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The Kilburn Riot

The firm of Saxby and Farmer was Kilburn’s largest employer. In 1863 they opened a factory in Canterbury Road and their patented railway signals were sold around the world during the railway boom. In 1871 they employed 414 men and 36 boys rising to 2,000 at their peak, until the factory closed in 1903 and the company moved to Chippenham. 

The Neville’s Cross pub at 40 Denmark Street was built in 1865 on the corner with Neville Road. The owner Neville Newton was a publican at The Plough in Kensal Green. He may have named the pub after the 1346 battle of Neville’s Cross near Durham, when the invading Scottish army was defeated by the English. Or he named it after himself and the street where the pub stood at a crossroads. Soon after it opened, the licence was transferred to publican Charles Ashby. 

1860s OS Map

1894 OS Map

The two OS maps show the growth of South Kilburn between the 1860s and 1894. The red marks show the Neville’s Cross and Sir Robert Peel pubs.

At 11.30 pm on Saturday 13 July 1872, Robert Hutchins, a fishmonger living at 71 Albert Road, was having a drink in the Neville’s Cross with his wife and her friend. Mr Woody who worked at Saxby and Farmer, came into the bar with a male friend. Woody accosted Hutchins’s wife and continued to annoy her after Hutchins asked him to stop. At this point Woody hit Hutchins and a fight broke out.

The Neville's Cross (Lost Pubs, Dean Wheeler)

The landlord ordered them out of the pub, but the fight continued on the pavement. PC Henry Easy 242X who was passing by on patrol, told the men to go home. Hutchins left but Woody who was very drunk, hit PC Easy and his colleague PC Hallett who had arrived on the scene. He was taken into custody but as they tried to take him to the police station, Woody became very violent and kicked the constables several times. More police were summoned from Kilburn Police Station, but a huge crowd variously reported to be between 2,000 to 3,000 strong, turned on the police near the Sir Robert Peel pub in Canterbury Road. The rioters threw stones and bottles at the police, injuring Sergeant Maloney and several other officers, who were unable to prevent the mob rescuing Woody.

The police were not respected or liked by the working classes in Victorian Britain.

Sir Robert Peel, 131 Canterbury Road (nd, Historic England)

On the 22 July, five of the rioters appeared at the Marylebone police court charged with ‘causing a disturbance and interfering with the police in the execution of their duties’. Three of the men admitted they were very drunk and apologised for their behaviour. They were each fined five shillings. Woody was reported as having gone abroad and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. It seems he later returned and was also fined.

Robert Randall, 27, a carpenter of 76 Albert Road, and Edward Brown a barber of Chichester Road, pleaded not guilty and had employed a solicitor to defend them. Randall was charged with assaulting Sergeant Michael Maloney 39X and PC Samuel Cluney 362X. In his evidence Cluney said he was on the pavement during the riot about a yard away from Randall, who he said hit the Sergeant on the head with the heavy handle of his umbrella and then punched Cluney in the mouth. Cluney caught Randall as he tried to run back into the crowd. Hugely outnumbered, the police were forced to take refuge in William Golding grocers’ shop at 45 Denmark Road. After two hours when the crowd eventually dispersed, Randall was taken to the police station.

Randall said he had been to the Metropolitan Music Hall in the Edgware Road with a lady friend visiting from Leighton Buzzard. They left the theatre about 11.30 and walked to Kilburn where they arrived at 12.00. He saw the large crowd in Canterbury Road and said his umbrella which was under his arm, was seized by someone who used it to hit the police officers. When he managed to get his umbrella back, he was arrested. Randall’s female friend and another young woman backed him up.

The police said that Brown was seen throwing stones and assaulting PC Moses Parrott 31X. He was arrested the following Tuesday morning.

Surprisingly, both Randall and Brown were found not guilty by the jury. The judge said the police officers must have mistakenly identified the two men in the confusion of the riot.

In November that year, PC Moses Parrott died aged 31. He had been in the Met for eight years and had been seriously injured three times. In 1866 he had been injured by the riots in Hyde Park; secondly, when pursing a burglar in 1870, he had fallen from a high wall onto his chest. Thirdly, at the recent Kilburn riot he had been savagely kicked in the stomach which had ruptured a blood vessel and eventually caused his death while on duty in Parliament Street at the Lord Mayor’s procession.



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  1. Ali13 April 2021 at 21:08

    Thanks for this interesting story. My great grandparents moved to this area not long after this - from Norfolk in the 1880s. They were living in Canterbury Road according to the 1901 census and my great grandfather was a bricklayer. My grandparents lived in Neville Road. There were a pair of cottages built there there called Albert and Victoria, which I was told were built from leftover materials from all the building in Queen's Park. My dad was born in Albert Cottage in 1926. It was demolished in 1951.

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