History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

On 27 July 1939 the 79-year old actor Morton Selten was suddenly taken ill and died from a heart attack at his home, 34 Fairfax Road in South Hampstead. His obituaries said he was the oldest working actor with a career spanning 60 years. Just two days before, he had finished filming ‘The Thief of Bagdad’ directed by Michael Powell and starring the young Indian actor 15-year old Sabu Dastagir with whom Morton developed a good working relationship. Morton Selten with Sabu in The Thief of Bagdad Selten was wheeled on set in a bathchair by his elderly valet. He played the Old King who dies gracefully as the magic carpet carrying Sabu flies into the sky. Their scenes were shot at Alexander Korda’s Denham Film Studios, but the outbreak of War meant the film was finished in Hollywood. It was released in December 1940 and was very successful, both critically and financially. Morton began his stage career in London but soon went to New York where he starred in numerous Broadway productions. He ...

This is the story of how Frank Smith and his friend Jim Viney, began in a small way in Cricklewood and built the large and successful company of Smith’s Crisps. Early years Frank was born in 1875, in Hackney. His parents had left their native Suffolk by the mid-1860s for London, where his father ran a fruiterer and florist business. By 1881 the family were living over their corner shop at 128 Stoke Newington High Street, moving to Kingsland Road by 1891. Frank started working when he was 10-years old and went with his father to Covent Garden each morning to buy produce for their shop. Frank married Jessie Minnie Ramplin in Southwark in 1902. The couple and their six-year old daughter Laura were living in Mona Road Deptford in 1911, when Frank gave his occupation as ‘commercial traveller, confectionery’. Soon after this he went to work for a wholesale grocer by the name of Carter, in Smithfield. Carter had a side-line making potato crisps and Frank saw great potential in the product and...

We have just begun a new blog about the history of Camden which covers Hampstead, St John's Wood, Camden Town, Kentish Town, St Pancras and Holborn. The first story looks at the Hampstead Smallpox Hospital which opened 150 years ago to try and cope with the pandemic. Another story examines the strange 1907 Camden Town Murder. We will continue to post stories about Kilburn and West Hampstead on this site. Here is the link to the new site: https://historyofcamden.blogspot.com/