An A-Z Of (Recently) Lost London

An A-Z of London things lost since the Millennium.

Change is inevitable, except from parking meters. And change comes quickest of all in London. Every new building implies a predecessor that is no longer with us.

In this list, we've attempted to capture as many meaningful places as possible, all deleted from London since the turn of the Millennium. But not just buildings. We've also included features of the city that are no more, such as the once ubiquitous Loot magazine and Benjis sandwich chain.

We can't, of course, cover every lost restaurant, pub and sandwich shop. But we hope we've noted most of the places that meant something to the most people. Further suggestions welcome in the comments.

A = Astoria

There's only one place to start. The much-loved music venue and nightclub closed in 2009 to make way for Crossrail developments around Tottenham Court Road tube. To list the acts who played the Astoria between its opening in 1976 and its forced closure would be pointless. It was practically everyone. The site is now corporate office space + Starbucks.

Also: Affordable rents (anywhere), Angel Road railway station (Edmonton), Annie Mole's tube blog, ashtrays (anywhere)

B = Benjys

Anyone who worked in London around the turn of the century will remember these cheaper-than-chips sandwich shops. Memories include: Fluffy white baps the size of pillows; enough cellophane to cover a tennis court; surly till workers who'd bark "Next Please!" to keep the line moving; vast servings of egg-mayo that would bankrupt an American right now; and all items selling for £2.10 no matter how they were marked up. Ah, glorious days. The chain folded in 2007. A single outlet reopened on Cornhill in 2021, though it does not seem to be flourishing.

Also: Bagley's (King's Cross), Banner's (Crouch End), Beckton Alp ski slope, Belgo (various locations), Bendy-buses, Black Cap (Camden), Borderline (Soho), Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum (Southwark), Bree Louise (Euston), Brian Haw's peace camp (Parliament Square), Britain at War Experience (London Bridge), Bucklersbury House (City)

C = Chimneys (Battersea)

Chimneys were once as common as trees in the Big Smoke, as celebrated in Mary Poppins. Many still remain, of course, on older residential properties, but none have belched smoke since the 60s, thanks to Clean Air Acts. All of this is old news, but London recently lost its most distinctive chimneys. The four crumbling puffers atop Battersea Power Station were demolished about a decade ago, and then completely rebuilt as part of the power station's transmogrification into a shopping mall. Remnants of the lost chimneys can be found among the riverside plazas beside BPS.

Also: Café de Paris (West End), Canvas (King's Cross), Cargo (Shoreditch), Catford Stadium, Centre Point fountains, Claremont Road football ground (Cricklewood), Clay's Lane Estate (Stratford), Colony Rooms (Soho), Crayford Stadium, Cuming Museum (Walworth)

D = Dodgy statues

The Black Lives Matter protests turned new attention on certain statues and memorials with links to the transatlantic slave trade. The focus in London was the statue of Robert Milligan outside the Museum of London Docklands (as it was then). Milligan spearheaded the development of the West India Docks in what is now Canary Wharf. But he was also a prominent slave trader. In 2020 the statue was removed from its plinth and is now in storage at London Museum, awaiting a more contextual display.

He isn't the only Londoner to lose his memorial. 18th century merchant Sir John Cass had his name over numerous educational and philanthropic organisations, including the famed Sir John Cass School of Art. All have dropped his name, and several busts and statues have been taken down. Meanwhile, the Geffrye Museum has changed to the Museum of the Home (probably a sensible move anyway), and may yet remove its statue of Robert Geffrye, whose wealth rested in part on the transatlantic slave trade.

Also: Draft House pubs (various locations)

E = Elephant & Castle shopping centre

Loved by many for its characterful cafes and social hangouts; despised by many for its fugly architecture, the E&C shopping centre was a truly Marmite slice of London. Demolition had been talked about for decades, and the wrecking balls finally trundled in during the pandemic. In its place, a new housing-led development is nearing completion. This area has changed more radically than just about anywhere else, with the deletion of the adjacent Heygate Estate (now Elephant Park) and the filling in of the notorious subway system (memorialised in this brilliant The Maccabees video).

Also: Earl's Court Exhibition Centre, EAT (various locations)

F = Freesheets

The Evening Standard has gone. Time Out has gone. London Lite and thelondonpaper both bit the dust in 2009. The age of the freebie newspaper is all but over, thanks to a collapse in print advertising and the rise of home working. Freesheets are not entirely extinct. You might still pick up a morning Metro or City A.M., and the former ES now puts out a weekly London Standard. But the pickings are slim compared to pre-Covid times.

Also: Fruit and Wool Exchange (Spitalfields), The Foundry (Old Street), Foyles (the old one, Charing Cross Road)

G = Gherkin views

The Gherkin (AKA 30 St Mary Axe) was an icon for London when first completed in 2003. It was, unbelievably, the second tallest building in the City of London. Now, it's hardly visible from most angles, dwarfed by much loftier towers to its west and south. There are only two locations along the south bank of the river from which it is now visible. It is still prominent from the east, but for how much longer?

Also: Gaby's Deli (Charing Cross Road), the Gay Hussar (Soho), Ginglik (Shepherd's Bush), Griffin Park (Brentford)

H = Heygate Estate

3,000 people lived on the Heygate. The monumental concrete blocks dominated the skyline behind Elephant & Castle for a third of a century, before they were torn down between 2011 and 2014. The residents were 'decanted', often miles away to Outer London. The Heygate has now been replaced by Elephant Park, an "exciting new London urban story" of apartment blocks, restaurants and a central park.

Also: The Hardy Tree (St Pancras), Heathrow Terminal 1, Highbury (technically 'the Arsenal stadium'), House of St Barnabas (Soho), Hungerford footbridge (missed by no one)

I = Intrepid Fox

Many historic pubs have fallen by the wayside over the years. Few had quite the same mass appeal as the Intrepid Fox, founded in 1784 and named after Charles James Fox. Anyone who's ever been young in London found their way into the Wardour Street corner house at some point, especially goths who made it their own in the final days. It closed in 2006, briefly reopened in St Giles's, then closed again in 2014. It's now some flats, while the Wardour original is a Moo Steakhouse.

Also: I Camisa & Son (Soho), India Club (Strand), Inmarsat building (about to disappear from Old Street), Invisible Dot (King's Cross)

J = Jewish Museum London

Unlike most items on this list, the Jewish Museum London is expected, one day, to return. Indeed, it carries on as a "museum without walls", putting on occasional events and exhibitions in collaboration with other venues. Its bricks-and-mortar home in Camden Town, however, closed down in the wake of the Covid pandemic. The museum has a long-term ambition to reopen at a new physical site.

Also: Jerusalem restaurant (Fitzrovia), Joanna's (Crystal Palace), The Junction (Loughborough Junction)

K = Kensington Roof Gardens

They're still up there, on the former Derry & Toms building, alongside Kensington High Street underground. But unfortunately most people can no longer pop into the near-90-year-old rooftop gardens. Back in the 2010s, the hidden attraction could be freely accessed by anyone. Visitors could admire the Grade II-listed gardens and snap photos of the unlikely flamingos who called it home. To see the gardens now, you need to be the kind of person who joins private members' clubs. The flamingos have also disappeared into the London That Was.

Also: Kenwood House summer concerts (Hampstead), King's Cross's green canopy, King's Cross Thameslink station, Kodak Factory (Harrow)

L = Loot

Looking for a flat in turn-of-the-Millennium London? Then you probably picked up a copy of Loot. The thrice weekly newspaper of classified listings was the go-to place for anyone seeking a flatshare in Shepherd's Bush, or a studio apartment in Tottenham. (Loot's classified ads covered many other things, too, but cheap flatshares were its mainstay.)

Ingeniously, Loot was printed on different coloured paper each day, so you could see at a glance if your newsagent had the latest edition or was still trying to shift last Thursday's copy. Loot was largely killed off by the rise of digital listings, though its own website is still running today. The colourful newspapers disappeared years ago.

Also: L Manze (Walthamstow), Leicester Square busts of Hogarth, Hunter, Newton and Reynolds; Lesney Matchbox factory (Hackney), London Arena (Millwall), London Review Cake Shop (Bloomsbury); Look Mum No Hands! (Old Street)

M = Middlesex Hospital

It's not very often that an entire block disappears. Nor, indeed, do historic hospitals regularly disapparate. Middlesex Hospital is one such exception. Built originally in the mid-18th century, the Middlesex Hospital outlived its namesake county, and was already 170 years old when the placename of Fitzrovia was invented. Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill were both patients. Peter Sellars died here. The hospital continued until 2005, when the newly built University College Hospital absorbed most of its facilities. It was then demolished to make way for the Fitzroy Place office and residential scheme. Happily, the Grade II*-listed Fitzrovia Chapel has been retained, and is open to the public. It's glorious.

Also: Madame Jojo's (Soho), Manze's (Deptford), Marco Polo House (Battersea), Marine Ices (Chalk Farm), Market Towers (Vauxhall), the Marquee (Soho), Mondial House (City), Museum of London (City)

N = North Woolwich Railway Station

Not many London railway stations have closed since 2000. There's Angel Road up near Edmonton, and a few stations that have closed and reopened under the same name, a little along the track (Shoreditch, South Quay DLR...). North Woolwich is another full closure. Until 2006 it formed an easterly terminus of the little-lamented Silverlink network (the spine of which is now the Mildmay line). In that year, the track between Stratford and North Woolwich was closed and eventually taken on by a new branch of the DLR — a switcheroo that also saw the closure of nearby Silvertown station. An old part of North Woolwich station (pictured) remained open until 2008 as a museum to the Great Eastern Railway.

Also: National Temperance Hospital (Euston), New London Bridge House (London Bridge), NIMR building (Mill Hill)

O = One Nation Under CCTV

One of Banksy's largest works appeared in 2007 on the side of the now-deleted Royal Mail sorting office in Fitzrovia. The work, a commentary on surveillance, was placed surreptitiously next to a working CCTV camera. It was painted over in 2009 and the wall has been obscured by the Rathbone Square development. We include One Nation Under CCTV in our list as a representative for all the high-profile street art of London that has been removed over the years.

P = Pigeons in Trafalgar Square

Of course, you can still spot pigeons in Trafalgar Square. But they no longer flock there in the great numbers of yore. Pigeon-pooper-in-chief was Mayor Ken Livingstone, who brought in new bylaws in 2003 to prevent the sale or scattering of bird food. Just to show he meant business, Ken also brought in trained Harris hawks to scare off the scavengers. An age-old tradition was quashed.

Also: The Pinnacle (stump; City), Piscator sculpture (Euston), Planetarium (Baker Street), Pollock's Toy Museum (Fitzrovia; it may be back), Pudding Mill Lane DLR station (old one)

Q = The Queen

She might have been ruler of the whole nation, as well as 14 Commonwealth countries, but Her Late Lamented Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was synonymous with London. Several of her palaces are here. Large chunks of land, and rail, and clock tower, and airport terminal are named after her. Her august countenance beams out from a thousand tacky gift shops. Even a staunch Republican would have to admit that London is not the same without her.

Also: Queue-less entry to the National Gallery, British Museum and Natural History Museum

R = Robin Hood Gardens

The 1970s brutalist housing blocks in Poplar were feted and criticised in equal measure. The 'walkways in the sky' approach proved popular with residents, but it also had its flaws, not least the weathering of the concrete, which gave the place a run-down look. Its demolition was approved in 2012, but numerous bodies campaigned to preserve and refurbish the building, as an architecturally significant structure. Alas, the wrecking balls rolled and the estate came down, although it took until 2025 to complete demolition. It's not quite all gone. A 9 metre-tall section was preserved, and will soon go on display at the V&A East Storehouse.

Also: Ram Brewery (Wandsworth), Ripley's Believe it or Not (West End)

S = Sparrows

Obviously, London is not entirely bereft of sparrows. They are still relatively common, in fact. However, the pint-sized passerines are much depleted in number since the 20th century. Sparrows were once emblematic of London, and the phrase 'Cockney sparra'' came to mean any talkative Londoner. But now it's rare to see one in the central areas (the birds, not talkative Londoners, who are still evident). Across wider London, house sparrow numbers dropped by 59% between 1994 and 2000 according to the British Trust for Ornithology. By 2019, the drop was 71%. The reasons are complex, but include a reduction in potential nesting sites as gardens are 'tidied up', and an ongoing wave of avian malaria.

Also: Shoreditch station (old one), Silverlink network (mostly north London), Silicon Roundabout (Old Street), Simpsons Tavern (City), Slam-door trains (all over), Stanfords (the old one), the Stockpot (Soho), St James's Burial Ground (Euston), South Acton Estate, Swiss Centre (Soho), Syd's coffee stall (Shoreditch)

T = Ticket offices

Just over a decade ago, almost every Tube station had a ticket office — a window at which a friendly member of staff would sell you a ticket or Oyster card. Now there are none. TfL began shutting down its windows in 2015, and soon all the Tube-only stations were bereft. A handful of windows still cling on at some Overground and Elizabeth line stations, along with National Rail interchanges, but they're otherwise extinct.

Also: 12 Bar Club (Denmark Street), Theatre Museum (Covent Garden), Top Shop (Oxford Circus), Tower Records (West End), Trader Vic's (Mayfair), Trocadero (West End), Tubby Isaac's jellied eel stall (Aldgate)

U = Upton Park

Not the tube station, which is alive and kicking, but West Ham United's former ground, where there was once plenty of kicking. The Hammers moved out in 2016 for their new home at the Olympic stadium. The ground has since been demolished and hundreds of new flats have emerged. The stadium was also commonly known as the Boleyn Ground, but its more geographic name furnishes our alphabet with an otherwise tricky 'U'.

Also: Underhill Stadium (Barnet), Utterly confusing signage at London Bridge station

V = Victorian Street at Museum of London

The entire Museum of London is closed, of course, during the long torturous process of shifting the collections over to its new home at Smithfield. Its best-loved exhibit, which we hope will be reimagined at the new venue, was undoubtedly the Victorian streets. This minor warren of shops and alleys recreated 19th century chemist's, butcher's, tobacconist's and more, and even had a pub in which you could sit and wait for a pint that would never be poured. Oh, and that weird bit in the corner with a gas lamp on a raised platform. And the bizarre inclusion of a mosaic space invader (by street artist Invader). What was that all about?

Also: Virgin Megastore (Oxford Street)

W = Wembley (old)

I'm lucky enough to have watched Pele at the old Wembley stadium. He wasn't playing, but made a brief appearance on the pitch ahead of the 1995 Umbro Cup contest between England and Brazil. Everyone old enough and footbally enough has memories of the old stadium, which was sadly demolished in the Noughties. The replacement is itself magnificent, but we can still be nostalgic for those lost twin towers. Incidentally, rubble from the old stadium now forms the hills of Northala Fields near Northolt.

Also: Walthamstow Stadium, Waterloo International, The Water Poet (Spitalfields), Welbeck Street car park (Marylebone), Whitechapel Bell Foundry, White Hart Lane stadium (Tottenham), Whiteleys (Bayswater), The Wibbly Wobbly (Docklands), wooden tube escalators (last one was at Greenford)

X = Xfm

During the late 90s, the London-only Xfm played a diverse mix of indie/alternative music, occupying territory that would later be claimed by Radio 6. Its output blandified somewhat around the Millennium, following a takeover by Capital, but it remained one of the more interesting commercial stations for a few years more. It still exists, as a national station called Radio X, which I confess to never having listened to.

Y = YMCA (Great Russell Street)

The hulking concrete building just off Tottenham Court Road is the most recent loss on our list. It closed in early 2025 after being sold to new owners. The building reckoned to have the largest gym in central London, including a much-used 25 metre swimming pool. The predecessor YMCA building on the site was the first in the world when it opened in 1911. The late Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, enjoyed tea here in 1939 after taking her first Tube ride. It's unclear what will happen to the 1970s building that stands on the site today.

Also: Ye Olde Swiss Cottage

Z = Zzzzz in the City at weekends

Yes, that is a tenuous subheading, but it was either that or finish our alphabet with a dry discussion about Zone boundary changes on the Tube. Our chosen topic refers to the Square Mile's new-found buzz at the weekends. Only a decade ago, the City was dead on Saturdays and Sundays, save for a few loci like St Paul's, the Barbican Centre and the Museum of London. No more. Every corner of the Square Mile's 1.12 square miles now has its visitors at the weekend.

Despite the Museum's temporary closure, people are flocking in for other attractions. The Walkie-Talkie's Sky Garden has been a massive hit with tourists, even if Londoners almost universally loathe the building. Further viewing platforms along Bishopsgate and Fenchurch Street also pull in the crowds. Meanwhile, the City and its BIDs have done much to promote the weekend offering. Programmes like Sculpture in the City and regular events in places like Paternoster Square, Broadgate and Aldgate Square all add to the footfall. The opening of the Elizabeth line has also reinvigorated the space between Moorgate and Liverpool Street. Expect it to get still busier through the rest of the decade, especially once the London Museum opens.

What did we miss? Let us know in the comments.