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.

Amersham

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...

Amersham

Amersham is a market town 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills, England. It is part of the London commuter belt. Amersham is split into two distinct areas: Old Amersham, set in the valley of the River Misbourne, which contains the 13th century parish church of St. Mary’s and several old pubs and coaching inns; and Amersham-on-the-Hill, which grew rapidly around the railway station in the early part of the 20th century.

Records date back to pre-Anglo-Saxon times, when it was known as Egmondesham.

In 1200 Geoffrey, Earl of Essex obtained a charter for Amersham allowing him to hold a Friday market and a fair on 7 and 8 September. In 1613 a new charter was granted to Edward, Earl of Bedford, changing the market day to Tuesday and establishing a statute fair on 19 September.

The area of the town now known as Amersham on the Hill was referred to as Amersham Common until after the arrival of the Metropolitan Line in 1892. After this date growth of the new area of the town gradually accelerated, with much work being done by the arch...

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NOVEMBER

2023

Yiewsley
Yiewsley is a large suburban village in the London Borough of Hillingdon Yiewsley’s transition from an agrarian community began when the Grand Junction Canal was opened. Construction started in May 1793 and connected the area to the Thames at Brentford, passing through Yiewsley on its way north following the River Colne. An aqueduct was built at Cowley Lock to cross the Fray’s River. In 1794, the canal opened between the Thames and Uxbridge, and in 1795, the aqueduct over the Fray’s River was likely completed.

The following year, in 1796, Colham Wharf, Yiewsley’s first dock, was established near Colham Bridge. In 1801, the Paddington Arm of the canal opened, connecting the area to national trade routes.

The canal played a vital role in transporting Cowley stock bricks, which were made from the abundant brick-earth in Yiewsley. The bricks were transported mainly along the Grand Junction Canal and the Regent’s Canal to supply the demand for building materials in Victorian London.

By t...
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NOVEMBER

2023

South Harrow
South Harrow originally spread south and west from the hamlet of Roxeth as a result of easier access from Central London by rail In the 1890s, the Metropolitan District Railway, which later became the District Line but was operating as an independent company at the time, recognised the inadequate service to Uxbridge and Harrow. To address this, they proposed the construction of a railway line towards both towns, and this led to the formation of the Ealing & South Harrow Railway. The railway line was intended to extend to South Harrow, which was then a rural area located to the south of Roxeth.

Construction of the railway line was completed by 1899, but the District Line faced financial difficulties that delayed its opening until 1903. Consequently, South Harrow became the terminus of a line extending from Park Royal & Twyford Abbey. The location around Northolt Road subsequently developed into South Harrow’s own commercial and residential hub.

The original station building was approximately 170 metres south of the present-day station. This extension marked a significant miles...
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SEPTEMBER

2023

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

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

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

2023

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

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

In the 19th century, the area surrounding Courtfield Gardens was developed with rows of terraced houses, as the demand for housing in London grew. Earl’s Court House was demolished in the middle of th...
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Matthew Proctor Blackheath Grove, SE3 Added: 7 Dec 2023 17:36 GMT	Blackheath Grove, SE3 Road was originally known as The Avenue, then became "The Grove" in 1942. From 1864 there was Blackheath Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on this street until it was destroyed by a V2 in 1944 Reply
Peter Gambia Street, SE1 Added: 4 Dec 2023 07:05 GMT	Gambia Street, SE1 Gambia Street was previously known as William Street. Reply
Eileen Brecknock Road, N7 Added: 10 Nov 2023 09:42 GMT	Brecknock Road Pleating Company My great grandparents ran the Brecknock Road pleating Company around 1910 to 1920 and my Grandmother worked there as a pleater until she was 16. I should like to know more about this. I know they had a beautiful Victorian house in Islington as I have photos of it & of them in their garden. Source: Family history Reply
Squirrel’s Lane, IG9 Added: 6 Nov 2023 16:59 GMT	061123 Why do Thames Water not collect the 15 . Three meter lengths of blue plastic fencing, and old pipes etc. They left here for the last TWO Years, these cause an obstruction,as they halfway lying in the road,as no footpath down this road, and the cars going and exiting the park are getting damaged, also the public are in Grave Danger when trying to avoid your rubbish and the danger of your fences. Source: Squirrels Lane. Buckhurst Hill, Essex. IG9. I want some action ,now, not Excuses.MK. Reply
Christian Cornwall Road, W11 Added: 31 Oct 2023 10:34 GMT	Cornwall Road, W11 Photo shows William Richard Hoare’s chemist shop at 121 Cornwall Road. Reply
Vik Oaks Road, TW6 Added: 30 Oct 2023 18:48 GMT	Old pub sign from the Rising Sun Hi I have no connection to the area except that for the last 30+ years we’ve had an old pub sign hanging on our kitchen wall from the Rising Sun, Stanwell, which I believe was / is on the Oaks Rd. Happy to upload a photo if anyone can tell me how or where to do that! Reply
Phillip Martin Ashburnham Place, SE10 Added: 16 Oct 2023 06:25 GMT	16 Ashburnham Road On 15 October 1874 George Frederick Martin was born in 16 Ashburnham Road Greenwich to George Henry Martin, a painter, and Mary Martin, formerly Southern. Reply
Christine Bithrey Holly Park, N4 Added: 15 Oct 2023 15:20 GMT	The Hollies (1860 - 1900) I lived in Holly Park Estate from 1969 I was 8 years old when we moved in until I left to get married, my mother still lives there now 84. I am wondering if there was ever a cemetery within The Hollies? And if so where? Was it near to the Blythwood Road end or much nearer to the old Methodist Church which is still standing although rather old looking. We spent most of our childhood playing along the old dis-used railway that run directly along Blythwood Road and opposite Holly Park Estate - top end which is where we live/ed. We now walk my mothers dog there twice a day. An elderly gentleman once told me when I was a child that there used to be a cemetery but I am not sure if he was trying to scare us children! I only thought about this recently when walking past the old Methodist Church and seeing the flag stone in the side of the wall with the inscription of when it was built late 1880 If anyone has any answers please email me [email protected] Reply

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We now have 628 completed street histories and 46872 partial histories

MAY

2022

Wych Street, WC2R
Wych Street was near where Australia House now stands on Aldwych - it ran west from the church of St Clement Danes on the Strand to a point at the southern end of Drury Lane. Wych Street derived its name from the Via de Aldwych, of which it originally formed a part - a lane leading from the north side of the Strand to Broad Street, St Giles’s.

The area around Drury Lane was not affected by the Great Fire of London. It contained decrepit Elizabethan houses with projecting wooden jetties.

At the western end was Drury House, the house of Sir Robert Drury, from which Drury Lane took its name, later rebuilt as Craven House by Lord Craven, and finally turned into a public house, the Queen of Bohemia, named after Lord Craven’s mistress, Elizabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of James I. This building was later demolished, and replaced by the first Olympic Theatre.

In 1734, a certain Mr Diprose wrote that the street was "much taken up by upholsterers for the sale of bedding and second-hand household goods."

The Angel Inn public house was at the bottom of Wych Street, by the Strand. ...
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MAY

2022

Athol Street, E14
A pun on Scottish-themed road names probably caused Athol Street to be named and positioned below Blair Street - causing Blair Athol to be spelt out. David McIntosh began the development of streets of houses on his land in about 1861, when a demand for workers’ houses was created by the docks and factories of Canning Town and Poplar.

Athol Street Bus Garage opened in July 1907 for horse drawn buses, closed in 1961 and was demolished soon after. It was famous for operating the Tunnel STLs from 1939 to 1954. It was built for use on routes 108 through the Blackwall Tunnel and 82 through the Rotherhithe Tunnel. The buses had specially curved roofs and reinforced tyres to prevent damage from rubbing along kerbs in the narrow tunnels.

Athol Street was replaced by Athol Square.
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MAY

2022

Harringay
Harringay is a district of within the London Borough of Haringey. Harringay is centred on an area between the New River and Duckett’s Common.

Harringay’s main shopping street is Green Lanes. Towards the southern end stands the well-preserved Victorian ’Beaconsfield’ pub. A large section of the eastern side of Green Lanes is called Grand Parade. Interrupted only by the gaps introduced by the residential roads running eastwards, Grand Parade runs from just north of Harringay Green Lanes station to St Ann’s Road.

The streets to the west of Green Lanes are known as the Harringay Ladder. The streets to the east are known as ’The Gardens’.

Harringay railway station is situated between Finsbury Park to the south and Hornsey to the north and opened on 1 May 1885.
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MAY

2022

Aldgate East
In a land east of Aldgate, lies the land of Aldgate East... The name Commercial Road had been proposed for the original Aldgate East station, which opened on 6 October 1884 as part of an eastern extension to the Metropolitan District Railway (now the District Line), some 500 feet to the west of the current station, close to the Metropolitan Railway’s Aldgate station. However, when the curve to join the Metropolitan Railway from Liverpool Street was built, the curve had to be particularly sharp due to the presence of Aldgate East station, at which it needed to be straight.

As part of London Transport’s 1935-1940 New Works Programme, the triangular junction at Aldgate was enlarged, to allow for a much gentler curve and to ensure that trains held on any leg of the triangle did not foul the signals and points at other places. The new Aldgate East platforms were sited almost immediately to the east of their predecessors, with one exit facing west toward the original location, and another at the east end of the new ...
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MAY

2022

Hippodrome Place, W11
Hippodrome Place was named after a lost racecourse of London. Land here was owned by the Ladbroke family and by 1821 had been inherited by James Weller Ladbroke, who initiated the house building. A landscape architect called Thomas Allason was appointed to layout the estate. The original plan was for a large central circus with radiating streets built around gardens. A financial crisis in 1825 forced his plans to be greatly scaled down, and this original vision was not fulfilled. However some fifteen of communal garden squares were built, and they give this area its unique character.

Building work all but stopped in the 1830s but some of the undeveloped land was leased in 1837 to a man called John Whyte. Whyte built a racecourse, the [[2497|Kensington Hippodrome]], but it was not a financial success and it closed in 1842. By then financial conditions had improved and the land was soon developed by Ladbroke who had crescents of houses built on Whyte’s former race course. So all we have left to remind us of the short lived ra...
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MAY

2022

Great Queen Street, WC2B
Great Queen Street is a continuation of Long Acre from Drury Lane to Kingsway. The street seems to date from the first decade of the 17th century. It was known as Queen Street from around 1605 and became Great Queen Street" from around 1670.

In 1646 William Newton was given permission to build fourteen large houses on the south side. Although he did not build all the houses himself, they were constructed to a uniform design, in a classical style, with Ionic pilasters rising through two storeys from the first floor to the eaves. The regular design of the houses proved influential. According to John Summerson they "provided a discipline for London’s streets which was to endure for two hundred years."

About half of the south side is occupied by Freemasons’ Hall, the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England, dating from 1717.

In 1710, the Great Queen Street Academy was founded here.

By 1775 the Freemasons’ Tavern stood here, later the Connaught Rooms. The original Tavern was used...
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MAY

2022

St Ethelburga’s church
St Ethelburga-the-Virgin within Bishopsgate is a church in the City of London. St Ethelburga-the-Virgin is dedicated to St Ethelburga, a 7th-century abbess of Barking Abbey. It was first recorded in 1250 as the church of St Adelburga-the-Virgin and is a rare survival of the medieval City churches that were mostly destroyed during the 1666 Great Fire of London.

The church was rebuilt in the 15th century – possibly around 1411 – and a small square bell turret was added in 1775. In order to raise revenue for the church, a wooden porch was built over its exterior in the 16th century to house two shops.

In 1932, Bishopsgate was widened and the shops and porch were demolished.

It suffered modest bomb damage during the Second World War and was restored in 1953.

Severely damaged by an IRA bomb in 1993, following rebuilding the church re-opened as a Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.
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MAY

2022

Bishopsgate, EC3V
Bishopsgate is named after one of the original eight gates in the London Wall. Originally Roman, the Bishop’s Gate was rebuilt by the Hansa merchants in 1471 in exchange for Steelyard privileges. Its final form was erected in 1735 by the City authorities and demolished in 1760. This gate often displayed the heads of criminals on spikes.

The Bishopsgate thoroughfare forms part of the A10 and the section to the north of the site of the original Gate is the start of Roman Ermine Street, also known as the ’Old North Road’.

Bishopsgate was originally the location of many coaching inns which accommodated passengers setting out on the Old North Road. These, though they survived the Great Fire of London, have now all been demolished, though the modern White Hart pub, to the north of St Botolph’s at the junction with Liverpool Street, is the successor of an inn of the same name. Others included the Dolphin, the Flower Pot, the Green Dragon, the Wrestlers, the Angel and the Black Bull. The latter was a venue for the Q...
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MAY

2022

Sander Street, E1
Sander Street ran from Back Church Lane to Berner Street (Henriques Street). Sander Street first appeared on London maps after the 1820s as Charles Street.

It was demolished in 1961 along with a lot of substandard housing in Stepney. Sander Street has now completely disappeared.
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MAY

2022

Henriques Street, E1
Henriques Street was formerly called Berner Street. It is a thoroughfare running north-south from Commercial Road to Boyd Street. It first appeared on Horwood’s map of 1807 when it was little more than an incomplete cul-de-sac. Possibly named after Charles Berner, a trustee of the vestry of St George-in-the-east, it had become fully developed by the 1830s. The northern and southern stretches either side of Fairclough Street were originally named Lower and Upper Berner Street respectively and the street ran south as far as Ellen Street. The two separately named halves were redesignated as simply Berner Street in 1868.

In 1888, Berner Street contained a variety of buildings, most notably a row of houses on the east side, broken by Sander Street and Dutfield’s Yard which divided Nos.40 and 42. No.40 was the International Working Men’s Educational Club, a wooden building that was very old, even by 1888. A small arch between Nos. 30 and 32 led to Batty’s Gardens, and opposite was a board school, built ...
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MAY

2022

Great Western Road, W11
The name of the Great Western Road dates from the 1850s. It was named after the Great Western Railway whose railway lines run under a bridge on the road. Before the railway and before the canal, the line of the future road ran south as a path from the Harrow Road towards Bayswater. It is visible on the 1750s Rocque map.

First the canal in 1801 and then the Great Western Railway in 1838 disrupted the route. However by the 1850s, the road began to exist in its current form. The 1860s saw housing, which had ended in 1855 at St Stephen’s Church and Hereford Road in Paddington, spread to the Kensington boundary.

By 1865, terraces were lining westward extensions of Westbourne Grove and Westbourne Park Road, Artesian Road, and an eastward extension of the Talbot Road. Small terraced houses and shops stood by 1867 along the south side of Kensal Road and by 1869 along the north side, backing the canal.

Building also stretched north-westward along Great Western Road past Westbourne Park station when ...
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MAY

2022

Lochnagar Street, E14
Lochnagar Street runs east from the Blackwall Tunnel northern approach road. Before the coming of the Blackwall Tunnel, there was a road called Brunswick Road from which Lochnagar Street ran, towards Islay Wharf.

This area of Poplar contains a large number of streets with Scottish names because they were built on an estate which had been bought by the McIntosh family in 1823. The McIntosh Housing Estate was laid out during the 1870s and the road layout was formalised. During the 1880s an oil works was established on the river frontage.

The developer and builder of the housing was John Abbott, who is commemorated in Abbott Road - the longest street in this part of Poplar. The houses in Lochnagar Street had three rooms and a scullery downstairs.

The initial letters of other street names were chosen alphabetically from Aberfeldy Street to Zetland Street. Other roads in this patch include Ailsa Street, Blair Street, Culloden Street, Dee Street, Ettrick Street, Findhorn Street, Leven Road, Oban Street, Spey Street, Te...
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MAY

2022

Drury Lane, WC2B
Named from Sir William Drury, Knight of the Garter in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, who owned land on its site. As well as ’The Muffin Man’ who lived on Drury Lane, according to the famous nursery rhyme, the road was the location of the very first J Sainsbury store which opened in 1869.

But the street is much older - it originated as an early medieval lane which connected St Giles Hospital for lepers with the fields of Aldwych Close which were owned by the hospital.

Suffolk barrister Sir Robert Drury built a mansion called Drury House on the lane in the 1500s. After the death of his great-great-grandson (another Robert Drury) the property became the London house of the Earl of Craven. After that it was a pub called the Queen of Bohemia, his reputed mistress. The remains of the house, which had been progressively demolished, were finally cleared in 1809.

The site of the houses and gardens were built over as Drury Lane had become one of the worst slums in London, dominated by prostitution and gin palaces.

Things changed in ...
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MAY

2022

Nelson’s Column
Nelson’s Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square built to commemorate Horatio Nelson’s decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar during which he lost his life. In February 1838, a group of 121 peers, Members of Parliament and others formed a committee to raise a monument to Lord Nelson, funded by public subscription. The Government agreed to provide a site in Trafalgar Square, in front of the newly completed National Gallery.

The winning entry, chosen by a sub-committee headed by the Duke of Wellington was a design by William Railton

The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by Railton at a cost of £47 000. The column was built from Dartmoor granite and the statue of Nelson was carved from Craigleith sandstone by sculptor Edward Hodges Baily.

The four bronze lions around its base, designed by Sir Edwin Landseer, were added in 1867.

The whole monument is 169 feet 3 inches tall from the bottom of the pedestal to the top of Nelson’s hat. It was refurbished in 2006 at which time it was surveyed and found to be 14 feet 6 inches shorter than previously supposed.
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MAY

2022

Charing Cross, SW1A
Charing Cross, long regarded as London’s central point, as an address is an enigma. Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London. It gives its name to several landmarks, including Charing Cross railway station, one of the main London rail terminals.

Charing Cross is named after the Eleanor cross that stood on the site, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross has been occupied since 1675 by an equestrian statue of King Charles I. A loose Victorian replica of the medieval cross, the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross, was erected a short distance to the east outside the railway station.

Until 1931, "Charing Cross" referred to the part of Whitehall between Great Scotland Yard and Trafalgar Square.

However, the street called Charing Cross no longer exists but two properties still have Charing Cross addresses: Drummonds Bank, on the corner of Whitehall and The Mall, is designated ’49 Charing Cross’. Across the road where...
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MAY

2022

Finchley Road, NW3
Finchley Road is one of north London’s main roads. It was originally named Finchley New Road and it was built as a turnpike to provide a bypass to a much hillier route north through the village of Hampstead. Haverstock Hill and Rosslyn Hill in Hampstead were difficult for horses with carriages to negotiate when muddy.

The Finchley Road Act was passed in 1826 and by 1835, the new turnpike road was complete. It ran north from what was then called the ’New Road’ (now Euston Road and Marylebone Road). Four miles further north, the road crosses the boundary of Finchley and its name becomes Regents Park Road (after the reverse destination). Originally there was a tollgate at Childs Hill.

Once Finchley Road was finished in the 1830s, many large houses were built along it, especially at Fortune Green and Childs Hill.

By 1856 up to ten Atlas Line stagecoaches a day ran along Finchley Road. Atlas Line was based at Swiss Cottage. Bus services started before 1880. Motor buses had replaced h...
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MAY

2022

Carting Lane, WC2R
Carting Lane is thought to be named after the carts that brought goods to and from the wharf formerly located here. Beginning at the steps beside The Coal Hole pub, Carting Lane is a narrow street sloping down towards the Thames. Until the 1830s it was called Dirty Lane.

Towards the lower end is a unique gas lamp. While it is supplied by mains gas now, the lamp was once hooked up to the sewers to burn off waste methane. Carting Lane is occasionally known as Farting Lane as a reference to its most famous feature.

When the first sewer systems were laid beneath the streets in the late 19th century, they caused a major problem in that methane gas could build up. This problem was particularly prevalent on hills like Carting Lane.

One solution was to construct vent pipes to disperse in the air above the heads of pedestrians.

The Carting Lane lamp was designed by Joseph Webb as an experiment around 1890. Webb believed that light could be powered by burning sewer gas. He hooked the lamp up to the Savoy hotel sewer but this didn’t produce en...
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MAY

2022

Rotherfield Street, N1
Rotherfield Street dates from 1826 and is named for Rotherfield in East Sussex. By 1829, the Regent’s Canal as well as the New North Road had been completed through this part of Islington.

Rotherfield Street formed an ornate stuccoed terrace. The Corinthian pilasters were distinct. A builder called Thomas Scott built terraces between Rotherfield Street and King Street. Islington cattle market was built between 1833 and 1836. By 1841 Northchurch Road was laid along its south side, with a row - Prospect Place - at the south-east corner.

Rotherfield Street was further built up between 1841 and 1848, and the streets up to the southwest side of Halliford Street and south side of Downham Road had also been finished by 1848, along with the land along Essex Road as far as the market. The remaining land on either side of the market became building ground and brickfields. By the mid 1850s the market had closed.

From 1847 to 1862 nos. 12-68 were called Sussex Place.

The ’Duke of Clarence’ public h...
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MAY

2022

Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain (Royal Institution) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. Royal Institution was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, including Henry Cavendish and its first president, George Finch.

Its founding principles were "diffusing the knowledge of, and facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements, as well as enhancing the application of science to the common purposes of life (including through teaching, courses of philosophical lectures, and experiments)"

Since its foundation it has been based at 21 Albemarle Street. Its Royal Charter was granted in 1800.
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MAY

2022

Marylebone Town Hall
Marylebone Town Hall is a municipal building on Marylebone Road and a Grade II listed building. The Marylebone Town Hall complex includes the Westminster Register Office, the council chamber, and an educational facility.

The building had been commissioned to replace the old courthouse at the south end of Marylebone Lane. This dated in part to the 18th century. After St Marylebone became a metropolitan borough in 1900, civic leaders decided to procure a new town hall. The site selected had been occupied by a row of residential properties.

The new building was designed by Sir Edwin Cooper in the ’Edwardian Graeco-Roman classicist’ style. After a pause caused by the First World War, it was officially opened on 27 March 1920. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with 13 bays and a colonnaded tower on the roof.

A public library, also designed by Cooper, was built next to the town hall in 1939.

The town hall ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged City of Westminster was formed in 19...
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MAY

2022

Yorkshire Stingo
The Yorkshire Stingo was a pub in Marylebone between the 17th to 20th centuries, notable as the terminus for the first bus in London. The ’Yorkshire Stingo’ name came about because it became the habit for Yorkshire folk who were in London to meet at the pub (and its adjoining pleasure gardens) on the first three days of May every year. The pub was a significant landmark, just outside Central London. The Stingo part of the pub’s name comes from slang of the 18th century for strong ale.

During 1790 the Yorkshire Stingo was the temporary home of the second cast iron bridge ever built, designed by Thomas Paine, better known as the author of the revolutionary best-seller ’The Rights of Man’.

In May 1808, over 20 000 Yorkshire people gathered, "drinking strong ale, playing football and other rustic Yorkshire sports".

This was a rural location when it first opened, which happened even before the construction of the New Road. A bowling green and pleasure gardens were added during the 18th century. An entry fee was charged, redeemable with the waite...
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MAY

2022

Tower Bridge, SE1
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge, built between 1886 and 1894. Tower Bridge was designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel. It was constructed to give better access to the East End, which had expanded its commercial potential in the 19th century. The bridge was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra, Princess of Wales in 1894.

It is one of five London bridges owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust founded in 1282.

The bridge is 240 m in length and consists of two 65 m bridge towers connected at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, and a central pair of bascules that can open to allow shipping. Originally hydraulically powered, the operating mechanism was converted to an electro-hydraulic system in 1972. It remains an important traffic route with 40 000 crossings every day. The bridge deck is freely accessible to both vehicles and pedestrians.
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MAY

2022

Slipper’s Place, SE16
Slipper’s Place was a Rotherhithe terrace built around 1850. This terrace was built on ground particularly unsuitable for building, as the area had previously been a series of ditches and islands that fed into the main mill stream to the north.

The site was cleared in 1959 and new flats erected in its place.
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MAY

2022

Vine Tavern
The Vine Tavern was situated on a site in the middle of Mile End Road, theoretically at number 31. There are references to the Vine Tavern by 1625.

It was supplied by A.F. Style brewers who were based in Maidstone, Kent. In 1899, the brewery joined with the nearby Chatham Brewery to form ’Style & Winch’.

The pub was closed and demolished in 1903. A bust of General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army marks the former site of the pub.
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MAY

2022

Boleyn Ground
The Boleyn Ground (often referred to as Upton Park) was a football stadium, the home of West Ham United from 1904 to 2016. The seating capacity of the ground at closure was 35 016. The stadium was also briefly used by Charlton Athletic in the early 1990s during their years of financial difficulty.

From the 2016–17 season, West Ham United have played their home matches at the London Stadium in nearby Stratford.

The stadium was demolished in 2016 to make way for new development.

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MAY

2022

Westway, W2
At its opening, Westway was the largest continuous concrete structure in Britain. The motorway was built to form a link from Paddington to Ringway 1, the innermost circuit of the London Ringways network, part of a complex and comprehensive plan for a network of high speed roads circling and radiating out from central London designed to manage and control the flow of traffic within the capital.

This plan had developed from early schemes prior to the Second World War through Patrick Abercrombie’s County of London Plan, 1943 and Greater London Plan, 1944 to a 1960s Greater London Council scheme that would have involved the construction of many miles of motorway standard roads across the city and demolition on a massive scale. Due to the huge construction costs and widespread public opposition, most of the scheme was cancelled in 1973 and the Westway, the West Cross Route and East Cross Route in east London were the only significant parts to be built.

The route of the Westway was chosen to follow the easiest path from Western Avenue...
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MAY

2022

Hungerford Lane, WC2N
Hungerford Lane was a dark narrow alley that went alongside and then under Charing Cross Station. The lane went underneath Craven Passage, the alley with the Ship and Shovel pub.

Hungerford Lane was originally known as Brewer’s Lane and, approached by an archway under No. 15, Strand, formerly extended to the river. It took its name from an ancient brewery or "Beirhouse," which at the close of the fifteenth century was held, together with several cottages, by John Evingar under lease from the Prior of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.

Evingar, though he described himself as a "Citizen and Brewer of London, was an emigrant from the Low Countries.

There was a reference to an adjacent Spur Alley in 1640. In a document entitled A brief survey of some of the streets of London, written about 1617, there is a reference to ’Spurre Alley under the Salutation tav.’ and, next to it, to ’Arnold Lane’ (the latter refers to Brewer’s Lane - Richard Arnold was at this time the occupier of the Brewhouse). Like...
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MAY

2022

Toynbee Hall
Toynbee Hall is a building which is the home of a charity of the same name. It works to bridge the gap between people of all social and financial backgrounds, with a focus on working towards a future without poverty.

It was the first university-affiliated institution of the worldwide Settlement movement; a reformist social agenda that strove to get the rich and poor to live more closely together in an interdependent community.

Founded by Canon Samuel Barnett and his wife Henrietta in 1884 on Commercial Street, it was named in memory of their friend and fellow reformer, Oxford historian Arnold Toynbee, who had died the previous year. Built specifically for the charity as a centre for social reform, it remains just as active today.
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MAY

2022

Tabard Street, SE1
Tabard Street was the old road to Kent and called Kent Street until 1877. Kent Street was the old road to Greenwich, Canterbury and Dover - roughly on the alignment of the Roman road.

The medieval road ran through open country, with no buildings except for the occasional inn. The Lock Leper Hospital stood on the west side of the street near to the first milestone from London Bridge. About here the ’Lock Stream’ crossed Kent Street.

Leprosy was practically extinct in England by the beginning of the 17th century but the memory of the lepers who used to wander here was preserved in the name of Lock Field until they were built over in the 19th century.

In 1659 Robert Shawe gave a piece of pasture land in Lock Field to the parish. Part of the ground was enclosed in 1711–12 and consecrated as a burial ground. In 1886 the Lock Burial Ground, having been long disused, was made into a recreation garden.

At St Thomas á Waterings, another stream - Earl’s Sluice - crossed the road. This w...
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MAY

2022

Carreras Cigarette Factory
The Carreras Cigarette Factory is a large art deco building in Camden. It is noted as a striking example of early 20th Century Egyptian Revival architecture and is located at the northern end of Hampstead Road facing over Harrington Square.

The building was erected in between 1926 and 1928 by the Carreras Tobacco Company owned by the inventor and philanthropist Bernhard Baron to a design by architects Marcus Collins, Owen Collins and George Porri.

Carreras started life at the Acadia Works on City Road in the 19th century. It was a small business owned by Don Jose Carreras Ferrer who sold cigarettes, cigars and snuff out of small shops. A black cat began to curl up and sleep in the window of the shop near Leicester Square in Prince’s Street and the shop became known locally as "The Black Cat Shop".

After a cigarette-making machine was invented, the business required a large factory and moved to Hampstead Road. The black cat became the company’s logo. In 1959 the company merged with Rothmans and move...
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MAY

2022

Oxford Street, W1K
Oxford Street is Europe’s busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as of 2012 had approximately 300 shops. Oxford Street follows the route of a Roman road, the Via Trinobantina, which linked Calleva Atrebatum (near Silchester, Hampshire) with Camulodunum (now Colchester) via London and became one of the major routes in and out of the city.

Between the 12th century and 1782, it was variously known as Tyburn Road (after the River Tyburn that ran just to the south of it, and now flows underneath it), Uxbridge Road (this name is still used for the portion of the London-Oxford road between Shepherds Bush and Uxbridge), Worcester Road and Oxford Road. On Ralph Aggas’ "Plan of London", published in the 16th century, the road is described partly as "The Waye to Uxbridge" followed by "Oxford Road", showing rural farmland where the junction of Oxford Street and Rathbone Place now is.

Despite being a major coaching route, there were several obstacles along it, including the bridge over the Tyburn. A turnpike trust was established in the 1730s to improve upkeep of t...
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