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...

»more

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 ...
»more

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.
»read full article

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...
»more

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.
»read full article

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

V:0

Click here to explore another London street
We now have 557 completed street histories and 46943 partial histories
Find streets or residential blocks within the M25 by clicking STREETS

NOVEMBER

2019

Yabsley Street, E14
Yabsley Street was a rebuilt Russell Street which had existed before the Blackwall Tunnell was built. The Housing of the Working Classes Act of 1890 allowed local authorities in London to build their own housing. It rationalised housing and slum clearance legislation, making it much easier for local authorities to carry out clearance schemes. Under certain circumstances, the councils could also build dwellings with the dual purpose of rehousing and to increase the supply of working-class housing.

Following the Act, the London County Council almost immediately began to build new tenement blocks in Poplar and erected as a result of the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel. The tunnel caused the need for people to be rehoused but also meant the purchase of a considerable area of land for the tunnel, much of which was subsequently available for housing development.

The Council Buildings in Yabsley Street dated from 1893, Toronto Buildings and Montreal Buildings in Cotton Street dated from 1899–1901 and blocks in Prestons Road included Baffin, Hudson, Ontar...
»more

NOVEMBER

2019

Orme Square, W2
Orme Square is named after Edward Orme, formerly a printseller in Bond Street. Orme purchased a considerable space of ground lying to the west of Craven Hill, upon which the Square is built.

Buildings to the north-east of Orme Square were erected about 1815, called St Petersburg Place, Moscow Road and Coburg Place. The names commemorate the visit of the sovereigns in 1814.

In the centre of St Petersburg Place, Mr Orme erected a private chapel in 1818.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Lordship Lane (1893)
View along a rural Lordship Lane Looking west towards Wood Green. The Moselle river runs under the white bridge
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Campden Hill Square, W8
Campden Hill Square is a residential square consisting of large family houses. In the Tudor period there was a farm called Stonehills, 20 acres in area, south of what is now Holland Park Avenue. It came into the possession of the Lloyd Family who sold it in 1823 to a developer, Joshua Flesher Hanson.

Hanson designed a square similar to Regency Square which he had built in Brighton in 1818. The new square provided terraced houses around three sides of a large garden enclosure.

Campden Hill Square was originally called Notting Hill Square but the name was changed to Campden Hill Square in 1893. It slopes steeply down to Holland Park Avenue.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Langdon Park
Langdon Park is a DLR station in Poplar which opened in 2007. Langdon Park was originally proposed to be called Carmen Street, but later took the name of the adjacent park.

Construction took just over a year at a cost of £10.5 million. The Mayor of London presided over its opening ceremony on 10 December 2007.
The station features three art installations by British artist Kate Davis.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Albany, W1B
The Albany is an apartment complex in Piccadilly, established in 1802. The Albany was built in the years after 1771 by Sir William Chambers for the 1st Viscount Melbourne as Melbourne House. In 1791, Prince Frederick, Duke of Albany, took up residence. The Duke had lived there for only ten years when his debts and extravagance caught up with him and forced him to sell. In 1802 the Duke gave up the house and it was converted by Henry Holland into 69 "sets" - bachelor apartments.

The sets are individually owned as flying freeholds. The owners are known as Proprietors. The Albany is governed by a Board of Trustees on behalf of the Proprietors. Prospective tenants are vetted before being allowed to take up residence.

Around half the sets were owned by Peterhouse college, Cambridge. These were acquired by William Stone, a lifelong resident of the Albany, during the Second World War. He bequeathed 37 sets to the college.

From the time of its foundation, the Albany was a prestigious address. Residents have inc...
»more

NOVEMBER

2019

Enfield Town
Enfield Town is an alternative name for the town centre of Enfield. Enfield was noted as a small agrarian market town in 1303 based around its village green, with further hamlets spread around the royal hunting grounds of Enfield Chase. By 1572 many of the longer roads in the area were in place.

The market was prosperous by the early eighteenth century, but fell into decline soon afterwards. Trading resumed in the 1870s and the market is still in existence, administered by the Old Enfield Charitable Trust.

The New River was built to supply water to London from Hertfordshire and runs immediately behind Enfield Town through the Town Park. The park is the last remaining public open space of Enfield Old Park.

Enfield Town station was opened on 1 March 1849 by the Eastern Counties Railways as simply ’Enfield’. It was renamed Enfield Town in 1886. A
A house which had stood on the site of the later station since the late 17th century is said to have been the birthplace of Isaac D’Israeli...
»more

NOVEMBER

2019

Savage Gardens, EC3N
Savage Gardens connects Crutched Friars in the north to Trinity Square in the south, crossing Pepys Street. The house of Sir Thomas Savage was located here. Savage Gardens was originally Savage Garden - the garden behind Sir Thomas Savage’s home.

In 1626 he was made ’Commissioner of Ways and Means of Increasing the King’s Revenue’, and succeeded so well in the post, selling off some of the royal estates, that Charles I created him Viscount Savage later the same year.

He died here in 1635, aged about 49, ’of the running gout’.

»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Heruka Buddhist Centre
Heruka Kadampa Meditation Centre (KMC) is the main New Kadampa Tradition Buddhist Centre for north & central London. It is located in Golders Green, and was founded in 1992 aiming "to provide a venue for Kadampa teachings in the London region". Roughly 20 students live and study at Heruka KMC. In addition the main meditation room, the Centre contains a small library and a shop.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Wapping Wall, E1W
Wapping Wall runs parallel to the northern bank of the Thames with many converted warehouses facing the river. The name of Wapping Wall comes from the defensive wall built to prevent the river from flooding the marshland that once covered most of this area of Wapping. Drainage of the marshland and construction of defensive walls had begun around 1327.

On the south side of the street, next to the river, is The Prospect of Whitby pub.

The Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, built in 1890 but closed in 1977 was located here. It is now run as an arts centre and restaurant.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Execution Dock
Execution Dock, on the shoreline at Wapping, was used to execute pirates, smugglers and mutineers who had been sentenced to death by Admiralty courts. The Admiralty’s legal jurisdiction was for all crimes committed at sea. The dock symbolised the jurisdiction by being located just beyond the low-tide mark in the river.

George Davis and William Watts, convicted for piracy for the Cyprus mutiny, were the final hangings at the dock on 16 December 1830.

»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Petersham
Petersham is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the east of the bend in the River Thames. Petersham appears in Domesday Book as being held by Chertsey Abbey.

The village was the birthplace in 1682 of Archibald Campbell, later 3rd Duke of Argyll who went on to found the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1727. The explorer George Vancouver retired to Petersham.

In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge to John, Earl Russell, 1st Earl Russell. Lord Russell’s grandson, Bertrand Russell, spent some of his childhood there.

»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

West London Line
The West London Line is a short railway in inner West London that links Clapham Junction in the south to Willesden Junction in the north. The Birmingham, Bristol & Thames Junction Railway was authorised in 1836 to run from the London and Birmingham Railway, near Willesden Junction station, across the proposed route of the Great Western to the Kensington Canal Basin. Construction was delayed by engineering and financial problems.

Renamed the West London Railway (WLR) the line opened on 27 May 1844. The low number of passengers became such a regular target of Punch magazine that the line was called Punch’s Railway. After only six months it closed on 30 November 1844.

An Act of 1845 authorised the GWR to take a joint lease of the WLR - the line was used only to carry coal, and a passenger service was not re-introduced.

An Act in 1859 granted rail companies to construct the West London Extension Joint Railway on the filled-in canal south from the Kensington Basin to the bridge under the Kings Road, to bridge the Thames and to connect near Clapham Junction to railways south of ...
»more

NOVEMBER

2019

Ham
Ham is a suburban district in south-west London which has meadows adjoining the River Thames. Ham lies east of a bend in the river that almost surrounds it on three sides and lies south of Richmond and north of Kingston upon Thames. It is connected to Teddington across the river by a footbridge at Teddington Lock. During the summer months, a pedestrian ferry links Ham to Marble Hill House, Twickenham.

Ham is bounded on the west, along the bank of the Thames, by ancient river meadows called Ham Lands.

Ham is bounded to the east by Richmond Park.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Aldford Street, W1K
Aldford Street is named after Aldford, a property on the Grosvenor family’s Cheshire estates. It was formerly known as Chapel Street before 1886, as it led to the Grosvenor Chapel.

Building originally dated from 1730. Sir Richard Grosvenor agreed with Grosvenor Chapel builders - Benjamin Timbrell, Robert Scott, William Barlow and Robert Andrews - that in consideration of their ’hazard and expense’, he granted them additional land nearby at low ground rents.

They jointly received two blocks on the west side of South Audley Street opposite the chapel. Building continued westward during the next few years, the four partners’ holding being slightly enlarged in 1737.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Campden Hill Gardens, W8
Campden Hill Gardens runs northwards from Aubrey Walk. During the reign of Elizabeth I, a 20 acre farm named Stonehills lay south of (the now) Holland Park Avenue. Its owner Sir Walter Cope sold it to Robert Horseman in 1599 and it became the possession of the Lloyd Family.

A grocer from New Bond Street, Evan Evans, bought a section of the Lloyd Estate before he died in 1825. His great nephew Robert Evans inherited it.

In 1870, Robert Evans decided to develop the estate and granted leases to local builders John Reeves and George Butt. They bought the freeholds of most of the plots from him and built most of the houses.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Slade Green
Slade Green was originally called Slades Green. The area was sparsely populated and Slades Green had only 66 people in 1848 but in 1849 the North Kent Line was built. Slades Green gained a National School in 1868 and St Augustine’s Church opened in 1899.

Sladesgreen Farm was the centre of a market gardening area known locally as ’Cabbage Island’ located between Moat Lane (formerly Whitehall Lane) and Slade Green Road.

Slade Green railway station was opened on 1 July 1900 to serve the developing local community following the construction of a rail depot designed to service steam locomotives for South Eastern and Chatham Railway. It was at first called ’Slades Green’ and it was not until 1953 that this was changed to Slade Green.

By 1910 a complete ’railway village’ of 158 houses had been built. The significance of the village had increased by 1905 and that it had absorbed historically important Howbury Manor.

Explosions at a former Trench Warfare Filling Fact...
»more

NOVEMBER

2019

Aberdeen Lane, N5
Aberdeen Lane was originally called Ivy Grove Mews and also Aberdeen Mews. Ivy Grove Mews - later Aberdeen Mews - and built at the back of large houses in Aberdeen Park, became Aberdeen Lane by 1916. The street was lengthened in 1924 and 1930.

There had been a project, abandoned in the 1850s, to lay out a 500 acre public park which would have been bigger than Hyde Park. The park would have been bounded by Balls Pond Road, Seven Sisters Road, the Stoke Newington reservoirs and the Great Northern Railway.

The failed park earmarked the area to development with Aberdeen Park and Aberdeen Lane dating from the 1850s.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Hockley-in-the-Hole
Hockley-in-the-Hole was an area where bear-baiting and duelling took place in the 18th century. Hockley-in-the-Hole was situated roughly where the Ray Street Bridge stands, north of the junction of Clerkenwell Road and Farringdon Road.

It stood in the valley of the Fleet and its name seems to have been derived from the frequent flooding of the Fleet - Hockley, in old English, meaning ’a muddy field’. By 1756 the locality was narrow, and surrounded by bad housing. Soon after that, the road was widened, raised and drained.

On the later site of the ’Coach and Horses’ in Ray Street, stood the Bear Garden, which, in Queen Anne’s time, rivalled the Southwark Bear Garden of Elizabethan days. The earliest advertisement of the ’amusements’ here occurred in the Daily Post dated 10 July 1700.

In 1774 the notorious name of Hockley-in-the-Hole was formally changed to that of Ray Street.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

St Augustine Watling Street
St Augustine, Watling Street was an Anglican church which stood just to the east of St Paul’s Cathedral. First recorded in the 12th century, it was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt to the designs of Christopher Wren. This building was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War, and its remains now form part of St Paul’s Cathedral Choir School.

»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Bowes Park
Bowes Park is named after an old manor called Bowes. The Bowes Park area urbanised in the 1880s though the name is recorded in 1274 - by 1822 Bowes Farm was visible on one of the first Ordnance Survey maps in 1822 and 1877. Bowes is ultimately derived from Latin. The first owner of the manor was John de Arcubus (Latin for ’of the bows or arches’). John de Arcubus was one of many of his family who lived around St Mary-le-Bow church in the City of London.

Bowes Park is a centred around Myddleton Road which houses a number of shops.

Bowes Park railway station was first opened by the GNR in 1880 and is now a short walk from Bounds Green Underground station.
»read full article

NOVEMBER

2019

Airlie Gardens, W8
Airlie Gardens is named after the 5th Earl of Airlie (1826-1881), who lived on nearby Campden Hill at Holly Lodge. Holly Lodge - sometimes called Airlie Lodge - was the house where Lord Macaulay spent the last years of his life. It later became part of Queen Elizabeth College.

William Cooke was a Paddington builder who built Airlie Gardens in 1878 on the land of Elm Lodge. That year the Grand Junction Water Works Company surrendered the lease of the lodge. Some of its extensive grounds became the communal gardens for the new houses of Airlie Gardens.
»read full article

MAP YEAR:	1750	1800	1810	1820	1830	1860	1900	1950	2023	Show map without markers
ZOOM:	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17 18	14 15 16 17	14 15 16 17 18
	TIP: Adjust the MAP YEAR and ZOOM to tweak historical maps

PREVIOUSLY ON THE UNDERGROUND MAP...