History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Cyril Stapleton was a famous band leader who from about 1957 to 1965 lived at Flat 157 Cholmley Gardens in West Hampstead.  Here he is with his wife Sheila and their three young children in Cholmley Gardens in 1957. Later he moved to 6 Meadowbank, Primrose Hill where he died aged 59 on 19 June 1974, leaving £31,741.     Horace Cyril Stapleton was born in December 1914 in Mapperley, Nottingham. A talented boy, he began learning the violin from the age of seven, and when only 12 years old he made his first broadcast from the local Nottingham radio station. To improve his technique, Cyril went to Czechoslovakia to study under Sevcik, the famous teacher of the violin. Cyril’s early professional career found him playing in the pit orchestra of a cinema to accompany silent films. At 17 he won a scholarship to Trinity College of Music in London, and while there saw a newspaper report that Henry Hall was forming a dance band at the BBC. He passed the audition and started playing ...

In December 1942 William Lilley and his business manager Arthur Richards, were refused a licence by the LCC to run their new treatment centre in Bulstrode Street Marylebone. Despite this ruling and losing an appeal in January 1943, the clinic continued there until 1948. At the time Lilley was living at 142 Cholmley Gardens in Mill Lane.   William Henry Lilley He was a well-known spiritual healer who had been born in Oulton, a village on the outskirts of Leeds in 1914. When he was ten , his mother Sarah (Sally) Ellen took him to a monthly spiritualist meeting held in room above a pub in the neighbouring village of Kippax. Here he was taken over by his control White Hawk and began speaking in a strange voice. After a few more sessions William began holding regular spiritual healing meetings at his home, now controlled by an Indian called Dr Letari. In 1930 William was employed at the Yorkshire Copper Works in Leeds when he met seamstress Nancy Overton. They married in 1...