History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

In June 1905, Grace Hawthorne starred in the title role of the play ‘Josephine’ at the Kilburn Empire. Born in America as Priscilla Cartland, she was discovered by manager William W Kelly who brought her to London in 1886 and gave her the stage name of Grace Hawthorne. Known to his colleagues as ‘Hustler’ Kelly, he made sure Grace was the first American actress to take the capital by storm. They were very successful with a play called ‘A Royal Divorce’. This about Napoleon and the Empress Josephine and was performed across the country for many years from 1891. With help from Kelly, Grace became the lessee of the Princess's Theatre in Oxford Street and several other theatres but ran into financial difficulties. She wore extravagant costumes which cost £1,500 and had run up debts of £14,000 when she went bankrupt. Grace and Kelly ended their professional partnership, but William continued touring ‘A Royal Divorce’ with his wife Edith Cole playing the role of Josephine.  The actor Joh...

This is the extraordinary story of a KGB officer who defected in London. It is mainly about the Russian spy, with a short account about what little is known about his agent who lived in Cricklewood. Most of his files at the National Archives have not been released, but Christopher Andrew who wrote the authorized history of the MI5, provided some details of the case in his book ‘The Defence of the Realm’. Books by Nigel West and others, as well as newspaper articles, have been used to piece the story together which sounds like something straight out of a spy novel. The Trigger On 30 August 1971, at 1.30 in the morning, PC Charles Shearer and PC George Paterson were on duty in a police panda car. When they came into the Tottenham Court Road, they saw a Hillman car in front of them which did not have its lights on and was being driven erratically. They decided to follow and pulled the car over in a side street near Warren Street Tube station.  The driver was quite belligerent when he ...

This is a story about two terrorists in the 1970s and the West Hampstead policeman who was involved in both cases.   PC Bob Brown Born in Croydon, Bob Brown joined the Met in 1969 and was stationed at West Hampstead for 15 years. During this time, he was regularly involved in the policing of the annual Notting Hill Carnival and the experience he derived from these large scale urban policing events served him well during the Brixton Riots in 1981.  Although local crime was the mainstay of PC Brown’s daily brief, he also took part in two cases of international terrorism while serving at West Hampstead police station. They had moved from West End Lane to a new building in Fortune Green Road in 1972. Astrid Proll Anna Puttick had been working for ten months at the Finchley Road Garage, when on 15 September 1978 she was arrested by Special Branch, supported by West Hampstead police officers including PC Brown. The garage at 265b Finchley Road, which has since been demolished, was ...