History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

The recent commemoration of the centenary of the First World War has focused many people’s thoughts on the service men and women who fought, died and survived the conflict. But millions of animals and birds also died alongside the troops. The memorial to ‘Animals in War’ in Park Lane was unveiled on 24 November 2004. An inscription reads, ‘They had no choice.’ However, Kilburn is home to a much earlier memorial to the nation’s service animals.  The Kilburn Clinic at 10 Cambridge Avenue (Dick Weindling)   H orses, dogs and donkeys were the most commonly used animals – mainly for transport and haulage, but camels, elephants, pigeons, bullocks, dogs and goats were all pressed into service. They suffered from exposure, lack of food and disease, dying alongside their human companions. The Park Lane memorial was the fulfilment of an idea that dates as far back as the early 1920s when the RSPCA proposed a memorial for animals that had served in WWI. A commi...

This is a short piece following our recent story about Zeppelins (scroll down to see the previous story). During WWI when the Germans stopped their Zeppelin raids in 1917, they continued to attack London using Gotha heavy bombers. German Gotha Bomber In the raid on the 28/29 January 1918, Gotha GV 938/16 approaching from the north, commenced its attack shortly before 10.00pm and dropped three bombs along Belsize Road close to the railway line. Two people were killed and two others were injured. 118 houses were damaged. The Princess of Wales pub at No.121 Abbey Road on the corner with Belsize Road , (today the site of the Lillie Langtry pub), was wrecked. Robert Hill, the landlord since 1911, survived the attack. When the pub was repaired he continued there for another 10 years, until his son took over. Princess of Wales pub in the 1890s (Marianne Colloms) Three more bombs from the Gotha landed in St George’s Road (today’s Priory Terrace), Mortimer R...

During WWI the Germans began Zeppelin airship attacks in 1915. Because they had never seen anything like it, people came out to stare in wonder at these huge flying machines, but they soon became more cautious as the bombs started to fall.   Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (1838 -1917) On the 19 October 1917 a group of 13 airships left Germany to attack the Northern industrial cities of Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield. Climbing to 16,000 feet they encountered extremely strong winds which forced them off course and made it very difficult for the commanders to establish their position. Lt. Waldemar Kolle was in L.45 aiming for Sheffield, but he found he was being blown rapidly south. He dropped a number of bombs on Northampton, but around 23.30 the crew saw a large number of lights and realised they were over London. Kolle dropped several bombs which damaged the Grahame-White Aviation Company in Hendon. Continuing south-east, he dropped further bombs which landed near C...