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 ...

In 1905 the Wesleyan Methodists erected a corrugated iron church in Neasden Lane on the corner with Verney Street.    OS Map of 1912 showing the position of the iron church in Neasden Lane These could be bought as kits, and many were used as a temporary meeting place by the local congregation until money could be raised to build a permanent brick building. A major supplier was Humphreys Ltd who made churches, hospitals and other iron buildings.    Humphreys advert from 1902 In 1928 the lease on the land expired and the Wesleyans were offered a site on the eastern side of the newly-built North Circular Road. A contractor said he could move the intact church the short distance of a quarter of the mile along Neasden Lane and six men worked for a week preparing runners under the building.  On Wednesday 27 March 1928 it was towed by motor lorry towards the North Circular but it had only travelled a short distance when the church partly collapsed, slipped off the runn...

Graham Young was born on 7 September 1947 in Neasden Hospital. Sadly his mother died from tuberculosis when he was about three months old and his father Fred was unable to cope with Graham and his eight-year-old sister. For now, Graham went to live with his aunt and uncle, and Winifred was sent to her grandparents. All the extended family lived near each other in Links Road, Dawpool Road and the North Circular Road.  Fred Young worked as a machine setter at Smiths Industries in Cricklewood, and he met his second wife there. In 1950 Fred married Gwendolyn (Molly) Petley and the family was reunited at 768 North Circular Road, opposite the Welsh Harp. Although things seemed alright on the surface, Graham hated his stepmother Molly, who often left him alone outside while she played the accordion in pubs. Google Map showing 768 North Circular Road 768 North Circular Road   Graham as a young boy Graham was a plump young boy and his family called him ‘Pudding’ much to his dislik...

While researching our next book, Marianne discovered an interesting and mysterious woman who lived in Neasden for a short time. Gloria de Casares was described as, 'strikingly beautiful, with deep blue eyes, auburn hair and an exceptional figure'.  She was a woman who enjoyed the good things in life. Her husband Emilio Roberto Casares was the wealthy son of Emilio Narciso Casares, an even wealthier Argentinian businessman. Narciso was the first Argentinian merchant to set up a London office to trade livestock and frozen meat between the Argentine and England.   On 18 June 1917 Gloria and Emilio were married at the Marylebone Registrar’s Office, and the couple shared an expensive home at 16 York Terrace, overlooking Regent’s Park. This was their London address, as they also leased Bucknalls, a large, 14-bedroom mansion in Watford .   Built in 1855 and later extended, the house stood in extensive grounds. There were a series of dinners and dances at home and in town, and we...

During our work on a new book for the Willesden Local History Society, we found that Sydney Galvayne, and son Frederick were living at the Model Farm, Neasden in 1891. 1894 OS Map showing site of the Model Farm in Neasden (Marked X) Sydney was shown in the census as a horse farmer and his son Frederick was described as a Professor of Horsemanship. In 1891 they advertised as ‘Galvayne and Son, The Model Farm and Horse Depot Neasden’ with 70 large horse boxes. This was intriguing as Neasden was still a remote village and the Galvaynes were born in Australia. Sydney first appears in the online newspapers at the end of November 1884 as Professor Galvayne ‘the celebrated Australian scientific horse trainer’. He was opening his first school at the Corn Exchange in York and giving demonstrations of how to break previously difficult horses of the local gentry to harness in a few minutes. In his ‘Galvayning’ method a string from a strap on the the horse’s head was tied to its tail causing i...