History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

This is a story about a house in West End Lane, the filmmaker who grew up there as a young boy, and a famous Soviet spy. As a child, Gerry Anderson grew up in West End Lane West Hampstead. When Dick spoke to him on the phone shortly before his death, Gerry said he couldn’t remember exactly where he had lived but it was at the top of a large house on West End Lane, with a tent-shaped glass roof over the front door. There was a garage with a driveway at the side. His family of four lived in poverty in one room, with a blanket hung up to separate the cooking area from the sleeping area. They shared a bathroom with the other tenants who included a rather sinister ex-convict, an eccentric artist, and a woman who later Gerry realised was probably a prostitute. Age five, Gerry went to Kingsgate Infants School. His mother would see him across West End Lane, then he walked by himself down Cotleigh Road to the school. He said he hated the afternoon rest period when the children were forced to ...