History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Opposite Belsize Road, the ground floor of Nos.67-75 Kilburn High Road were occupied from 1956 by Raymond Way Motors. For many years there was also a smaller site with an office and garage at No.10, on the corner of Greville Road . Over time Way had other outlets in the area and a motorcycle department at No.36 Willesden Lane. Site of the Raymond Way showroom, (Dick Weindling, 2012) The famous car and motorcycle company were founded by Douglas Raymond Way (1905-1981), who came to Kilburn in 1933. He was originally based in the old Humber car repair works in Canterbury Road (previously the Saxby and Farmer railway signal factory, which has now been demolished). It was the largest used-car dealership in Europe, selling 2,000 cars and motorbikes a year. ‘Don’t delay, buy your car the Raymond Way ,’ was one of his best known slogans. The firm supplied cars for the television series Z Cars , and even had an aviation department, displaying a Piper aeroplane in the Kilburn sh...

Today there are no swimming baths in Kilburn and the nearest is at Swiss Cottage. If you are old enough you may remember the Granville Road Baths, but there were two older baths which have now been completely forgotten. One was on the Hampstead ( Camden ) side of the Kilburn High Road and the other, on the Willesden (Brent) side. The Kilburn Baths The first to open on 1 April 1868 were in a small building constructed by local builder John Cawley in Osborne Terrace, Goldsmiths Place on the Hampstead side. Today their site lies under the rear of the SO Quartier Maida Vale block at 34a-36 Kilburn High Road, near the Old Bell pub.   Advert for Kilburn Baths (c 1870) In 1870 Dr Dudgeon described the pool as follows: ‘It is 15 yards long by 6 yards wide; constructed of cement rounded off at the angles. Its depth is from 3 to 4 and a half feet. The boxes are at the entrance end, 12 in number, with three quarter doors, plainly painted buff, without mirrors. The flo...