History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Do you remember Arthur the white cat, who appeared in a series of clever adverts for Kattomeat? This is an odd story from the late 1960s which involves the Russian Embassy in London and West Hampstead. In February 1968, 25-year old Irish actor Toneye Manning had a legal dispute with the pet food company Spillers over the ownership of Arthur. Manning, who was living in a bedsit in Sylvester Road East Finchley, issued a writ against Spillers for the return of, ‘one white cat, Arthur’.  Spillers did not have time to enter a defence and the court agreed Arthur should be returned to Toneye. He went with a bailiff to collect Arthur from Sonja Colville’s cattery at Horndon-on-the Hill in Essex. But Spillers subsequently contested the verdict, and the case went to the High Court on 20 February. The judge ordered Manning to return Arthur to Spillers who said they had legally bought the cat from Manning. But he refused, saying he had gone to the Russian Embassy and they had offered Arthur ‘p...

In October 1958 Beryl Price was sentenced at the Old Bailey to nine months in Holloway Jail. She and her husband Kenneth Price, lived at 15 Lyncroft Gardens, a house in West Hampstead, where they rented out rooms. They were in severe financial difficulties in March when she received a letter containing a £75 cheque. It had been delivered in error and was in fact a royalty payment intended for Dudley Pope, a successful author of naval stories who lived next door at No.13. The temptation was too great for Beryl, and without telling her husband, she opened a Post Office account in the fictious name of Gwen Dudley Pope, and then made three withdrawals of £10 each. When Dudley Pope failed to receive his cheque, the police were informed, and Beryl was arrested. Beryl’s family and early career Born in 1909 as Beryl Katie King, she was the daughter of estate agent Cecil Arthur King and in 1911, was living with her parents in Barnes. After studying at the Royal College of Music she became an op...

On the evening of 23 August 1929 soon after 10pm, the audience was leaving the Ionic Theatre Golders Green, having just seen the silent film ‘The River’, staring Hollywood actors Charles Farrell and Mary Duncan. As they left the cinema and headed towards the bus depot and the Underground station, some of them saw two men arguing outside a shop in The Parade. Today, this is Leverton and Sons Ltd, funeral directors, 624 Finchley Road, near the clock tower in the centre of the road. The Ionic Theatre One of the men appeared to punch the other in the face and he fell backwards hitting his head on the pavement. The assailant ran off and jumped on a bus going towards Childs Hill and Swiss Cottage. People tried to help the injured man and PC Garner who was on point duty was called. When he got there, he was shocked to find the man was a colleague, PC John Self who worked in plain clothes.  Dr Leakey, who lived locally, was called and he found PC Self unconscious on the pavement. He was t...

Mitchell Hedges in adventurer and gentleman guises In 2008’s 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull', there is a brief mention of a real person. Our eponymous hero says that while he was studying at the University of Chicago, he was fascinated by the work of a man called Mitchell Hedges, a real-life adventurer and explorer who found a crystal skull. Although the writers of the film say they did not use Mitchell Hedges as a model for Indiana Jones, there are some interesting parallels between the real and the fictional characters – and a link with a West Hampstead conman. Hedges was born in Islington in 1882 as Frederick Albert Hedges, the son of a dealer in gold, silver and diamonds. He added ‘Mitchell’ from a family name on his mother’s side and to his friends he was known as Mike, Midge or Mitch Hedges. Young Frederick was educated at Berkhampstead prep-school in Cheltenham before moving to University College School in 1896 (the school was in Gower...

The Oaklands Hall estate was a large house on West End Lane near the corner with today’s Hemstal Road with extensive grounds that ran down the hill to what is now Kingsgate Road. The last occupant of Oaklands was Sir Charles Augustus Murray who retired there in 1872. He was born on the 22 November 1806, the second son of George Murray, the 5th Earl of Dunmore, an ancient and eminent Scottish family. Charles grew up in Glen Finart, Argyllshire, though the family spent the winter months in London. In 1815 he was sent to Eton to join his elder brother Alexander Edward Murray, later the 6th Earl. Charles made many visits to Hamilton Palace, the home of his uncle the Duke of Hamilton, where he met Walter Scott and William Beckford, some of many writers that he was to meet during his life. From Eton Charles went to Oxford where he obtained a BA in 1827 and an MA in 1832. Little is known about his college years, but contemporaries remember him as charming, active, strong and a skilled horse r...