of what was originally the extent of Finchley, there were two lanes in 1754.

Hampstead Lane, which crossed the southern tip of the parish on its way from Highgate to Hampstead, and George Lane, which ran north from Hampstead Lane to Spaniards Farm and thence, by field paths, to East End Road.
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NOVEMBER

2016

Gwendwr Garden
Gwendwr Gardens is a small park in West Kensington. In 1948 the area was donated to Fulham Council by the Gunter Estate for a memorial to the victims of German air raids in the area.

The park contains a pond, lawns and a commemorative plaque.

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NOVEMBER

2016

InterContinental London
InterContinental London Park Lane is a luxury 5-star hotel. It is located at 1 Hamilton Place on Hyde Park Corner with Park Lane, close to the shopping centre of Knightsbridge and Piccadilly.The hotel is operated by the InterContinental Hotels Group as part of the InterContinental chain, and was built in 1974.
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NOVEMBER

2016

Five Bells
The first recorded licensee of the Five Bells was in 1751. There is mention of an ale house as early in 1484 when a Mr Thomas Sanny was fined for not putting enough hops in his beer.

In 1803 the original building was demolished and replaced by cottages. A new pub was built in its present location to the west and the present building dates from 1868 following a major fire. Beside the pub was the village blacksmith.

The pub had a reputation as a centre of boxing and a number of champions trained there including the heavyweight and mediumweight champion Jem Mace.

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NOVEMBER

2016

Shenley Road water tank
Shenley Road tank was a fire prevention feature of Boreham Wood. This brick structure was a bunded tank. It was full of water for the fire brigade to use should there be a fire at the nearby studios.

Local children would catch sticklebacks there.

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NOVEMBER

2016

105 Shenley Road, WD6
105 Shenley Road lies along the main street of Borehamwood. In the early 1900s, this was the 12th of 21 cottages, running west to east, built along the north side of Shenley Road, ending where Clarendon Road met the main road.

In 1960, the cottages were demolished and in 1961, between 83 and 123 Shenley Road, shops to serve the growing population of Boreham Wood took their place.

In 1976, according to the research of local historian Vic Rowntree, this was the site of Halford’s.

In the 2010s, Santander Bank was here.
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NOVEMBER

2016

St Augustine’s, Kilburn
St Augustine’s was founded by Richard Carr Kirkpatrick in the Anglo-Catholic tradition in 1870 and listed as a Grade I building by Historic England. Kirkpatrick formed the church after his parish at St. Mary’s, Kilburn, where he served as curate, received an evangelical vicar unsympathetic to the Anglo-Catholic movement.

By 1871, a foundation stone had been laid and the original ’iron church’ was subsequently replaced by a much more ambitious building, a Gothic Revival church designed by John Loughborough Pearson.

Pearson’s plans called for a red brick structure, vaulted ceilings, and extensive interior stone sculpture in a style reminiscent of 13th-century Gothic architecture. The church was consecrated in 1880, but the tower and spire, remarkable for such Victorian era structures, were not constructed until 1897-1898.

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed the reredos (altar screens) for the high altar in 1930. He also designed the reredos of the Lady Chapel and the Stations of the Cross. In 1878, two years prior to the dedication of the church, contemporary historian Edward Walfor...
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NOVEMBER

2016

Tower Hamlets College
Tower Hamlets College is a large further education and a constituent college of New City College. The college has four different campuses: the largest is on Poplar High Street, about 700 m north of Canary Wharf; the others are at Arbour Square, Bethnal Green and the East India Dock Road. The college is housed in the former School of Marine Engineering and Navigation established by the London County Council opened in 1906.
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NOVEMBER

2016

Home House
Home House is a Georgian town house at 20 Portman Square. James Wyatt was appointed to design it by Elizabeth, Countess of Home in 1776, but by 1777 he had been dismissed and replaced by Robert Adam. Elizabeth left the completed house on her death in 1784 to her nephew William Gale, who in turn left it to one of his aunts, Mrs Walsh, in 1785. Its later occupants included the Marquis de la Luzerne during his time as French ambassador to the Court of St. James’s (1788 to 1791), the 4th Duke of Atholl (1798 to 1808), the Duke of Newcastle (1820 to 1861), Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid (1862 to 1919), and Lord and Lady Islington (1919 to 1926).

In 1926, it was leased by Samuel Courtauld to house his growing art collection. On his wife’s death in 1931, he gave the house and the collection to the fledgling Courtauld Institute of Art (which he had played a major part in founding) as temporary accommodation. A permanent accommodation was not forthcoming, and the Institute remained in the building until 1989, when it moved to its prese...
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NOVEMBER

2016

Eland House, SW1E
Eland House is an office building on Bressenden Place. Eland House was designed by EPR Architects and built by Mowlem for Land Securities, and although finally completed in 1998, staff of the former Department of the Environment had moved in in late 1995/early 1996.

The building is 59 metres tall, with 11 floors providing 35 000 square metres of office space housing 2500 staff. It incorporates a number of environmental features including a cogeneration plant and active solar panels.

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