History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

On the corner of Belsize Road and Kilburn Vale, opposite the Priory Tavern, is a large building which has been refurbished to house modern offices. If you look up at the roof you can see on the two parapets signs for ‘LGOC’ and ‘1892’. This is the date when the London General Omnibus Company stables were built. Omni House today Today the building is numbered as 252 Belsize Road but it was previously called Priory Mews. In 1866 Thomas M’Craken had a small livery stables called Priory Yard in the road. The 1871 census showed Alfred Richards in Priory Mews as an omnibus proprietor employing four men. The stables and yard were run by several owners until the LGOC took it over in 1890. It was a good site for horse cabs and omnibuses as it was opposite Kilburn Station, which at this time had its main entrance in Belsize Road . The first railway passed through Kilburn in 1838 en route from the Midlands to Euston, but a station was only opened in 1852, with the entrance in Belsiz...

Oliver Sacks died of cancer at his apartment in Greenwich Village New York on 30 August 2015 , aged 82. He was the famous neurologist who wrote the best-selling books, ‘Awakenings’ and ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat’, which were based on case studies of his American patients. Mapesbury Road He wrote the first part of his autobiography which he called ‘Uncle Tungsten’ after his uncle Dave who had a light bulb factory in Farringdon. The book is a delightful intertwined account of his family and his love of chemistry. It was while I was reading this in 2003 that I was startled to find that Oliver had lived in Kilburn. In ‘Uncle Tungsten’ Oliver talks about his love of history and old photos: I loved old photos of our neighbourhood and of London . They seemed to me like an extension of my own memory and identity, helping to moor me, anchor me in space and time, as an English boy born in the 1930s. Marianne and I had recently published a book of old photos abo...