Sheet 1 of Stanford’s Library Map of London and Its Suburbs records north-west London in 1862, when Hampstead was already recognisably urban but much of Hendon, Mill Hill, Colindale, Kingsbury and Cricklewood remained divided into fields, farms and estates. Its fine detail preserves individual roads, field boundaries, woodland, waterways and small groups of buildings before the widespread suburban development of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Map Details
- Original title: Stanford’s Library Map of London and Its Suburbs
- Sheet: 1 of 24
- Publisher: Edward Stanford
- Published: London, 15 February 1862
- Scale: Six inches to one mile, approximately 1:10,560
- Area shown: Hendon, Hampstead, Golders Green, Child’s Hill, Cricklewood, Kingsbury, Colindale, Mill Hill and adjoining districts
- Orientation: North at the top
- Original appearance: Printed linework with hand-coloured roads, water and woodland
North-West London Before Suburban Expansion
Hendon occupies a broad landscape of fields and lanes, with Mill Hill and Colindale shown as comparatively small settlements. To the south, Child’s Hill and Cricklewood lie between open ground and the more closely developed streets around Hampstead.
The map also records the River Brent and Brent Reservoir, an especially distinctive feature of this sheet. Edgware Road and Finchley Road provide important routes through the area, while the carefully drawn field boundaries show how strongly the older rural pattern still shaped north-west London.
The NW Postal District
The prominent red letters NW are part of the original map. They mark the North Western postal district created during the nineteenth-century reorganisation of London’s postal system. Parish and estate boundaries remain visible beneath and around this later administrative marking.
Modern Postcode Coverage
The area shown broadly corresponds with parts of:
- NW2 – Cricklewood and Child’s Hill
- NW3 – Hampstead
- NW4 – Hendon
- NW7 – Mill Hill
- NW9 – Colindale and Kingsbury
- NW11 – Golders Green
Modern postcode boundaries do not precisely follow the historic divisions shown on the map.
