History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Graham Young was born on 7 September 1947 in Neasden Hospital. Sadly his mother died from tuberculosis when he was about three months old and his father Fred was unable to cope with Graham and his eight-year-old sister. For now, Graham went to live with his aunt and uncle, and Winifred was sent to her grandparents. All the extended family lived near each other in Links Road, Dawpool Road and the North Circular Road.  Fred Young worked as a machine setter at Smiths Industries in Cricklewood, and he met his second wife there. In 1950 Fred married Gwendolyn (Molly) Petley and the family was reunited at 768 North Circular Road, opposite the Welsh Harp. Although things seemed alright on the surface, Graham hated his stepmother Molly, who often left him alone outside while she played the accordion in pubs. Google Map showing 768 North Circular Road 768 North Circular Road   Graham as a young boy Graham was a plump young boy and his family called him ‘Pudding’ much to his dislik...

John (Jack) Lemon Burton was born in 1911, the son of engineer John Lemon Burton senior whose unusual middle name came from his mother Charlotte Lemon. At the time of Jack’s birth John senior was living in 27 Hopefield Avenue Brondesbury but then moved several times before settling at 17 Cavendish Road Kilburn in 1930 where he died in 1954.  17 Cavendish Road in 2012 Jack in the garden with his home-made pedal car As a teenager, Jack sometimes drove his father’s car, and to hide his age, wore his father’s bowler hat while his father sat beside him wearing Jack’s Kilburn Grammar school cap. Jack was fascinated by Bugattis, and bought his first when he was aged 16. Later his father bought Jack the blue Type 37A which Sir Malcolm Campbell (the world land speed record holder) had driven in competition. Jack began racing Bugattis in Brookwood and broke the lap record in 1939.  Malcolm Campbell’s Bugatti owned by Jack Lemon Burton In 1927 with help from his father, Jack established ...

While researching our next book, Marianne discovered an interesting and mysterious woman who lived in Neasden for a short time. Gloria de Casares was described as, 'strikingly beautiful, with deep blue eyes, auburn hair and an exceptional figure'.  She was a woman who enjoyed the good things in life. Her husband Emilio Roberto Casares was the wealthy son of Emilio Narciso Casares, an even wealthier Argentinian businessman. Narciso was the first Argentinian merchant to set up a London office to trade livestock and frozen meat between the Argentine and England.   On 18 June 1917 Gloria and Emilio were married at the Marylebone Registrar’s Office, and the couple shared an expensive home at 16 York Terrace, overlooking Regent’s Park. This was their London address, as they also leased Bucknalls, a large, 14-bedroom mansion in Watford .   Built in 1855 and later extended, the house stood in extensive grounds. There were a series of dinners and dances at home and in town, and we...

This the story of a 1950s swindle to get money from young couples desperate to buy their own homes. The brains of the scheme lived in West Hampstead, Kilburn and Willesden. On 11 September 1956, five men appeared at the Old Bailey charged with fraud. They were William Frederick Montgomery (46) a clerical assistant of 2a Riffel Road Willesden, John Frederick Attenborough (54) the company negotiator of Albion Street Dunstable, Herbert Henry Skelly (35) master builder of Manor Road Dagenham, Richard Neel (46) travel agent of Beckenham Road Beckenham, and Ernest Rea (79) the company director of Katherine Road East Ham. They were charged with conspiring together between February 1953 and January 1955, to defraud people to buy a home from the Harmsworth Building and Construction Company Ltd. 120 prospective buyers paid deposits totalling £23,184 (today worth about £870,000), for homes that were never built. All five men pleaded ‘not guilty’. Deposits were not returned, and the company went t...

   Sean Connery, 1980   Edinburgh On his dad’s side, Sean, or as his birth certificate records ‘Thomas’ Connery, had Irish roots. His dad Joe was a jobbing labourer in Edinburgh who married Effie Maclean in 1928. Thomas (Tommy) was born two years later in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh’s industrial district, where the grime and smoke had gained it the nickname, Auld Reekie . There wasn’t much money and Tommy had a tough childhood. He got his first job when he was nine years old; helping on a milk round before school, with an evening shift as well at a butcher’s. He was a physically strong kid, fit and good at sport, but he was restless, and keen to leave Fountainbridge behind. So, he joined the navy when he was seventeen. Although he signed up for seven year’s active service he was invalided out in 1949, suffering from duodenal ulcers. Back in Edinburgh, Connery took up a British Legion scholarship and trained as a French polisher. He was a seriously good footballer and at o...

During our work on a new book for the Willesden Local History Society, we found that Sydney Galvayne, and son Frederick were living at the Model Farm, Neasden in 1891. 1894 OS Map showing site of the Model Farm in Neasden (Marked X) Sydney was shown in the census as a horse farmer and his son Frederick was described as a Professor of Horsemanship. In 1891 they advertised as ‘Galvayne and Son, The Model Farm and Horse Depot Neasden’ with 70 large horse boxes. This was intriguing as Neasden was still a remote village and the Galvaynes were born in Australia. Sydney first appears in the online newspapers at the end of November 1884 as Professor Galvayne ‘the celebrated Australian scientific horse trainer’. He was opening his first school at the Corn Exchange in York and giving demonstrations of how to break previously difficult horses of the local gentry to harness in a few minutes. In his ‘Galvayning’ method a string from a strap on the the horse’s head was tied to its tail causing i...