History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

ITV has just finished showing a dramatization of the horrific murders at White House Farm in Essex. In August 1985 the police were called to the remote farm near Tolleshunt D’Arcy and found that Nevill and June Bamber, their adopted daughter Sheila Bamber and her six-years old twin boys Daniel and Nicholas Cafell, had all been shot and killed. At first it was believed to be a case of murder-suicide: that Sheila who was suffering from schizophrenia, had killed her parents and children and then shot herself. But latter suspicion turned to Jeremy Bamber, the adopted son, and in October 1986 he was convicted of the murders. He is currently serving a life sentence in Wakefield Prison and still protesting his innocence. The excellent TV series is based on two books: In Search of the Rainbow’s End by Colin Caffell, and The Murders at White House Farm by Carol Ann Lee. Here we concentrate on the Kilburn, West Hampstead and other local links to the story. For more information se...

After several years of research, and with the technical expertise of Adrian Hindle-Briscall, we have published two unique and free online maps. One map covers the studios, record companies, record shops and clubs in North West London from Finchley Road, through West Hampstead, Kilburn, Willesden and Harlesden. The other looks at the musicians, producers and managers who lived the area.  Screen shot of Map 1 Map 1 includes the well-known Decca Studios in West Hampstead as well as the now unknown site of the Edison National Phonographic Company. Did you know about Master Rock studios in Kilburn High Road where many famous bands made records? This area also had Island, Trojan and Zomba Record companies. There were Irish clubs like the Banba in Kilburn, the Purple Pussycat disco in Finchley Road, and music venues such as the popular Gaumont State, The National, the Mean Fiddler and today’s The Fiddler. Map 2 shows the homes of three of the Rolling Stones; Mick Jagge...

This was the Coroner’s opinion of David Miller, who had failed to help his lodger rescue two of her young children from a fierce fire that gutted 90 Willesden Lane. The blaze was discovered shortly before 2pm on Friday 19 June 1908. No. 90 still stands, in a parade of three-storey shops with flats above, between Torbay Road and Callcott Road. In 1908 it was occupied by David who ran his tailoring business on the ground floor. He occupied the basement and first floor, while Annie and Alfred Reid paid Miller a weekly rent of 6 shillings and 6d for the rooms on the second floor. 90 Willesden Lane today (Dick Weindling, 2020) David Miller’s father Abraham was born in Poland and came to England in the 1870s. He was a tailor living in Mile End in 1881 with his wife and five children; David was the youngest, just four months old, born in or near Spitalfields. Abraham Miller had moved to 90 Willesden Lane by 1899, when he advertised his business in the local paper, offering a var...