The Metropolitan Railway's aspirations to provide a new route between London and Birmingham took it through much undeveloped land north-west from London. It sought passengers for its services by setting up an estate company to contribute to new housing development along the line.

The areas of suburban London, and beyond, that neighboured the route of the Met were given the name 'Metro-land' by a creative mind in the railway's publicity office in 1915. The name was in continuous use until the railway was taken over by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933 and is still part of Londoners' vocabulary today.

This book is about the development of Metro-land from green fields to houses and shops. It looks at the ways in which both the Met and private developers encouraged people to move out from districts closer to central London to 'Live in Metro-land'.