Created on the River Brent with its tributary the Silk Stream to provide water for the Grand Union and Regent C anals , the Brent Reservoir in northwest London is familiarly known as the Welsh Harp, after the nearby Old Welsh Harp coaching inn. For many years, the water was close to and easily accessible from the Edgware Road or the surrounding fields. The reservoir became a popular destination for Londoners, who went to enjoy the many attractions it had to offer. Early pedestrians walked along the main road and visitor numbers increased as bus, tram and train services were all laid on. Their first destination was often the pub at the edge of the reservoir. The heyday of the Old Wesh Harp was in the mid-nineteenth century under the stewardship of enterprising landlord William Perkins Warner. He used both the pub grounds and the waters of the reservoir to stage a huge variety of entertainments. In season, fishing was particularly popular, but bathing, boating and ice skating were all on...
Amazingly, there were two murders where the bodies were hidden in trunks in Willesden. In March 1904 George Crossman left a body in a tin trunk in Kensal Rise. Then in January the following year, Arthur Devereux in a copycat murder tried the same method to dispose of a body in Harlesden. The George Crossman case In 1904, 30-year old George Crossman was living at No.43 Ladysmith Road, near the corner of Dundonald Road Kensal Rise, paying rent of £3 15 shillings a month. He shared the house with his wife and a young son Bertie. Crossman was well-dressed, handsome with dark piercing eyes, a fashionable drooping moustache and thick black hair. He was seen in the neighbourhood smoking cigars and taking seven-year-old Bertie for walks. In Christmas 1903, to save money he moved upstairs and sublet the lower part of the house to William Delf, a shirt manufacturer, and his wife. Almost immediately they complained of a terrible smell coming from a tin trunk in a cupboard under ...