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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We now have 557 completed street histories and 46943 partial histories
Find streets or residential blocks within the M25 by clicking STREETS

APRIL

2020

Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate
The Alexandra Road estate, often referred to as Rowley Way, is a housing estate in the London Borough of Camden. Since the 1950s, tower blocks surrounded by public open space had been the preferred method for councils to replace terraced housing while maintaining the same high population density. By the mid-1960s, the shortcomings of that method were becoming apparent.

The Alexandra Road Estate was designed in a brutalist style in 1968 by Neave Brown of Camden Council’s Architects Department. Construction work commenced in 1972 and was completed in 1978.

Neave Brown believed that ziggurat-style terraces, little higher than the terraces they replaced, could provide a better solution for council housing. Th estate is constructed from site-cast, board-marked white, unpainted reinforced concrete.

The estate has suffered less vandalism than many Camden estates, and it was granted Grade II* listed status in 1993, the first post-war council housing estate to be listed.
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APRIL

2020

Alexander Street, W2
Alexander Street was built in 1853 by Alexander Hall of Watergate House, Sussex. Alexander Hall owned several acres of land around this site, largely occupied by the principal London depot of his family’s quarry-owning interests, conveniently situated beside the main railway line into Paddington.
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APRIL

2020

Ave Maria Lane, EC4M
Ave Maria Lane is the southern extension of Warwick Lane, between Amen Corner and Ludgate Hill. Ava Maria Lane’s name is derived from the feast day of Corpus Christi.

Monks chanting the Lord’s Prayer set off from Paternoster Row (Pater Noster being the Latin opening words of the Lord’s Prayer) in procession to St Paul’s Cathedral. They would reach the final “Amen” as they turned into Ava Maria Lane – also responsible to the name Amen Corner.

Ave Maria Lane is home to the Stationers’ Hall, the livery hall of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers since 1670.
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APRIL

2020

Purley Oaks
Purley Oaks station was opened by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway on 5 November 1899 Nearby, Brighton Road school was built in 1873 when the area was still undeveloped and livestock grazed at Purley Oaks Farm until the end of Victoria’s reign. The conditions of the sale at auction of Purley Oaks Farm in 1903 included the provision that houses were built for the professional classes.

The station was opened as part of the improvements to the main line and the opening of the Quarry Line. However much of the surrounding land remained agricultural until the First World War. In 1916 James Relf established a market garden near the station.

The school was renamed Purley Oaks in 1922 as the area started to develop with suburban housing.

A short walk away from Purley Oaks is Sanderstead railway station with services to Victoria and East Grinstead.

On Saturday 4 March 1989, it was affected by the Purley station rail crash.
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APRIL

2020

Alma Place, NW10
Alma Place lies between Kensal Green Cemetery and the railway. Alma Road, a small cul-de-sac, is a small terrace of houses built around 1860. It is tucked into the space between the lodge and gates of St Mary’s Cemetery to the south and the terrace fronting Harrow Road to the north. It lies directly over the western end of the tunnel which carries the railway between Willesden Junction and Kensal Green.
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APRIL

2020

Ace Cafe
The Ace Cafe is a former transport cafe located in the Stonebridge area on the A406. The Ace Cafe opened in 1938 to accommodate traffic on the then-new North Circular. The cafe was open 24 hours a day and started to attract motorcyclists in the evening and at weekends.

The emergence of the teenager, an increase in traffic, and the British motorcycle industry at its peak made the Ace a success. Young people started to meet at the cafe to socialise and listen to rock’n’roll on juke boxes.

It became especially popular in the 1950s and 1960s with ’Rockers’.

It is a notable venue in motorcycle culture which originally operated from 1938 until 1969 when it closed.

The cafe closed in 1969 but reopened on the original site in 1997 as a cafe and entertainment venue.
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APRIL

2020

Virginia Primary School
Virginia Primary School is a mixed school in Tower Hamlets, built in 1887. The location of the school when it opened - ’The Old Nichol’ was one of the most notorious slums in London.

During the early 1880s the plight of the poor and their housing were subjects of great debate. Prime Minister William Gladstone ordered a Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes was established, and the Housing of the Working Classes Act followed in 1885.

In 1891, Parliament passed the Public Health (London) Act and the Boundary Street Scheme Act. The demolition of the Old Nichol began in 1893 and the building of the Boundary Estate began in 1895. The Boundary Estate was formally opened in 1900 - the world’s first council housing estate. The demolition rubble was used to construct a mound in the middle of Arnold Circus at the centre of the development and a bandstand was placed at the top. The estate consists of multi-story brick tenements radiating from the central circus, each of which bears the name of a location along the ...
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APRIL

2020

The 1860s map of London
"Stanford’s Library Map of London and its Suburbs" was published in 1862 Edward Stanford’s 1860s map shows the growth of London at a key time of its development and with the impact of the railways.

Stanford had embarked on an ambitious cartographic project - a series of large copper-engraved wall maps of the continents which he called Stanford’s Library Maps. The London map was published at a scale of 6 inches to the mile.

Stanford took the Ordnance Survey 12 inch to a mile sheets of their Skeleton Survey for the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, and dispatched his own surveyors to complete an immense quantity of detail for which this map is notable.

The original map extent runs from Hammersmith in the west), Greenwich (east), Crouch End (north), Anerley (south). Please note that the Underground Map project does not yet cover the southwestmost section of the original map.

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APRIL

2020

Museum Street, WC1A
Museum Street is so-named since it approaches the main entrance of the British Museum. The British Museum collection dates from 1753 with the building on the site since 1823. However the street dates from before the 14th century. It was a rural lane until the late 17th century when the growth of London caused its urbanisation.

It was at first called Peter Street which may refer to a saltpetre manufacturer which is thought to have existed there. After the area became urban, the road was the site of slum tenements.

An attempt at gentrification saw its name changed to Queen Street. It became home to parish schools for the education of local poor children.

A bookseller called Charles Mudie opened a bookshop and stationers. He explored the possibility of lending books as well as selling them and Mudie’s Select Library proved so popular that, after a decade, it moved out to larger premises. The street then became fashionable area with many of the foremost writers of the day gathering in taverns to converse. The occult Atlantis Bo...
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APRIL

2020

Alexander Square, SW3
Alexander Square is a garden square in Chelsea. John Alexander was the inheritor of the Thurlow Estate through being a descendent of the first husband of Anna Maria Browne.

In 1826 Alexander drew up plans to for a speculative development with the builder James Bonnin. George Basevi became the architect of the scheme when under construction in 1829.

Alexander Square and South Street (now South Terrace), Alfred Place (now Alexander Place), North Terrace, Alexander Place and York Cottages were subsequently built.

The communal garden at the centre of the square is a third of an acre in size.
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APRIL

2020

Bolsover Street, W1W
Bolsover Street - home to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital since 1907. Rocque’s map of 1746 shows the area to be mainly open fields - Bilson’s farm located to the north with hand-dug quarries for road construction in the immediate area.

Norton Street and Upper Norton Street were part of the Portland Estate and laid out as part of the development of the area in the 18th century. They were named after the village of Norton on the Duke of Portland’s Welbeck Abbey estate in Nottinghamshire. At first, Norton Street was described to be home to many artist and sculptor studios and was "the smartest of the local streets socially" up to about 1820.

After about 1825, a decline had set in. Norton Street with Cirencester Place became the local focus of a wider outcry against prostitution.

In 1858, the streets had a change of name and were combined to become Bolsover Street – reflecting links to the Cavendish family and their Derbyshire estate. The name change was designed to rescue its reputation.

...
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APRIL

2020

Pickax Street, EC2Y
Pickax Street once ran from Long Lane to Goswell Road (which before 1864 was called Goswell Street). The word ’Pickax’ may derive from ’Pickt Hatch’ - an area of brothels said to be in this part of London during the Elizabethan era.

Pick Hatch is mentioned in both ’The Merry Wives of Windsor’ ("Goe … to your Mannor of Pickt-hatch") and in ’The Alchemist’ ("The decay’d Vestalls of Pickt-hatch\).

The principal features on the west side of Pickax Street in the late seventeenth century were two substantial inns - ’The Horse and Groom’ and ’The Black Horse’.

Extended yards came into being behind the inns after the break-up around 1700 of the old houses and gardens on the east side of Charterhouse Square. Black Horse Yard was the largest, with stables, coach houses and gallery apartments.

By the late eighteenth century the name Pickax was no more in use, and the road was incorporated into Aldersgate Street.
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APRIL

2020

London (1926)
In 1926 Claude Friese-Greene shot some of the first-ever colour film footage around London, capturing everyday life. Friese-Greene’s technique - innovated by his father and called Biocolour - captures London in striking detail, as if putting the whole city in a time capsule. The people pass before us like ghosts.

Biocolour produced the illusion of true colour by exposing each alternate frame of ordinary black-and-white film stock through a two different coloured filters. Each alternate frame of the monochrome print was then stained red or green. Although the projection of Biocolour prints did provide a tolerable illusion of true colour, it suffered from noticeable flickering and red-and-green fringing when the subject was in rapid motion. In an attempt to overcome the colour fringing problem, a faster-than-usual frame rate was used.

Claude, born Claude Harrison Greene was the son of colour film pioneer, William Friese-Greene.

After William’s death in 1921, Claude Friese-Greene continued to develop the Biocolour system during the 1920s and ren...
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APRIL

2020

Mitre Square, EC3A
Mitre Square is a small square in the City of London. It occupies the site of the cloister of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate which was demolished under Henry VIII during the Dissolution.

It is connected via three passages with Mitre Street, to Creechurch Place and, via St James’s Passage, to Duke’s Place.

The south corner of the square was the site of the murder of Catherine Eddowes by Jack the Ripper. This was the only murder located within the City of London.
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APRIL

2020

St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge
St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge is a Grade II* listed Anglican church. The church was consecrated in 1843 and designed by Thomas Cundy the younger. It was the first in London to champion the ideals of the Oxford Movement.

The chancel with its rood screen and striking reredos was added in 1892 by the noted church architect George Frederick Bodley.

A memorial commemorates 52 members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry who died on active service in World War II, carrying out work for the Special Operations Executive.

The church is located at 32a Wilton Place.
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APRIL

2020

Swinton Street, WC1X
Swinton Street was named after the two Swinton brothers. It is situated on the east side of Gray’s Inn Road north of and parallel with Acton Street.

The Swinton Estate lay to the east of Gray’s Inn Road and extended to the River Fleet. Its northern boundary was a common sewer and its southern side was the back of the houses on the northern side of Frederick Street.

James Swinton was a builder and surveyor from Gravesend. His brother Peter Swinton was listed in 1776 as residing in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street and a ’Doctor in Physick’.

Swinton Street was described on 7 September 1778, as "a street now building." Two years before that, it was a short cul-de-sac ending in a fence. The first occupants enjoyed a view down the meadows to the Fleet.

The extension eastwards began in the late 1830s. In 1841 there were 37 houses and by 1844 it was fully built.

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APRIL

2020

Acton Street, WC1X
Acton Street is found on the east side of Gray’s Inn Road and connects it with King’s Cross Road. Named after Acton Meadow which formerly occupied this site, Acton Meadow was in turn named after its landowner..

The western end was built as a short cul-de-sac in the early 1770s. The eastern end, where the street was later extended, has principal features to Swinton Street. It may be the work of the same builders.

Even as late as 1834, Acton Street was still unfinished. It was finally completed by 1845.

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APRIL

2020

Acorn Walk, SE16
Acorn Walk is named after a former area of the Surrey Commercial dock system. There was once a dock called the Acorn Pond which ran south from a point nearby. A cargo handling area was known as Acorn Yard.

Keeping the acorn theme, a small row of houses called Acorn Place lay across the north side of Trinity Churchyard.
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APRIL

2020

Lowndes Square, SW1X
Lowndes Square is named after the Secretary to the Treasury William Lowndes. The square runs parallel with Sloane Street to the east, east of the Harvey Nichols department store and Knightsbridge Underground station.

Lowndes Square has terraces with white stucco houses with George Basevi being the designer of many of the houses. The communal garden - not open to the public - contains many fine plane trees.

Lowndes Square is now home to some of the most expensive properties in the world. Russian businessman, Roman Abramovich bought two stucco houses in Lowndes Square in 2008.

The Pakistan High Commission is located on the square.
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APRIL

2020

Weston’s Music Hall
Weston’s Music Hall was a music hall and theatre that opened in 1857. In 1906, the theatre became known as the Holborn Empire. The theatre was constructed on the site of the Six Cans and Punch Bowl Tavern. The licensed victualler - Henry Weston - had already transformed the former Holborn National Schoolrooms into a music hall some years before. The facility was his response to the success of Charles Morton’s Canterbury Music Hall in Lambeth.

The theatre was renamed the Royal Music Hall in 1868, and then changed names again in 1892, becoming the Royal Holborn Theatre of Varieties.

The hall’s early years were presided over by an exacting chairman and master of ceremonies, W. B. Fair, famous for the song ’Tommy, Make Room for Your Uncle’. He chose the acts, warmed the audience up for each succeeding performance, and encouraged them at all times to interact with the performers throughout the evening.

In 1905 the theatre was bought by the variety impresario Walter Gibbons and in the following year, he had the theatre auditorium remodelled by Frank Matcham. It w...
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APRIL

2020

Home of Rest for Horses
The Home of Rest for Horses was situated at the corner of Furzehill Road and Barnet Lane, near Borehamwood. Opened as a Charity in 1886, the Home of Rest for Horses became a refuge where horses and donkeys could rest and find peace and contentment following their devoted service, purpose-built stables were opened in 1933.

It was demolished in the 1970s to make way for housing. The Home moved to Buckinghamshire where it thrives to the present day.

In the photograph, the stables and fields are pictured.
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APRIL

2020

Farriers Way, WD6
Farriers Way was built on the site of the former Home of Rest for Horses. Starting in 1886, the Home of Rest for Horses came to Borehamwood in 1933 from Cricklewood, and had extensive grounds, all now covered by housing. It was much loved by the locals who visited often, particularly at the weekend.

In 1968, the Elstree Rural District Council foresaw a housing shortage and requested that the Home of Rest’s site might be rezoned and scheduled as suitable for housing development. The charity began to look for new premises and a year later a new site was purchased in Speen, Buckinghamshire.

The home finally closed in 1975 and relocated to Speen, Princes Risborough where it still is today.

The names of all roads on this estate have connections to horses.
»read full article

APRIL

2020

St. Thomas’s Square, E9
St Thomas’s Square was laid out by Robert Collins in 1772 on land leased from St Thomas’s Hospital. St Thomas’s Hospital owned a lot of the land of Hackney - much of this had been previously been owned by the Hospital of the Savoy who by 1517 owned 6 acres of London Fields.

On the south-east corner was the 1771-built St Thomas’s Chapel. This site later became the Empress Cinema which opened in 1912. The cine,a became the Essoldo in 1937 and finally a bingo hall. The building was demolished in 1996 to build a new residential block for Cordwainers College.

The central area was open space until 1892. That year it was described by Benjamin Clarke as "anything but picturesque".

In 1892 it was laid out as a public garden by Hackney District Board. Hackney Borough Council purchased the garden in 1915 for £50.

The northwest corner of the square suffered bomb damage during the Second World War. After the war, the northern and eastern sides were compulsorily purchased by the London County Council in 1952 to build flats...
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APRIL

2020

North Park Farm
North Park Farm, also known as Plum Farm, dates from the mid 16th century or before. North Park Farm was an arable farm which had started off at around 75 acres but grew to about 278 acres. It specialised in wheat but later on, market gardening. It was owned by the Earl of St Germans.

Two brothers, Edward and Samuel Sheppard took over the farm in 1849 and it was run on their behalf by William Fry at first. Fry was reported in 1871 as living at North Park Farm but had left by 1881.

By the time of the 1861 census, Edward Sheppard and his family were living at the new 1850s-built farmhouse which was located about halfway along the modern Duncrievie Road (which was later laid out on the line of the farm track). Edward died in 1892.

Samuel Sheppard and his family moved to the newly-built Eliot House at North Park Farm in 1867 and stayed there until 1904. Eliot House (or Lodge) is still on the Hither Green Lane / Duncrievie Road corner. His son, also called Samuel, would later take over Bellingham Farm.

The sale o...
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APRIL

2020

Great Marlborough Street, W1F
Great Marlborough Street was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. In the 16th century, the land it was laid out over belonged to the Mercer’s Company but was surrendered to Henry VIII in 1536.

The land was subsequently owned by a brewer Thomas Wilson whose son Richard sold it to William Maddox in 1622. Maddox called the estate ’Millfield’.

In 1670, William Maddox’s son Benjamin let the land to James Kendrick who in turn sub-let what is now Great Marlborough Street to John Steele. The land remained undeveloped, with building focusing on Tyburn Road (Oxford Street) to the north.

The street began development in the early 18th century, when Steele let five acres of land to Joseph Collens for property development. It was named after John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough who as commander of the English Army won the Battle of Blenheim in 1704.

The Pantheon was based at the far eastern end of Great Marlborough Street, built on what had previously been gardens in 1772. A popular place of e...
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