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/      

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...