History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

In the summer of 1905, Mrs Treadwell the wife of a plumber at 74 Granville Road South Kilburn, packed some sandwiches for her ten year old daughter Ethel and eight year son old William, who were going out to play in a local park. They left their house and met up with eight other children all aged between six and ten who lived in the same poor part of Kilburn.  Instead of going to the park they decided to play on the grass in front of Brondesbury Park Mansions, a small block of flats at 132 Salusbury Road. Brondesbury Park Mansions, Salusbury Road today. It was a hot day and they were thirsty, so they knocked on the door of flat No.9 to ask for a drink of water, but there was no one home. Then led by ten year old James Wilkins, they broke a window at the back of the house and climbed in. They went into the kitchen and found a large cake and some bacon which they ate. Then they consumed the whisky in a decanter. In a bedroom they found jewelry and a wardrobe full of clothes. After th...

This the story of a 1916 murder, but it is a very sad case. Mathilde Curtis was a nursery governess aged 35, and her sister Ellen was a music teacher aged 32. They were staying with their aunt Ade Curtis, who was also a music teacher at 5 Finchley Road, a large house close to St John’s Wood station.  On Saturday afternoon 8 January, they had gone shopping and returned to the house just before 1.00. At lunch Ellen whispered to her aunt, ‘Auntie, I’m going to be murdered’. She left the dining room to go to the bathroom followed by Mathilde. The servants heard a thud, and Mathilde ran out of the house holding a table knife dripping with blood. She shouted, ‘Its done, she is dead’. Ellen was found lying in the bathroom with her throat cut. Inspector John Elliot of S Division arrived at the house and arrested Mathilde who was taken to Portland Town police station. She said, ‘I hope I shall be hanged. I have prayed for it for weeks. We both have. She asked me to do it. It is for the best...

This is the story of the famous artist Frank Dicksee who lived at No. 3 Greville Place from 1897 until his death in 1928. Greville Place is off the Kilburn end of Maida Vale, and the house has now been sub-divided. The unusual Dicksee family name is traced back to Frank’s grandfather Richard Cox. He and his brother John were unwillingly press-ganged into the Navy in 1807. After several miserable years at sea, they deserted and used Richard’s nickname of ‘Dick C’ to become Dicksee. They returned to Swallow Street in Soho where they worked as ‘boot closers’ making the leather uppers of shoes, hidden in the cellar under their house. They were only able to lead a normal life in 1815 when an amnesty was granted on naval deserters.  Richard’s son Thomas Francis Cox was born in 1819, and the family moved to 23 Howland Street in Bloomsbury when Swallow Street was demolished to build Regent Street. The family latter changed their name from Cox to Dicksee.  Thomas Dicksee showed an earl...

On the afternoon of 9 June 1910, 50-year old business man William Samuel Frost left his office in Bishopsgate to return to his home in Ruislip. At Baker Street station he got into an empty first-class carriage on the Metropolitan express train which did not stop between Baker Street and Kilburn. A few minutes later a man got into the carriage and sat opposite.  When the train entered a tunnel, without any warning, the man suddenly pulled out a Colt revolver and fired two shots at Frost which fortunately missed him. Frost grabbed the man and fought for his life. A third shot hit him in the chin and in the fierce struggle the gun fell to the floor. The man had opened the carriage door and Frost was able to kick the gun out of the door. He shouted for help as the man attempted to push him out of the train, and Frost tried to pull the communication cord but there wasn’t one.  As the train slowed on the approach to Swiss Cottage station, the assailant jumped out and ran back down t...

A hard and brutal life What happened to children in Victorian London who were orphaned, or whose parents couldn’t look after them? In the absence of any state care or benefit, many families had to find their own solution to this problem. As a last resort there was the Workhouse, but admission was not automatic, and came with its own strict set of rules and restrictions. Kilburn had several establishments that took in orphans, destitute and abandoned children. These Homes were financed by donations and bequests; when a donor withdrew their help, the resulting shortfall in funds had to be replaced by finding new benefactors. A Home had to appeal to the public. If this didn’t happen it closed. In this story we look at two Homes for girls that began life in the same street, Cambridge Road, (the northern stretch was later re-named Cambridge Avenue). They occupied converted houses that were adequate but not ideal for the purpose. Today, all the houses have been demolished and redeveloped....