Eventually, I think the mapping of an address through time will come, as the technology is improving slowly. Google has mapped vast areas in its street view and modern maps, Ordnance Survey are releasing their maps to the wider community. We already have access to vast resources of historical maps. All we need now, is the likes of google and their billions of pounds to drill down on an address and show it through the layers of time! Come on google [or microsoft, or Yahoo, or AOL - whoever] , sort it out properly.
London is very
interesting in itself, it bore the brunt of the WWII bombings, as did many other
places, but also went through a road renaming process about this time. Many of
the roads with similar names were simply renamed to distinct road names. This is
where the 1944 listing of Pubs is incredibly useful, if you can match the Pub
with that in 1938! A similar process occurred sometime between 1899 and 1910.
I keep this site simple, but do have the technological know-how to do
much of this - but sadly don't have the 'time or money, or inclination' - hey ho!
Pubs, like churches move slowly over a period of time, I use this to my
advantage.
Here are some random historical and new images of the many thousands of Pubs on the pub history site:
Lobster, Canvey Island : Cricketers, Bethnal Green : Bow Bells, Bromley : George, Crawley
Eclipse, Islington : Brunel Hotel, Plymouth : The Cricketers, Richmond
This historical site lists 'some of' the street and trade directory information for the UK, listing the Pub History of London, Essex, Kent, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Middlesex, Suffolk, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Devon & Dorset. The directory is an important tool in searching for addresses in the towns that have changed over time. This site lists historical Public Houses site and Directory listings, and has entries up until 1944 at the latest. If there is not an entry for a year, it is because I do not have this information, please help to complete the data. Not all Pubs are dead Pubs, and I do not tend to list modern information as it is largely a historical Pub site (Although I welcome any modern pictures of those on the site).
The site lists original content on Pub History, Census and Trade Directory entries from the Post Office , Kelly and Pigots Trade Directories, Petty Session Victuallers records etc. for the last two hundred years. The public houses are listed by church parish as they would have existed before 1900 - many of these are no longer in existence. Use this site, and the search engine, to discover the areas of London and the South of England during this time. Here are some research tips. A new addition is the Middlesex 1826 listing which actually lists many Pubs within twelve miles of London; and includes many parts of Essex, Kent, Surrey etc.It is always useful to find your people in the census first, which are now available in 1901, and every ten years previous back to 1841, then again in 1911. Next, find some civil registrations at the freebmd site (or try the card system at your local library). If your relative was a tradesman, there is probably an entry in the early Yellow Pages (Kellys, Pigots & Post Office Directories). In the case of beer retailers and licensed victuallers - there should be a court entry for licensing in the Petty Sessions Victuallers records. These Petty Sessions records will be held at the relevant record office (probably).
London has been carved up into administrative chunks on a number of different bases over the centuries, from the old parish system to the current post code one. Post codes might seem, initially, like a good system to use, but in reality they are probably worse than useless. Postal districts are based, alphabetically, on the location of main post office and are very confusing to people who expect some kind of numerical logic (e.g. N10's neighbours are N8, N6 and N2). [Caroline Bradford]
This site offers an alternative view to the modern post code system. It lists Pubs and other addresses according to the census, i.e. according to the church that was allocated in the census. Occasionally these change over time.