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Featured · Queen’s Park ·
MARCH
21
2023

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

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
18
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
17
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
16
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
15
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

Comment
Christine D Elliott   
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   
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.

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Comment
Dr Paul Flewers   
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   
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

   
Added: 2 Mar 2023 13:50 GMT   

The Queens Head
Queens Head demolished and a NISA supermarket and flats built in its place.

Reply
Comment
Mike   
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.

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Comment
Fumblina   
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
Comment
P Cash   
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.






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Find streets or residential blocks within the M25 by clicking STREETS

FEBRUARY
28
2022

 

Whitechapel Road, E1
Whitechapel Road is a major arterial road in East London. It connects Aldgate (as Whitechapel High Street) with Mile End Road. Whitechapel Road is part of the historic Roman road from London to Colchester.

The road had become built up by the 19th century - by the 1870s, the road had become extensively developed with properties along the entire stretch of the road. A market became established in the road.

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry, a principal supplier of church bells, was until its closure in 2017, based at 32–34 Whitechapel Road.

Several ethnic minority communities have based themselves on Whitechapel Road. It became a Huguenot area in the eighteenth century. The road was a focal point of the Jewish community between the 1850s and 1930s, with many Jewish shops and market stalls. Towards the latter part of the 20th century, the street became a centre of the Bangladeshi community.
»read full article


FEBRUARY
27
2022

 

Golborne Road, W10
Golborne Road, heart of North Kensington, was named after Dean Golbourne, at one time vicar of St John’s Church in Paddington. Until the middle of the nineteenth century it was no more than a country footpath crossing the fields of Portobello Farm, but late in the 1860s the road was widened, shops were built and the road was extended over the railway.

It was planted with trees and named Britannia Road. Later the trees were cut down and the street was called Golbourne and later Golborne Road.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the area was one of the most overcrowded and poverty-stricken in London.

The thoroughfare was extensively bombed during WWII, after which the Victorian-era slums were cleared to make way for the Trellick and the Swinbrook and Wornington estates, which housed immigrant arrivals from the Caribbean.

Stella McCartney moved into a chapel on Golborne Road next to a curry house in 2002, heralding its arrival as a fashionable destination. Now going the way of upmarket Portobello Road (which intersects it), g...
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FEBRUARY
26
2022

 

Queensway
Queensway (formerly Queen’s Road) is a cosmopolitan street in the Bayswater district, containing many restaurants and stores. Near the northern end of the street is the multi-storey Whiteleys Shopping Centre, on the site of London’s first department store, opened by William Whiteley in 1867. The store was awarded a Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria in 1896. The facade of the current building is from 1911, but the building itself was demolished and rebuilt in 1989.

This part of Bayswater was first developed as a residential suburb of London in the early nineteenth century. However, the road at its southern end (Bayswater Road) was a long-established road across the countryside before this, and a road roughly following the present Queensway can be seen on early maps running north from Bayswater Road across fields under the name of Black Lion Lane. It was subsequently renamed Queen’s Road in honour of Queen Victoria, who had been born at nearby Kensington Palace. This was a name somewhat lacking in distinctiveness, and for this reason, the present name of Queensway was eventually substi...
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FEBRUARY
25
2022

 

Spa Green Estate, EC1R
The Spa Green Estate is a post-war realisation of a 1930s plan for social regeneration through Modernist architecture. The area of the estate had been designated for slum clearance and then partly demolished due to German bombing. Spa Green was built by the architect Berthold Lubetkin and received a Grade II* listing for its architectural significance. Lubetkin intended the project as a manifesto for modern architecture.

Political leaders in the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury worked with the radical architect Lubetkin and his practice Tecton. The nearby Finsbury Health Centre - built in 1938 - pointed forward to the future welfare state. Spa Green, first designed in 1938 and developed in 1943 was aimed to fulfil a utopian promise.

Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan laid the foundation stone in July 1946, and the opening ceremonies in 1949 included the planting of a plane tree by Princess Margaret.

Spa Green adopted many features including lifts, central heating, balconies, daylight and ventilation from multiple directions, large entry spaces, and a roof ter...
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FEBRUARY
24
2022

 

God’s Own Junkyard
God’s Own Junkyard is a surreal gallery of neon lights and vintage signs in Walthamstow. The original owner Chris Bracey, like his father, had (after a time as a graphic designer) been a neon sign maker for Soho - making illuminated pointers for the area’s strip clubs. Such was his fame that Hollywood called and he began making props for Tim Burton, Stanley Kubrick and Christopher Nolan.

Chris Bracey set up this gallery in Ravenswood Industrial Estate, Shernhall Street. He passed away in 2014 but his family have carried on, both with the gallery and in the neon sign business.

God’s Own Junkyard is free to enter and visit but it’s funded by sales - walking away with a sign is expensive!
»read full article


FEBRUARY
23
2022

 

Palestine Place, E2
Palestine Place led east from Cambridge Heath Road. A five acre field belonging to the Bishop’s Hall Estate was leased in 1811 to the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. The society, which built the Episcopal Jews’ chapel and associated buildings, named Palestine Place by 1836.

The Bethnal Green Infirmary opened in 1900, built on the site of the Episcopal Jews’ Chapel. The three-storey red brick hospital was designed to accommodate 669 patients and intended for the chronically ill. The clock from the demolished chapel was installed in the tower of the administration block of the hospital.

In 1948 it joined the NHS as the Bethnal Green Hospital.

In 1990 the Hospital closed but the four-storey administration block on Cambridge Heath Road became a listed building.

The Victoria Park Housing Association redeveloped the site to provide 162 houses and flats - the new estate opened in 1993.
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FEBRUARY
22
2022

 

Bonners Hall
Bonners Hall was named for sometime resident Bishop Bonner. A former Bishop of London who lived here and caused the house to be named after him was Edmund Bonner. He was a devout Catholic and wielded a great amount of power which he used and abused in his pursuit of Protestants.

The devoutly Catholic Queen Mary I came to the throne in 1553. Mary commissioned Bonner to convert heretical Protestants to Catholicism. If they refused, Bonner would order them to be tortured and burnt at the stake. He was dubbed ‘Bloody Bonner’ and started four years of persecution. Some 300 were burned at the stake, it’s been said that Bonner personally tried and sentenced around 200 of these.

When Protestant, Elizabeth I became queen, Bonner did not fare so well. He was arrested in 1559, and imprisoned until his death ten years later. The enduring hatred towards Bonner meant that he was buried at midnight to avoid a riot.

Bonner’s privileged position led him to occupy Bonner’s Hall (Bishop&r...
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FEBRUARY
21
2022

 

Cambridge Heath
Cambridge Heath is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, north of Bethnal Green. The earliest recorded use of the Cambridge Heath name was as Camprichthesheth in 1275. It was an area of gravel situated between marshland to the east and west. A forest known as Bishopswood, lingered in the east until the 16th century.

The heath was a ’waste’ of Stepney manor, used as common pasture. By 1275 at least one ’ancient’ house stood there.

A merchant tailor of London called John Slater took out a 99 year lease in 1587 on a piece of waste 24 rods by 11 rods on the west side of the heath and south of Hackney Road to the north, for 99 years. No building followed and the lease had lapsed by 1652. There was no development on the Bethnal Green side of the boundary until maybe 1720.

In time, Cambridge Heath developed eight principal estates: Parmiter, Rush Mead, Cambridge Heath, Bishop’s Hall, Pyotts, Sebright, Chambers and Bullock.

We’ll deal with their history one-by-one.
...
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FEBRUARY
20
2022

 

High Street Kensington
High Street Kensington is a London Underground station on Kensington High Street. Kensington High Street is a major road in west London, forming part of the A315.

Its western extremity of Kensington High Street is the eastern end of Hammersmith Road. From here, the road heads east past the Commonwealth Institute and High Street Kensington tube station. It forms a junction which Kensington Church Street and then eastward the road becomes Kensington Road.

The stretch between the Commonwealth Institute and Kensington Gardens is a popular shopping area.

High Street Kensington station, on the District Line, opened in 1868. This coincided with the improvement in social conditions locally - the area had been a poor area.
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FEBRUARY
19
2022

 

Myddelton Passage, EC1R
Myddelton Passage is an alleyway with an interesting story The New River Head is a reservoir built by the New River Company in the 17th century to provide fresh water to London. An unnamed Myddelton Passage was a path around the reservoir and features on Rocque’s 1750s mapping.

Myddelton Square is a Georgian-style square built from the 1820 onwards and when Myddleton Passage received its name.

In the late nineteenth century, members of the Metropolitan Police’s G Division, based out of King’s Cross Police Station, took to carving their collar numbers into the wall of Myddelton Passage.

A theory as to why this happened is that Myddelton Passage had a crime-filled reputation in the 19th century. Bored officers were assigned the duty of guarding the passage and spend some time carving their names into the mortar.
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FEBRUARY
18
2022

 

Richmond Park
Richmond Park is the largest of London’s Royal Parks, created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer park. Richmond Park is a national-level nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. Its landscapes have inspired many famous artists and it has been a location for several films and TV series.

Historically the preserve of the monarch, the park is now open to all. Full right of public access to the park was confirmed by Act of Parliament in 1872.

It played an important role in both world wars and also in the 1948 and 2012 Olympics.
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FEBRUARY
17
2022

 

Horse Guards Parade, SW1A
Horse Guards Parade dates to the time of Henry VIII. Horse Guards Parade was once the site for the Palace of Whitehall’s jousting and other tournaments which were held during the reign of Henry VIII. Since then it was used for a variety of ceremonies as well as being the Headquarters of the British Army.

The Palace of Whitehall, the largest palace in Europe at that time, was destroyed by fire in 1698 and replaced by the present Horse Guards building in 1753.

After being a government car park during the twentieth century, in April 1993, the Royal Parks Review Group recommended that Horse Guards Parade should be restored for public use.

Horse Guards Parade is the ceremonial parade ground for the Trooping the Colour on the monarch’s official birthday.
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FEBRUARY
16
2022

 

Parker Street, SW1H
Before being renamed to Matthew Parker Street, old Parker Street was a Westminster slum. Victorians and Edwardians became increasingly ashamed of the slum conditions at the heart of the British Empire. Parker Street, for instance, was some 250 yards from the Houses of Parliament.

Parker Street had been a row of Georgian terraces, but about the turn of the 20th century these had been subdivided and turned into cheap lodgings.

The L-shaped Matthew Parker Street replaced it in 1909.


»read full article


FEBRUARY
15
2022

 

East India Dock Road, E14
East India Dock Road is an important artery connecting the City of London to Essex, and partly serves as the high street of Poplar It takes it name from the former East India Docks and its route was constructed between 1806 and 1812 as a branch of the Commercial Road. The road begins in the west at Burdett Road and continues to the River Lea bridge in the east in Canning Town.

It laid within the parish of Limehouse with the western end in the former Gravel Pit Field.

The westernmost end, west of Stainsby Road and Birchfield Street was built up between 1847 and 1853 (north side) and 1850 and 1860 (south side).
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FEBRUARY
14
2022

 

Whitechapel High Street, E1
Whitechapel High Street runs approximately west-east from Aldgate High Street to Whitechapel Road and is designated as part of the A11. Forming part of the main road from Aldgate to Essex and known originally as Algatestreet, it was paved as early as the reign of Henry VIII, although John Stow described its shabbiness as "no small blemish on so famous a city".

Owing to its importance as a major thoroughfare out of London, its sides were built up early and included many coaching inns and taverns. Although some remain (in name only), many of these hostelries were closed following the arrival of the railways in the 19th century.

Whitechapel High Street becomes Whitechapel Road after the intersection with Osborn Street and Whitechurch Lane. It was also the location of the Whitechapel Haymarket, first given its charter in 1708 and abolished in 1929.
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FEBRUARY
13
2022

 

Worgan Street, SE11
Worgan Street is the new name for the former Catherine Street in the Vauxhall Gardens Estate area. Spring Gardens was established here in the reign of King Charles II. Here could be found live entertainers, food and drink. It was a venue for amorous liaisons, as regular visitor Samuel Pepys noted.

In 1729, the Vauxhall Spring-Gardens was sublet to the entrepreneurial Jonathan Tyers who saw an opportunity to provide a new style of entertainment for Londoners, charging an admission fee of one shilling to discourage the pickpockets and ’ladies of the night’. This became the first and best-known of London’s pleasure gardens. Over the next 130 years Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens played host to concerts, operas, firework displays, circus acts, balloon rides and more.

In 1859, the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens were closed and the area redeveloped into housing. Catherine Street was built here and the street was renamed Worgan Street in the late 1930s.

In the 1970s, the local houses - some badly war-damaged - were demolis...
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FEBRUARY
12
2022

 

Wilsham Street, W11
Wilsham Street was formerly known as St Katherine’s Road. Charles Booth’s poverty map placed the Kensington Potteries among the "criminal and irreclaimable areas", largely on account of the overcrowded condition of its unsuitable and derelict houses.

Five short streets in the district became known as the "Special Area.": Bangor Street, Crescent Street and three roads that have been renamed. St. Clement’s, now called Sirdar Road, St. Katherine’s Road, now Wilsham Street, and William, now Kenley Street.

In 1899 an enquiry was undertaken at the instance of the London County Council, and it was found that nearly half the babies born in this area died before they were a year old.

In 1904 there was a public-house to every twenty-five dwellings in these streets, and about twenty-three common lodging-houses provided accommodation for over seven hundred persons, at a nightly charge of fourpence or sixpence.

Greater however than the evil of these licensed lodging-houses, w...
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FEBRUARY
11
2022

 

Golborne Mews, W10
Golborne Mews lies off of the Portobello Road, W10. The Mews is part of the ‘Oxford Gardens’ Conservation Area. Designated in 1975 to include the St Quintin Estate, Oxford Gardens, Bassett Road and Cambridge Gardens, the Conservation Area contains very few listed buildings and can be split into three districts containing developments spanning from 1897 to after 1905.

Originally the stable house accommodation for the main houses on the surrounding streets, the primary purpose of the Mews properties is now residential.
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FEBRUARY
10
2022

 

Rowena Crescent, SW11
Rowena Crescent was once called Zulu Crescent. The Falcon Estate, of which Rowena Crescent is part, was laid out by Alfred Heaver in 1880.

Rowena Crescent was set back some distance from the railway when the street opened that year. The original streets on the Falcon Estate were named after British victories throughout the Empire which had taken place before the Estate was designed. Therefore we find a Candahar Road, Khyber Road and an Afghan Road named after the 1870s Afghanistan campaign alone. There had also been a skirmish in southern Africa during the decade and Rowena Crescent was assigned the name Zulu Crescent.

Local residents petitioned against the name and the more peaceable Rowena Crescent came into being soon afterwards.
»read full article


FEBRUARY
9
2022

 

Lisson Grove, NW1
The southern end of Lisson Grove was the location of a hamlet and open space, both called Lisson Green. Lisson Green is described as a hamlet in the Domesday book.

Originally Lisson Grove was part of the medieval manor of Lilestone which stretched north to Hampstead. Lisson Green broke away as a new manor in 1236 and had its own manor house.

’Lissing Green’ becames a recreation area for Londoners. By the 1790s, the Green was a large open space stretching down to Chapel Street and the Old Marylebone Road. Beside it on Lisson Grove, the Lissing Green/Lissom Grove village was part of a network of country lanes, on the east side of Edgware Road. At the southern end of the Green was the Yorkshire Stingo inn from whence stagecoaches set off for all parts.

Earlier, in 1771, Lisson Green was bought by James Stephens and Daniel Bullock, manufacturers of white lead. They set up the White Lead Manufactory next to the Nursery Garden, with unrecorded consequences to health. But until the late 18th century the district remained essentially rura...
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FEBRUARY
8
2022

 

Jason Court, W1U
Jason Court was part of the ancient village of Marylebone. The court runs into Marylebone Lane. A stroll along its twisting course will at once reveal a complete contrast with to the symmetrical layout of the surrounding streets. This very distinctly indicates that it was once nothing more than a pathway along the side of the Tyburn Brook providing an access route to the village, clustered around the parish church of St Mary. Indeed it is the Tyburn which gives the area part of its name.

In the middle ages when this was a suburb village, surrounded by fields and well outside the commercial city, a small church, dedicated to St John, was built on the site where Marble Arch now stands. Almost on its doorstep stood the gallows. Served by the main road of Tyburn Way (Oxford Street) it was an easy location to reach and on execution days the area became choked with spectators, all straining to catch a glimpse of the noosed victims. As the crowds gathered, so did the thieves; there were rich pickings to be made from the densely packed...
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FEBRUARY
7
2022

 

Durward Street, E1
Durward Street is a narrow thoroughfare running east-west from Brady Street to Baker’s Row (today’s Vallance Road). Originally called Ducking Pond Row on account of a ducking pond being situated at the site of the Brady Street junction . First map appearance as Buck’s Row was c.1830., however the name had been in use for many years previously.

By 1870, the street was lined on its north side by the large Browne & Eagle warehouses and on its south by a row of terraced cottages which terminated at a ’National School for Boys and Girls’ (similar cottages stood in parallel Winthrop Street). The end of the terrace and the school were demolished c.1875 to make way for the East London Underground Railway and a new board school was constructed in 1876-7. The demolished houses on the terrace were replaced by a new structure, named New Cottage and Brown’s Stable Yard. Essex Wharf was also built on the opposite side of the street around this time.

Ripper victim Mary Ann Nichols’ body was found in front of the gateway of Brown’s Stable Yard. As a...
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FEBRUARY
6
2022

 

Tavistock Crescent, W11
Tavistock Crescent was where the first Notting Hill Carnival procession began on 18 September 1966. Tavistock Crescent was developed in the late 1860s alongside the Hammersmith and City railway line from Westbourne Park station, originally as Great Western Crescent. On the 1900s Charles Booth map, the Tavistock streets are down as poverty and comfort mixed/fairly comfortable, but Silvester Mews, between Basing Street and All Saints Road, is very poor dark blue.

By the mid 20th century Tavistock Crescent had gone from ’respectable working class’ to being the worst slum in the area.

On 15 May 1966 Rhaune Laslett’s London Free School playgroup at 34 Tavistock Crescent (since demolished) was visited by the world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali (in the run up to his second Henry Cooper fight). Rhaune Laslett is to Ali’s right in the picture with the kids.

This was also where the first Notting Hill Carnival procession began on 18 September 1966. Rhaune Laslett organised the Free School Fayre pageant parade arou...
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FEBRUARY
5
2022

 

The Green, UB7
The Green was the heart of West Drayton. By 1557, West Drayton village had already taken on the approximate shape which it presented when the first detailed maps were made, at the beginning of the 19th century, with its houses and cottages grouped around Town Street, where the Green now stands, and Mill Lane (now Money Lane).

Some 16th century building survives, notably the Old Shop at the north-east corner of the Green. One wing of Avenue House, by the Green, dates from the 16th century, though the main part of the house is of the 18th century.

There are indications that the 16th century was a period of expansion for the village. Thus the ’new field’ and the ’new row’ were mentioned about 1517 in transactions of the manor court.

A number of buildings around the Green date substantially from the 17th and 18th centuries.

There were five inns at West Drayton by 1749. In 1689, the ’Crown’ is mentioned: it was then known as the &rsqu...
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FEBRUARY
4
2022

 

Bloemfontein Road, W12
Bloemfontein Road is one of the main roads of the White City Estate. In 1908, the site of the future estate was the site of the Franco-British Exhibition. The main roads of the estate are named after imperial possessions featured in the exhibition: Australia Road, Canada Way, India Way and Bloemfontein Road. Once the First World War came along, the exhibition site fell into disuse.

In 1935, the London County Council (LCC) bought the redundant site and planned a 52 acre estate of 2286 flats in 49 five-storey blocks.

23 blocks were completed when the Second World War broke out. In 1953, the estate was completed but with only 35 blocks. The 2011 built homes housed a population of just under 9000.

The White City Estate represented the LCC’s first attempt to apply ideas of slum clearance and comprehensive redevelopment asked for in the 1935 UK Housing Act.
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FEBRUARY
3
2022

 

South Square, NW11
South Square is the name of the southern part of Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb. Raymond Unwin’s 1905 proposals for a garden suburb at Hampstead showed a central core near to the location of what became Central Square. This point was the highest in the suburb and thus its proposed buildings would become the focus in views from surrounding streets. There was to be a library, a hall, an Anglican church, a chapel and shops. The east side of the square was to be filled with housing.

As 1908 dawned, Edwin Lutyens was appointed consulting architect to Hampstead Garden Suburb (HGS) and was directed to focus his energies on the central area, including the Institute. Lutyens’s drew a sketch plan for Central Square and presented to the General Purposes Committee of the HGS Trust on 18 February.

Henrietta Barnett, whose idea the suburb had been, was known not to approve it and suggested an alternative arrangement in a letter of 24 February. This plan captures what would become the final form of the Central Square, with the Institute...
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FEBRUARY
2
2022

 

Clarendon Road, WD6
Clarendon Road runs north from Shenley Road. The road is older than most streets in Borehamwood, dating as it does from prior to the First World War. It receives its name from the Earl of Essex and Clarendon who also built the Nascot estate in Watford a few decades previous to its construction.

Clarendon Road and Eldon Avenue are now the two entrances into the BBC Elstree Centre, previously ATV/Central TV and the Rock Studios before that.
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FEBRUARY
1
2022

 

Talbot Yard, SE1
Talbot Yard used to host one of the most famous inns in English literature. The Tabard was immortalised by Chaucer when he selected it as the starting place of the pilgrims in his celebrated Canterbury Tales. He sets the scene at the Inn on the night before the pilgrimage:

‘Byfel that in that sesoun on a day,
In Southwark at the Tabard as I lay
Ready to wenden on my pilgrimage
To Canterbury, with ful devout courage,
At night was come into that hostelrie,
Wel nyne and twenty in a compainye.’
The Tabard as it stood in 1875 was not the inn that Chaucer knew of 1388; the original was destroyed by fire in 1628.

The inn first appeared on the scene in 1304 when the Abbot and Convent of Hythe became the owner of two houses purchased from William Latergareshall. On the site of these houses the Abbot built a dwelling house and a hostelry and erected the sign of the Tabard, a sleeveless leather coat. It was probably the first of the High Street inns and the forerunner of a multiplicit...
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