History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

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Sean Connery in Kilburn and West Hampstead

Sean Connery, 1980 Edinburgh On his dad’s side, Sean, or as his birth certificate records ‘Thomas’ Connery, had Irish roots. His dad Joe was a jobbing labourer in Edinburgh who married Effie Maclean in 1928. Thomas (Tommy) was born two years later in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh’s industrial district, where the grime and smoke had gained it the nickname, Auld Reekie . There wasn’t much money and Tommy had a tough childhood. He got his first job when he was nine years old; helping on a milk round before school, with an evening shift as well at a butcher’s. He was a physically strong kid, fit and good at sport, but he was restless, and keen to leave Fountainbridge behind. So, he joined the navy when he was seventeen. Although he signed up for seven year’s active service he was invalided out in 1949, suffering from duodenal ulcers. Back in Edinburgh, Connery took up a British Legion scholarship and trained as a French polisher. He was a seriously good footballer and at o...

The Neasden ‘Horse Whisperer’, Professor Galvayne

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...

The Mad Cyclist of Cricklewood

This is a strange story from 1909. On the afternoon of 9 September, seventeen year old Percy Day who worked locally as a clerk for the Midland Railway, was walking with three friends along the Edgware Road in Cricklewood. They were chatting about football and had just reached the junction with Oxgate Lane (near today’s Wing Yip Chinese superstore) when a cyclist passed them. A cyclist from the 1900s (Getty Images) He got off his bike, reached into his jacket pocket pulled out a revolver and without warning, fired at the men hitting Percy in the arm. The assailant got back on his bike and cycled off rapidly in the direction of Cricklewood. Fortunately, Percy was not badly wounded and jumped on one of the new electric trams and pursued the cyclist. Cricklewood tram c.1906 When they reached The Crown Cricklewood, the conductor told a policeman on point duty what had happened. Percy and the PC boarded a motor bus and chased after the cyclist, overtaking him in Kilburn and arresting ...

Lillie Miers 'Queen of the Shoplifters'

Elizabeth (Lillie) Miers was born in 1872, the daughter of Joseph Miers and Cecilia Levy. They had married in January 1868 and lived at 47 Oxford Road Kilburn, where they had six children. But the marriage was not successful and they divorced in 1883. The divorce papers said that since December 1882, Cecilia had committed adultery with Alfred Nathan and cohabited with him since January the following year. Nathan was a teacher of modern languages and by 1891 he and Cecilia were living in Staines with two children. Ten years later Joseph Miers was living with three of his daughters at 18 Summerfield Avenue in Queens Park. He was a wholesale clothier with an office in the City, and Lillie worked for her father as a commercial traveller. When she became 21, she had invested £300 in his company, but later the business failed and Joseph went bankrupt. On 15 September 1901 he committed suicide by taking poison in his office at 56 City Road and died in St Bartholomew Hospital. Lillie was devas...

Willesden Paddocks, From Horses to Tanks

This was a famous stud farm run by the Tattersall family who today are still one of the leading sellers of thoroughbred racehorses. It was part of Upper Oxgate which was off the Edgware Road beyond Cricklewood at the corner of today’s Oxgate Lane. In 1838 the Duke of Buckingham sold 96 acres of the Roberts estate to Edmund Tattersall. He carried out an extensive building conversion of the old houses on the property, some dating back as far as 1670, to create his stud farm. The illustration of the property is by George Tattersall, a talented artist member of the family, from his book on ‘Sporting Architecture’ (1841). Wealthy racehorse owners could send their mares to Willesden Paddocks for 12 shillings a week to be ‘covered’ by resident stallions at the stud: the fee in 1853 was 15 guineas. This area on the outskirts of London was popular for horse breeding and there was another stud farm at Neasden. Willesden Paddocks, George Tattersall, 1841 ‘Voltigeur’ and Sir Edwin Landseer ...