Mystery: Where is Albert Place, London?

It existed in 1842 when my great grandfather Horace Aubrey Cox was baptised and it doesn’t appear on modern maps. It is somewhere in the parish of St Mary, Lambeth in what is now London.

The 1842 baptism record from St. Mary Lambeth Parish in the County of Surrey for Horace Aubrey Cox, noting his father William Cox who lived at Albert Place.

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Emma Cox

hosts the acclaimed Journeys into Genealogy podcast joins us as part of our first cohort in the Projectkin Members’ Corner. Monthly posts from members celebrate their contributions to family history storytelling — in all its forms. Posts may be written or recorded (audio or video) will be shared for free each month. Explore the entire Members’ Corner here.

I’ve been looking for the place where my great grandfather Horace Aubrey Cox was baptised in 1842, yet it doesn’t appear on modern maps. It is somewhere in the parish of St Mary, Lambeth in the County of Surrey, or what is now London.

Looking for Albert Place

I’ve known of Albert Place address for several years but not been able to find it. Trying again recently I used a couple of websites that I’d like to share with you.

Firstly a Google Search for Albert Place brought up The Hunt House and “Old to New Street names 1857 – 1929”  

Looking for Albert Place on there amongst the dozen or so results is Albert Place in Lambeth (type CTRL-F and add your search words on a PC or CMD-F on a Mac).  

At some point before 1912 the name has changed to Sidford Place.

Sidford Place from thehunthouse.com

So where is Sidford Place?

A site I have visited before and highly recommend is the National Library of Scotland, this may sound unlikely but they have the best collection of maps covering the UK.

One of the extremely useful tools is the Side by Side viewer. This shows a modern map next to an older one covering the same area, moving the cursor over one or zooming in does the same action on the other. 

Search using the magnifying glass and then you can choose which maps to display, from an OS Six Inch 1840s-1880s (the one I used) to a One Inch 1885-1900 Outline amongst the most useful for showing old streets. 

Albert Place on the left, Sidford Place on the right in old and new maps.

And if you want to try it yourself, here’s the link. On the left you see Albert Place, and on the right, Sidford Place.

William Cox died sometime between 1846 and by 1851 his widow Bessey and 2 sons have moved to Somerset to live in the same place as Bessey’s sister and brother in law.

Next mystery is to find his exact date and place of death!

Other potential sources

• Rayment Society: Inner London Street Name Changes

• The Camden Society: Camden area names (PDF document from 2016)

• Another site is the British Newspaper Archive, this is a subscription site but you can search for 3 items for free

• And to see what some of the old London streets looked like around 1900-1920, explore Spital Fields Life. It’s worth signing up to the newsletter here as they share some amazing old photos of London life in the East End.

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