History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

For many manual workers, life in Victorian London was a mean, hard grind. There wasn’t much relief from the daily routine of work and making enough money to survive. South of Canterbury Road as far as Carlton Vale, many Kilburn streets were lined with terrace houses rented out room by room and occupied by several families. It was a poor, deprived district, and the temporary blurring of reality that alcohol provided was a popular way to forget your problems. But drink too heavily and there could be trouble.  A Troublesome Woman and a Brute of a Husband This neighbourhood and nearby Kilburn High Road were well populated with public houses that were much frequented by locals. If the weather permitted, you left your cramped room and went on the street, adults and kids alike, with the pub an important focus of social life.  Fights in and outside these establishments have featured in several of our blog stories, but this time we are concentrating on just one couple, Richard and Ann ...

The Old Bull and Bush is a Hampstead pub on the North End Way about halfway between Jack Straw’s Castle at the top of the hill and Golders Green in the opposite direction. It was made famous in an Edwardian music hall song by Florrie Forde, ‘Down at the Old Bull and Bush’ which can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZlkScbpwbg Rather oddly the publican kept monkeys in a cage in his garden. On the afternoon of Friday, 19 August 1898, two escaped and stayed hidden on Hampstead Heath until noon the following Sunday, when they were spotted by some boys who threw stones at them. The monkeys jabbered and made faces at their assailants, swinging from tree to tree easily eluding anyone who climbed after them, tempted by the cash reward for their capture.   On Monday, the monkeys gave themselves up and returned to the Bull and Bush, ‘forlorn, dirty-looking, and evidently very miserable’. But within days they not only escaped again but took two more monkeys with them. The four e...

While West Hampstead had far fewer public houses than Kilburn and they were generally well run, there was always the potential for alcohol to cause trouble. The Railway Hotel on the corner of Broadhurst Gardens and West End Lane was owned and opened in 1881 by Richard Pincham. It was a large and popular venue offering accommodation as well as food and drink.  Around 10.30pm on 8 September 1897, James William Woledge and Henry Hiscocks were in the pub. It appeared the two men knew each other and began to argue, which prompted the barman to leap over the bar and eject them. Outside a fight erupted and Woledge fell to the ground, hitting his head hard on the pavement. Descriptions of what led up to the fight outside the Railway Hotel differ between witnesses. 33-year-old plumber James Woledge had lived with his wife Mary near Camden Town, before moving to 73 Broomsleigh Street off Mill Lane. At the inquest, his friend John Cook said he’d gone to the pub with James and no sooner had th...

The Gas Works   In 1869 the Childs Hill Gas works was built off Cricklewood Lane at the Childs Hill end of the road. Over time, they provided gas to homes and businesses across an area from The Hyde Edgware to Golders Green, including Cricklewood and parts of Kilburn. The name of the gas works changed several times as they expanded their coverage. The proprietor, Henry Skoines, a gas engineer, advertised his improved and patented method of producing gas in 1873 which was in use in Tenby and his own Kilburn and Cricklewood Gas Co. Shares were issued for his Coal Economy Gas Co. in Nov 1873. In early 1876, the Midland Railway built their own gas works at Hendon to supply gas to their stations from Hendon to St Pancras. So Skoines lost his main contract. In May 1877 he sold the 10 miles of mains and meters for £3,750 (today worth about £380,000) to the very large Gas Light and Coke Co. which supplied gas to most of London.  Clarkes Patent Pyramid and Fairy Lamp At the same time C...

The scene of the crime Rupert Road ran between Canterbury Road and Carlton Vale in south Kilburn. It’s still on the map but no original properties have survived. Number 2 was a terraced house, its rooms occupied by several families. In all, an amazing total of 23 persons were shown living there on census night in 1881, a similar number to other properties in the road. OS Map 1915, showing Rupert Road, Kilburn On 22 March 1881, Ann Moulford and her husband Charles were woken at 2.30am by loud screams of ‘Murder’ from the next room. Reluctantly Charles got up and knocked on his neighbours’ door, the home of John and Eliza Wegener and their two children. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked. John’s reply was ‘Nothing much.’ Charles asked for the door to be opened and when he was told to go away, he broke it open, and saw John and his two children. Ann Moulford followed her husband into the room, and while Charles watched John, she helped Eliza Wegener who was standing near the window into a cha...

          Gaetano Meo (copyright Tom Gordon-Craig) Looking at this photograph of Gaetano Meo, it may come as a surprise to learn that as a young man he was a favourite model of London’s leading Pre-Raphaelite painters. We first encountered him when researching ‘The Good Grave Guide to Hampstead Cemetery’, where he is buried. This is the story of his life in London, and the lives and loves of some of his family members.   From Italy to London Around 1865, Gaetano arrived in London as an illegal immigrant, smuggled into the country aboard a freighter from France. He was born on 15 December 1849 in southern Italy, to Rocco and Francesca Meo. Tradition has it that all the Meo family were musicians, including Gaetano who played the harp. An alternative but less credible version (given we know most family members did play instruments well), claims Gaetano was sold by his cash-strapped parents to gypsies, who taught him to play.  Gaetano left Italy in M...

                                          Frank Vosper Frank Vosper was born in December 1899, just two weeks before the turn of the century. He was born at 24 Gondar Gardens in West Hampstead – the house where Nobel prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing lived for more than 30 years before her death in 2013.  Vosper’s father Percy was a surgeon at Kings College Hospital, having come from Plympton in Devon to study medicine in London. In 1894, Percy married Blanche Permain, whose father was a fine art dealer and they had moved to Gondar Gardens at the end of 1896.  Frank would have had a comfortable upbringing, yet the story of his premature death at just 36 would have made as good a film as any he might have acted in, with a cast list that included Ernest Hemingway and Miss Great Britain.                  ...