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.

Kenway Road (1970)
Credit: British History Online

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...

Kenway Road, SW5

Kenway Road was, after 1803, called North Row. Kenway Road was originally part of a country track linking the Manor House at Earl’s Court with Kensington village, via what are now Wright’s Lane and Marloes Road. It may be an abbreviation of ’the Way to Kensington’.

In 1797, one Thomas Smith bought a local piece of land called ’Pound Field. At Earl’s Court Smith began building in 1803 along established thoroughfares - today’s Kenway Road and Hogarth Place.

In 1856, Charles William Wallgrave (of King’s Road, Chelsea) invested in a plot of land at Earl’s Court. Four years later he decided to build Wallgrave Road but wrote to the local Parish Vestry to say that the drains at Earl’s Court appeared to be blocked, since all the sewage from the cottages in Kenway Road was overflowing onto his ground. The vestry replied that this was not surprising, since there were no sewers at Earl’s Court. Nor did they intend to do anything ab...

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SEPTEMBER

2022

George Lane, E18
George Lane is the main road of South Woodford South Woodford’s original name was Church End. This continued as the electoral ward for the part of South Woodford north of the Central Line railway.

There were five inns in Woodford in 1753: The George, The White Hart, The Ship and Castle, New Wells, and Old Wells. The George at Church End, already existed as Horns Inn in 1657. It faces High Road at the junction with George Lane - the road is named after the inn.

In the early 19th century, the upper and lower roads of Woodford, together with Snakes Lane and George Lane were the only thoroughfares through the parish.

George Lane originally crossed the railway with a level crossing immediately to the north of the station. This was closed and the road split into two when the line was electrified.

The first cinema in the district was the South Woodford Cinema, opening in 1913 at 170 George Lane.

George Lane station became a Central Line underground station ...
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SEPTEMBER

2022

Agincourt Road, NW3
Agincourt Road dates from 1881 Thomas E. Gibb, a developer from Kentish Town, purchased a large area of land and proposed to build 120 small houses for middle-class residents (at ’the lower end of middle-class respectability’), as well as a sewer. He laid out several roads, including Cressy Road, Agincourt Road, and Lisburne Road - Agincourt and Cressey were both notable battles.

However, the closure and reopening of a local smallpox hospital caused land values to decrease, and little housing was built initially.

In 1886, the Church Commissioners recognised the social change and allowed Gibb to build 215 houses on the remaining land. This led to the construction of Constantine Road in 1887, which provided a direct route from Gospel Oak and Kentish Town to South End Green and the heath. Building then began, and after Gibb’s death in 1894, his successors built an additional 153 houses in Constantine Road, Cressy Road, and Mackeson Road.
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SEPTEMBER

2022

The Adelphi
The Adelphi is a small district surrounding the streets of Adelphi Terrace, Robert Street and John Adam Street The Adelphi district gets its name from the Adelphi Buildings, a collection of 24 neoclassical terrace houses located between The Strand and the River Thames in the parish of St Martin in the Fields. The buildings were constructed between 1768-72 by the Adam brothers (John, Robert, James, and William Adam) and also included a headquarters building for the "Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce," now known as the Royal Society of Arts. The Greek-derived name of the buildings honors the Adam brothers’ architectural design. The ruins of Durham House were removed to make way for the Adelphi Buildings. The nearby Adelphi Theatre takes its name from the Adelphi Buildings. Robert Adam was inspired by his visit to Diocletian’s Palace in Dalmatia, and some of that inspiration is reflected in the design of the Adelphi Buildings.

The Adelphi district is not strictly defined by boundaries, but generally, it is considered to be situated betwee...
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SEPTEMBER

2022

Ainsty Street, SE16
York Street until 1873, Ainsty Street was one of a group of Rotherhithe Streets commemorating royal names Built in the early 19th century, York Street - before it was Ainsty Street - was named for George III’s second son, the Duke of York.

It was typical of many other streets of workers’ terraces.

Destroyed in the Blitz, Ainsty Street originally ran to what is now Albatross Way. It was redeveloped when the Ainsty Estate was built.
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Christine D Elliott Blockhouse Street, SE15 Added: 20 Mar 2023 15:52 GMT	The Blute Family My grandparents, Frederick William Blute & Alice Elizabeth Blute nee: Warnham lived at 89 Blockhouse Street Deptford from around 1917.They had six children. 1. Alice Maragret Blute (my mother) 2. Frederick William Blute 3. Charles Adrian Blute 4. Violet Lillian Blute 5. Donald Blute 6. Stanley Vincent Blute (Lived 15 months). I lived there with my family from 1954 (Birth) until 1965 when we were re-housed for regeneration to the area. I attended Ilderton Road School. Very happy memories of that time. Reply
Pearl Foster Dukes Place, EC3A Added: 20 Mar 2023 12:22 GMT	Dukes Place, EC3A Until his death in 1767, Daniel Nunes de Lara worked from his home in Dukes Street as a Pastry Cook. It was not until much later the street was renamed Dukes Place. Daniel and his family attended the nearby Bevis Marks synagogue for Sephardic Jews. The Ashkenazi Great Synagogue was established in Duke Street, which meant Daniel’s business perfectly situated for his occupation as it allowed him to cater for both congregations. Reply
Dr Paul Flewers Hawthorne Close, N1 Added: 9 Mar 2023 18:12 GMT	Some Brief Notes on Hawthorne Close / Hawthorne Street My great-grandparents lived in the last house on the south side of Hawthorne Street, no 13, and my grandmother Alice Knopp and her brothers and sisters grew up there. Alice Knopp married Charles Flewers, from nearby Hayling Road, and moved to Richmond, Surrey, where I was born. Leonard Knopp married Esther Gutenberg and lived there until the street was demolished in the mid-1960s, moving on to Tottenham. Uncle Len worked in the fur trade, then ran a pet shop in, I think, the Kingsland Road. From the back garden, one could see the almshouses in the Balls Pond Road. There was an ink factory at the end of the street, which I recall as rather malodorous. Reply
KJH Andover Road, N7 Added: 7 Mar 2023 17:14 GMT	Andover Road, N7 (1939 - 1957) My aunt, Doris nee Curtis (aka Jo) and her husband John Hawkins (aka Jack) ran a small general stores at 92 Andover Road (N7). I have found details in the 1939 register but don’t know how long before that it was opened.He died in 1957. In the 1939 register he is noted as being an ARP warden for Islington warden Reply
The Queens Head Added: 2 Mar 2023 13:50 GMT	The Queens Head Queens Head demolished and a NISA supermarket and flats built in its place. Reply
Mike Elia Street, N1 Added: 28 Feb 2023 18:09 GMT	6 Elia Street When I was young I lived in 6 Elia Street. At the end of the garden there was a garage owned by Initial Laundries which ran from an access in Quick Street all the way up to the back of our garden. The fire exit to the garage was a window leading into our garden. 6 Elia Street was owned by Initial Laundry. Reply
Fumblina Whitfield Street, W1T Added: 21 Feb 2023 11:39 GMT	Error on 1800 map numbering for John Street The 1800 map of Whitfield Street (17 zoom) has an error in the numbering shown on the map. The houses are numbered up the right hand side of John Street and Upper John Street to #47 and then are numbered down the left hand side until #81 BUT then continue from 52-61 instead of 82-91. Reply
P Cash Woburn Place, WC1H Added: 19 Feb 2023 08:03 GMT	Occupants of 19-29 Woburn Place The Industrial Tribunals (later changed to Employment Tribunals) moved (from its former location on Ebury Bridge Road to 19-29 Woburn Place sometime in the late 1980s (I believe). 19-29 Woburn Place had nine floors in total (one in the basement and two in its mansard roof and most of the building was occupied by the Tribunals The ’Head Office’ of the tribunals, occupied space on the 7th, 6th and 2nd floors, whilst one of the largest of the regional offices (London North but later called London Central) occupied space in the basement, ground and first floor. The expansive ground floor entrance had white marble flooring and a security desk. Behind (on evey floor) lay a square (& uncluttered) lobby space, which was flanked on either side by lifts. On the rear side was an elegant staircase, with white marble steps, brass inlays and a shiny brass handrail which spiralled around an open well. Both staircase, stairwell and lifts ran the full height of the building. On all floors from 1st upwards, staff toilets were tucked on either side of the staircase (behind the lifts). Basement Floor - Tribunal hearing rooms, dormant files store and secure basement space for Head Office. Public toilets. Geound Floor - The ’post’ roon sat next to the entrance in the northern side, the rest of which was occupied by the private offices of the full time Tribunal judiciary. Thw largest office belonged to the Regional Chair and was situated on the far corner (overlooking Tavistock Square) The secretary to the Regional Chair occupied a small office next door. The south side of this floor was occupied by the large open plan General Office for the administration, a staff kitchen & rest room and the private offices of the Regional Secretary (office manager) and their deputy. First Dloor - Tribunal hearing rooms; separate public waiting rooms for Applicants & Respondents; two small rooms used by Counsel (on a ’whoever arrives first’ bases) and a small private rest room for use by tribunal lay members. Second Floor - Tribunal Hearing Rooms; Tribunal Head Office - HR & Estate Depts & other tennants. Third Floor - other tennants Fourth Floor - other tennants Fifth Floor - Other Tennants except for a large non-smoking room for staff, (which overlooked Tavistock Sqaure). It was seldom used, as a result of lacking any facities aside from a meagre collection of unwanted’ tatty seating. Next to it, (overlooking Tavistock Place) was a staff canteen. Sixth Floor - Other tennants mostly except for a few offices on the northern side occupied by tribunal Head Office - IT Dept. Seventh Floor - Other tenants in the northern side. The southern (front) side held the private offices of several senior managers (Secretariat, IT & Finance), private office of the Chief Accuntant; an office for two private secretaries and a stationary cupboard. On the rear side was a small kitchen; the private office of the Chief Executive and the private office of the President of the Tribunals for England & Wales. (From 1995 onwards, this became a conference room as the President was based elsewhere. The far end of this side contained an open plan office for Head Office staff - Secretariat, Finance & HR (staff training team) depts. Eighth Floor - other tennants. The Employment Tribunals (Regional & Head Offices) relocated to Vitory House, Kingsway in April 2005. Reply

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MAY

2018

Loftus Road stadium
Loftus Road Stadium is a football stadium in Shepherd’s Bush and home to Queens Park Rangers. The ground was first used on 11 October 1904 by Shepherd’s Bush F.C., an amateur side that was disbanded during the First World War. QPR moved to Loftus Road in 1917, having had their ground at Park Royal commandeered by the army in 1915. At that time the ground was an open field with a pavilion. One stand from Park Royal was dismantled and re-erected forming the Ellerslie Road stand in 1919. This stand remained as the only covered seating in the ground until 1968 and was replaced in 1972. It had a capacity of 2,950.

QPR moved out of Loftus Road at the start of the 1931–32 season, moving nearby to White City Stadium, but after a loss of £7,000, the team moved back for the start of the 1933-34 season.

In April 1948, after winning the Third Division (South) championship, the club bought the freehold of the stadium plus 39 houses in Loftus Road and Ellerslie Road for £26,250 financed by a share floatation that raised £30,000. When the club’...
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MAY

2018

Adams Row, W1K
On the Grosvenor estate, Adams Row extends from South Audley Street to Carlos Place. It was laid out in the 1720s to provide stables and coach houses for the mansions in nearby Grosvenor Square. Originally Adams Mews it probably takes its name from one of its builders.

By the end of the eighteenth century the different portions of Mount Street had begun to establish their own identity. On the north side, where there was good access to the back premises from Mount Row, Bishop’s Yard, Adam Mews and Reeves Mews, a number of tradesmen and craftsmen established quite sizeable businesses.

In 1940, a high explosive bomb is recorded falling somewhere between Mount Street and Adams Row, meaning many of the properties had to be rebuilt.

Adams Row contains 12 properties for residential use, businesses and a pub.
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MAY

2018

Ardleigh Green Road, RM11
Ardleigh Green Road was originally Haynes Park Road. Ardleigh Green was first recorded as Hadley in the 14th century, evolving through Hadley Green and Hardley Green before attaining its present form. The original name probably indicated a heathland clearing.

A hamlet along the road was in existence by the early 17th century and the Spencer’s Arms inn later became popular with agricultural labourers. A few villas were built in the late 19th century, including Hardley Court, but the surroundings remained very rural until the opening of Squirrel’s Heath (now Gidea Park) station in 1910.

From 1927 the builders EA Coryn and Sons developed the Haynes Park estate. Ardleigh Green junior and infants’ schools opened in 1933.

Essex County Council bought Hardley Court and 15 acres of land for £9,000 in 1946. The house was used as a teacher training college for several years before the first part of what is now Havering College was built in the grounds in the late 1950s. Most of the college’s p...
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MAY

2018

Friern Hospital
Friern Hospital (formerly Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum) was a psychiatric hospital. The building of Friern Hospital was commissioned by the Middlesex Court of Magistrates, as the Second Middlesex County Asylum. The architect was Samuel Daukes, whose Italianate corridor-plan design was based on the advice of John Conolly, the superintendent of the First Middlesex County Asylum. The foundation stone was laid by the Prince Consort in 1849, and the building was completed in November 1850. The cost of building had been estimated at £150,000, but the final cost actually proved to be £300,000, making it the most expensive asylum ever built, at £240 per bed. The estate had its own water supply, a chapel, cemetery and a 75-acre farm estate. It also had a gasworks, brewery, and an aviary where canaries were bred.

The hospital was built as the Second Middlesex County Asylum. After the County of London was created in 1889 it continued to served much of Middlesex and of the newer county, London. During much of this time its smaller prototype Hanwell Asylum also ...
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MAY

2018

Lots Road, SW10
Lots Road, older than the surrounding streets, was once Pooles Lane which was a track leading to Chelsea Farm. From Anglo-Saxon times, the land on the northern banks of the Thames was divided into individually owned ‘lots’, and open to common pasturage after the annual harvest. In 1825 the ‘Lammas’ rights of common grazing were abolished on the ‘Lots’.

When the Cremorne Gardens closed in the 1860s, the landowner Mrs Simpson, let the land as building plots for the construction of workers’ housing. The variety and range of materials and architectural detailing amongst the workers cottages suggests that a number of different builders constructed the housing.

Historic maps indicate that much of the land was developed within a short period of time between 1868 and 1896. Tadema Road (Tadema Street), which has Dutch and classical elements, was almost certainly named after Lawrence Alma-Tadema, a Dutch artist who moved to London in 1870 and enjoyed great frame during the mid to late 1870s, when those houses were constructed.

Running in paral...
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MAY

2018

Oakleigh Park Farm
Oakleigh Park Farm was immediately south of where Chandos Avenue is now. The growing suburban demand for milk ensured that local dairy farms flourished. Oakleigh Park Farm was situated on High Road Whetstone.

Manor Farm Dairies were founded in 1875 by Joseph Wilmington Lane and joined in the 1920s with United Dairies, which had been founded in 1917. There were two farms in the group - Manor Farm, Highgate and Oakleigh Park Farm, Whetstone. The head offices were in High Street, Whetstone, and later in High Road, East Finchley. Manor farm survived until 1932. Dairying also featured on the Woodhouse estate in 1902 and on Park farm (Bibwell) for many years before 1918 until the fields were sold for building.

There were also other farms in Whetstone itself.

Blue House Farm was between the modern Chandos Avenue and The Black Bull and Brook Farm, on the eastern side of Whetstone High Road, had been acquired by Finchley UDC in 1912 to provide cricket and football pitches and allotments

There were three ...
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MAY

2018

Spaniards Inn
The Spaniards Inn lies in Hampstead Lane on the way from Hampstead to Highgate and on the edge of Hampstead Heath. It is believed to have been built in 1585 on the Finchley boundary, with the tavern forming the entrance to the Bishop of London’s estate – an original boundary stone from 1755 can still be seen in the front garden. Opposite it there is a toll house built in around 1710.

The Spaniards was licensed to Francis Porero, the eponymous Spaniard, in 1721. It stood at the south-west exit from Hornsey park, where a gate was marked in 1754. The building itself may be 17th century, although it has been extensively altered and refaced. It was there that the mob at the time of the Gordon Riots in 1780 was halted on its way to destroy Lord Mansfield’s house at Kenwood.

It causes a notorious traffic bottleneck. It was the site of a toll and opposite the pub lies the former toll keeper’s cottage. Both the pub and the cottage are now listed buildings and so traffic has crawl between the two. These boundaries are still relevant today – the pub is in Barn...
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MAY

2018

Grass Farm
Grass Farm was developed in the late 19th century. The south-western area of Church End, Finchley was part of the Bibbesworth Manor for many centuries, named after Sir Edmund Bibbesworth whose family held it from about 1418 to 1443. The Manor was part of the Bishop of London’s estate.

Grass or Groates Farm, one of the larger farms in Finchley which stretched from Church End westwards to the Dollis Brook. The farm can be
traced back to the 14th century when the Groate family occupied it from about 1394 to the 1460s.

The farm, which covered 113 acres, was sold by auction on 15th May 1856 and was purchased by John Harris Heal, the grandfather of Ambrose Heal, founder of Heal’s of Tottenham Court Road.

Heal died in 1876 and the estate was purchased from their executors in 1894 by James Christopher Wilkinson of Elm Grange, who subsequently offered the farmland for sale for building purposes in 1906. Most of the farm was demolished in 1911 and is commemorated in Grass Park, c...
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MAY

2018

Fortis Green
How Fortis Green got its name is not clear. ’Fortis’ suggests a place before something, but the ’something’ is obscure. It appears in 1558 when it was considered part of Finchley Common. The green may simply have been a gap in woods and ran as far as where Muswell Hill Odeon is today.

Even into the 20th century Coldfall Woods came as far south as the present back fences of the houses on the north side of the road.

On a map of 1754, Cherry Tree Woods (then Dirt House Woods) to the south had been cleared and the land enclosed with at least two large houses. More houses were built along the road from the beginning of the 19th century.

By the middle part of the 19th century there were about 60 houses, mostly belonging to labourers, which had been erected on the green between the woods and the road.

The National Freehold Land society developed what had been Haswell Park into southern, eastern, and western Roads after 1852, with 180 plots, but development was slow. H...
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MAY

2018

Aberdare Road, EN3
Aberdare Road was in existence by 1903. The 1914 Ordnance Survey map shows this and adjoining roads laid out, but no houses built - nothing was built until after World War I.

All the roads on the estate are named after towns in South Wales - Glyn Road, Swansea Road and Brecon Road.
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MAY

2018

Zebra taxi
Around 1912, a zebra-pulled taxi was active on the streets of Brixton. The driver is Gustav Grais who ran a circus of zebras and baboons - the hackney cab was likely a promotion for the circus, active for a day or two only.

The photo shows the zebra-driven carriage leaving Brixton and heading for Stockwell.
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MAY

2018

Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain
The London Welsh School was founded in 1958 by a group of parents who had been sending their children to Welsh lessons on Saturday mornings. After long discussions and appeals, the school finally opened with thirty pupils and now caters for up to 40 pupils.

Nearly 60 years later, the school is still going strong and in 2015 opened in its latest location: the Hanwell Community Centre.

It is an independent school which accepts students between the ages of 3 and 11. It has nursery classes.
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MAY

2018

Woodside Lane, N12
Woodside Lane dates from 1780 at the latest. In 1851 there was a regular ’bus service running from the Torrington to Charing Cross and railway connections had been established with London, first at New Southgate.

During the 1850s and 1860s Woodside Lane, Torrington Park, Friern Park, Grove Road, Finsbury Road (now Finchley Park) had all been laid out with housing. In 1872 the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway opened Torrington Park Station which was renamed Woodside Park in 1882. It was during the construction of a railway through Finchley from 1864 that a Reverend Henry Stephens opened a mission for the navvies working on the line.

A church had been constructed by 1869 which was formally opened in 1870 as Christ Church. It became a new parish in 1872. By 1874 it was said that there were 350 dwellings within this ecclesiastical parish.
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MAY

2018

Finchley Catholic High School
Finchley Catholic High School is a comprehensive boys’ secondary school with a coeducational sixth form in North Finchley. It accepts students between the ages of 11 and 18. Finchley Catholic Grammar School was founded in 1926 by the Monsignor Canon Clement Henry Parsons (1892–1980), parish priest of St. Alban’s Catholic Church, Nether Street, North Finchley. He founded the Challoner School (a fee-paying grammar school for boys who had not passed their 11+); as well as St. Alban’s Catholic Preparatory School as a feeder primary for the Grammar and Challoner schools. 1971 saw its two institutional forebears, Finchley Catholic Grammar School ("Finchley Grammar") and the Challoner School, merge to become Finchley Catholic High School). It was the sister school of the all-girls St. Michael’s Catholic Grammar School during the grammar school era.

The school started as a private initiative and parents were able to consider allowing their children to remain at school for longer. In a short time demand outgrew accommodation, the school had to extend. An appeal from the pulpit by Canon Parsons began the collection that by Christmas 1928 had ...
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MAY

2018

North Finchley
North Finchley is centred on Tally Ho Corner, the junction of the roads to East Finchley, Finchley Central and Whetstone. The name of the whole of the modern area covering North Finchley and neighbouring Whetstone was North End, a name first used in 1462.

The rapid enclosure of the countryside in the first years of the nineteenth century meant the end of Finchley Common in 1816, opening up North Finchley from urbanisation - this still took a while nevertheless.

21 cottages were built in Lodge Lane during 1824 and by the 1830s there were other houses - even a chapel by 1837.

By 1839 North Finchley had a blacksmith (on Lodge Lane and not the High Road).

In 1851 there was a regular bus service from the ’Torrington’ to Charing Cross and next came the local railway lines. Christ Church was opened in 1870 and a new parish was formed in 1872.

In 1905 the Metropolitan Electric Tramways started a route between Highgate and Whetstone - a tram depot was opened in Woodberry Grove. Trams and buses together promoted North Finchley’s development.
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MAY

2018

Allerton Road, WD6
Allerton Road is named after Allerton Mauleverer - a village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire. Allerton Mauleverer lies five miles east of the town of Knaresborough. The A1(M) runs through the area connecting London and Edinburgh.

Back in Borehamwood, the Catholic church - SS St.John Fisher and Thomas More - is on corner of Rossington Avenue and Allerton Road.
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MAY

2018

Queensbury
Queensbury was a made-up name for a new area north of the existing Kingsbury. The name ’Queensbury’ came about since a new Underground station was being built in a green field area with no existing settlement. The new name was coined by analogy with Kingsbury, one station south. It had been selected by way of a newspaper competition.

The parade of shops and houses built beside the station form a large crescent with a public space in the centre. Queensbury was developed in the 1930s and the architecture reflects this. Until May 2008 a roundabout in front of the station featured a prominent 1930s-style mast bearing the London Underground emblem.

Queensbury station opened on 16 December 1934 originally as part of the Metropolitan line. The Stanmore branch was transferred to the Bakerloo line in 1939, and then the Jubilee line in 1979.
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MAY

2018

Young Street, W8
Young Street, named after the developer of Kensington Square, was in use as a road by 1685.

Running perpendicular to the square, it was the only thoroughfare leading into it from Kensington High Street until the opening of what is now Derry Street in the mid-1730s.

As with development at Kensington Square, the street was parcelled up into lots and let or sold to developers and builders. Young retained the freehold of the area on the west side, immediately north of no.16, and probably erected two houses there by 1695. Unlike Kensington Square this area was much more socially diverse in character, with occupants connected to the court of William III sharing the length of the street with resident tradesmen and shopkeepers. There were also several Huguenots attracted to residences here.

Little remains from this time. Going by the photographs taken in the 1860s, the street was largely unaltered. Bomb damage from the Second World War, however, and before that the construction of Kensington Square Mansions on the west side of Young Str...
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MAY

2018

Angell Town, SW9
Angell Town is a large, municipally-built housing complex on the Brixton/Stockwell border. Angell Town takes its name from the eccentric landowner John Angell, who died in 1784. His grandfather, Justinian, had acquired the property by marriage. Brixton remained undeveloped until the beginning of the 19th century.

Angell Town was laid out in the 1850s on the east side of Brixton Road. The church of St John the Evangelist was built in 1852–3, designed by Benjamin Ferrey in the Perpendicular style.

Most of the old town was replaced in the 1970s by a council estate that combined 1960s-style blocks with the newer concept of overhead walkways and linking bridges, some of which were later removed in an attempt to prevent robbers and vandals making easy getaways. A bridge was supposed to cross Brixton Road to the social facilities on the Stockwell Park estate, but it was never built.

Angell Town soon gained a reputation for neglect and decline and became stigmatised as a sink estate. In a scheme notable for the high degree of residents...
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MAY

2018

Victoria Road stadium
The Victoria Road stadium, under various sponsorship names, is the home ground of Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. The site on Victoria Road has been a football ground since 1917, when it was used by the Sterling Works side, whose factory was situated alongside it. It was not fully enclosed until the summer of 1955, when Briggs Sports moved out to Rush Green Road, and Dagenham F.C. moved from the Arena. During that summer they levelled and re-seeded the pitch, removed the stones from the playing surface and extended the banking and the terracing. The only cover was a tiny wooden stand, which was steep and narrow and had a few rows of seating on the far side of the ground. The main stand was built in the autumn of 1955 and was opened on 7 January 1956 by J.W. Bowers, chairman of the Essex County Football Association. During the summer of 1956 the turnstile block at the Victoria Road side of the ground and the men’s toilets situated at the Victoria Road were added. In the summer of 1958 the cover over the far side was erected at a cost of £1,400. The first floodlit match at Victoria Road was ...
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MAY

2018

Kensington High Street, W8
Kensington High Street is one of western London’s most popular shopping streets, with upmarket shops serving a wealthy area. Kensington High Street is the continuation of Kensington Road and part of the A315. It starts by the entrance to Kensington Palace and runs westward through central Kensington. Near Kensington (Olympia) station, where the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea ends and London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham begins, it ends and becomes Hammersmith Road. The street is served by High Street Kensington underground station.

From the late 19th century until the mid-1970s the street had three classic department stores: Barkers of Kensington, Derry & Toms and Pontings. Barkers bought Pontings in 1906 and Derry & Toms in 1920, but continued to run all three as separate entities. In a big building project which started in 1930 and was not complete until 1958 (the Second World War halted the project), the company made Derry & Toms and Barkers into Art Deco palaces. On top of Derry & Toms, Europe’s largest roof garden area was created, consisting of three different gardens wit...
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MAY

2018

Cremorne Gardens
Cremorne Gardens, with a vestige existing today, was in its prime between 1846 and 1877. From Anglo-Saxon times, the tract of land on the northern banks of the Thames was divided into individually owned ‘lots’, and open to common pasturage after the annual harvest.

Later, in the 17th Century, Chelsea Farm was constructed and the area was used for market gardening plots, supplying central London. In 1778, Lord Cremorne bought Chelsea Farm and Cremorne House was built along with Ashburnham House and Ashburnham Cottage.

Fifty years later in 1825 the ‘Lammas’ rights of common grazing were abolished on the ‘Lots’. In 1830 Charles Random de Berenger, a colourful character implicated in financial fraud during the Napoleonic War, purchased Cremorne House. He was a keen sportsman and opened a sports club know as Cremorne Stadium for ‘skilful and manly exercise’ including shooting, sailing, archery and fencing.

In 1846, De Berenger’s Cremorne Stadium was transformed into a pleasure garden which became a popular and nois...
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MAY

2018

Ball Street, W8
Ball Street was created by the Kensington Improvement Scheme of 1868-71, carried out by the Metropolitan Board of Works. Ball Street ran parallel and one street back from the High Street. It was planned as another less busy shopping thorughfare.

Ball Street eventually became service space for the grander high street shops and was ultimately redeveloped as the service yard for John Barkers company in 1927. A fire station once stood on the corner of Ball Street and Derry Street.
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MAY

2018

Mildred Avenue, WD6
Mildred Avenue is a curious road, being in two halves. The road was laid out in two different periods.

There was a "posh end" as first built when Mildred Avenue was a pre-First World War cul-de-sac. Houses were large with names such as Furze Lodge, Beaulieu and Islip House.

As Boreham Wood urbanised between the wars - about 1936 the second half of Mildred Avenue was built from the newly-constructed Cardinal Avenue. These were more standard houses.

It is unclear why the decision was made to keep the two halves of Mildred Avenue apart but a barrier of vegetation exists to this day make two effective cul-de-sacs. The first part of the avenue is still an unadopted road - the only one in the town.
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MAY

2018

Gaumont
The Gaumont Finchley opened on 19 July 1937 and was built as a replacement for the Grand Hall across the road. It was a magnificent building designed by the architect W Trent and had 2,000 seats, a café restaurant and a Compton organ. The organ was removed in 1967.

The exterior signage and the elaborate stone mural depicting the shooting of a film, the entrance foyer with its walnut panelling, and the light fittings in the auditorium all remained unaltered. It represented an intact cinema of W E Trent’s later period.

The auditorium had survived intact because it was very wide and the circle only extended over the rear stalls for a few rows. This ruled out an inexpensive conversion to create smaller cinemas downstairs.

The Gaumont exhibited a certain sense of style with a final performance, booking The Last Picture Show as its last picture show in 1980.
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MAY

2018

Rosslyn Hill, NW3
Rosslyn Hill is a road connecting the south end of Hampstead High Street to the north end of Haverstock Hill. It is the site of the Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, St. Stephen’s Church and the Royal Free Hospital. It is served by the bus routes N5, C11, 46 and 268. Pond Street links it to Hampstead Heath railway station.

Haverstock Hill, Rosslyn Hill, and Heath Street, Hampstead together constitute one long hill 2.8 km long, rising 99 m, with an average grade of 3.5% (maximum 8.5%).
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MAY

2018

Southwark Street, SE1
Southwark Street is a major street just south of the River Thames. It runs between Blackfriars Road to the west and Borough High Street to the east. In April 1856, the St Saviour's District Board petitioned the Metropolitan Board of Works to create a new street to run between the South Eastern Railway terminus at London Bridge station and the West End. The street was the first to be made by the Board and was completed in 1864. It was driven across a densely occupied part of the parish and crosses older roads and streets which created oddly shaped plots for redevelopment. Its junction with Borough High Street is so gently curved that the transition between the streets leads to confusion and imprecision as to which is which and the street numbering and lack of a Street Name Plate compounds this, the break between them occurs at the junction with Bedale Street on the north-side but at the south-side the street does not begin until after the 'fork' opposite Stoney Street, some 130 metres to the west. Under the street, a tunnel was constructed with side passages to carry utilities such as gas, water, and drainage pipes, together with t...
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