Bayswater and Lancaster Gate were first developed as residential suburbs of London in the early 19th century. Bayswater Road, for example, the road at the Bayswater southern end (Bayswater Road) was already a long-established route across the countryside, and a road roughly following the present Queensway can be seen on early maps running north from Bayswater Road across fields under the name of Black Lion Lane. It was subsequently renamed Queen's Road in honour of Queen Victoria, who had been born at nearby Kensington Palace: a name, however, which somewhat lacked distinctiveness, for this reason the present name of Queensway was eventually substituted.