History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

George Hibberd was born in Upper Cleveland Street Marylebone in 1833 and became a carpenter like his father. He joined the Navy as a carpenter in 1851 and fought in the Crimean War of 1853 to 1856 between Russia and the allies of England, Turkey and France. George served on the 120-gun, three-deck battleship HMS Trafalgar from July 1851 to April 1855 and the 14-gun floating battery HMS Meteor from 1855 to May 1856. He was awarded two Crimean medals, one from England and one from Turkey. After he returned home, he married Lucy Hutson Hope in March 1858 and they had eight children, including a daughter Lucy who was born in 1869. In the 1870s they lived at 2 Peel Road Kilburn. The Salvation Army worked in the poor areas of Kilburn. They recognised the value of music in promoting the gospel and recruited and trained people to form bands. Popular tunes were adapted so that ‘Way down upon the Swanee River’ became ‘Joy, freedom, peace and ceaseless blessing’. They used a mission hall in Pembr...

The Cake Walk was a fairground machine invented in Warrington by Samual Plinston and his brother Frederick and patented in July 1907 by Walter Taylor from New Brighton Wallasey. It consisted of two walkways with handrails which fairgoers used as they tried to maintain their balance while the platform, powered by a steam machine, pitched and tossed. The first ride was built near Birkenhead and after being shown at venues in Cheshire, it was a great success at the Hamburg Fair in December 1908. The idea proved popular, and Cake Walks were operated in Earl’s Court, Crystal Place, Blackpool and Weston Super Mare.  The original machine from an advert in Billboard 9 Sept 1908 A limited company was set up in April 1910 with £5,000 in 10-shilling shares and an office at 94 Farncombe Street Bermondsey. The same year a factory was opened at the Kingsley Works, Grange Road Willesden Green. In 1911 the Plinston brothers were living nearby at 6 Lewington House, 150 Chapter Road.  Kingsley ...

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...

John (Jack) Lemon Burton was born in 1911, the son of engineer John Lemon Burton senior whose unusual middle name came from his mother Charlotte Lemon. At the time of Jack’s birth John senior was living in 27 Hopefield Avenue Brondesbury but then moved several times before settling at 17 Cavendish Road Kilburn in 1930 where he died in 1954.  17 Cavendish Road in 2012 Jack in the garden with his home-made pedal car As a teenager, Jack sometimes drove his father’s car, and to hide his age, wore his father’s bowler hat while his father sat beside him wearing Jack’s Kilburn Grammar school cap. Jack was fascinated by Bugattis, and bought his first when he was aged 16. Later his father bought Jack the blue Type 37A which Sir Malcolm Campbell (the world land speed record holder) had driven in competition. Jack began racing Bugattis in Brookwood and broke the lap record in 1939.  Malcolm Campbell’s Bugatti owned by Jack Lemon Burton In 1927 with help from his father, Jack established ...

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...

This the story of a 1950s swindle to get money from young couples desperate to buy their own homes. The brains of the scheme lived in West Hampstead, Kilburn and Willesden. On 11 September 1956, five men appeared at the Old Bailey charged with fraud. They were William Frederick Montgomery (46) a clerical assistant of 2a Riffel Road Willesden, John Frederick Attenborough (54) the company negotiator of Albion Street Dunstable, Herbert Henry Skelly (35) master builder of Manor Road Dagenham, Richard Neel (46) travel agent of Beckenham Road Beckenham, and Ernest Rea (79) the company director of Katherine Road East Ham. They were charged with conspiring together between February 1953 and January 1955, to defraud people to buy a home from the Harmsworth Building and Construction Company Ltd. 120 prospective buyers paid deposits totalling £23,184 (today worth about £870,000), for homes that were never built. All five men pleaded ‘not guilty’. Deposits were not returned, and the company went t...