The beast discovered
‘I was the first one to see it and I was very frightened because I couldn’t believe how big it was. I thought it was a leopard or something. It was the size of an Alsatian and about 4ft away from me’.
On a Friday morning in May 2001, cleaner Carol Montague went to the home of Alan and Charlotte Newman in Hocroft Road (not the nearby Hocroft Avenue as generally reported), off the Hendon Way. It was her regular job, but it turned out to be far from an ordinary day, after she spotted the animal in their back garden. She immediately rang the police who didn’t take her seriously. But when she persisted, two policemen showed up and were startled to find what turned out to be a lynx on the Newman’s patio.
Down the years in the UK, there have been and continue to be, many reports and photos, of what were described as large cats roaming the countryside. But few have ever been caught. The Hertfordshire area had some sightings in the 1990s, mostly in wooded areas. Then in 1998 residents in Potters Bar and South Mimms were asked to stay indoors, as police looked for what appeared to be a puma with a black tip to its tail, that was roaming the streets. Dubbed ‘the Beast of Barnet’, no trace was ever found, despite a helicopter and extensive ground search. Some sources say this and the Cricklewood creature were one and the same; pure conjecture but it seems highly unlikely the spotted Hocroft lynx and the uncaptured Barnet sandy-coloured ‘puma’ were one and the same animal.
The Cricklewood chase
Armed police officers, London Zoo staff, a vet and RSPCA team responded to urgent phone calls from the alarmed PCs at Hocroft Road, who realized they had a serious and probably dangerous situation to deal with.
Charlotte Newman was most concerned about making certain their bull terrier was safely locked indoors. Her husband Al Newman, was a jazz sax player who worked on sessions with The Rolling Stones and The Beatles and many other artists. He told the press that attempts to catch the lynx reminded him of scenes from a ‘Keystone Cops’ movie. By midday there were about 20 people on the job but attempts to coax it into a cage, capture it using a net or a loop on a pole all failed. Finally, the lynx was shot with a tranquilizer dart, but the vet didn’t have a clear view and failed to sedate the animal. Angry rather than drowsy, it jumped over the rear garden fence into a private sports/tennis court area behind Hocroft Road. From there it went down an alleyway and onto Farm Avenue. It made a final dash for freedom across the road, when it narrowly missed being hit by a van.
‘The Cricklewood Beast is caught’
The van driver Mr Murphy joined the pursuing policemen and eventually the lynx was trapped in the stairwell of a block of flats on the corner of Cricklewood Lane. He said:
‘When I saw it cornered, pacing up and down and growling, that was enough for me. There is no doubt this was a wild and dangerous animal’.
A second dart found its target but according to Alan Newman’s daughter Leora, ‘they were waiting for it to calm down because it was a bit feisty. Finally, they threw a net over it’.
London Zoo
The lynx was crated and driven to London Zoo. Examination showed it to be a young female European lynx, fully grown: ‘it seems fine apart from being a little thin with a slight lameness in its left hind leg’. The Zoo named her Lara.
Where did the lynx come from?
That question was never resolved. At the time, the RSPCA said a dangerous wild animal license was needed to keep a lynx like Lara and these were only issued to wildlife parks and zoos. ‘We believe someone was keeping this animal illegally and it has escaped’. But no one came forward to give information or claim ownership. More recently the opinion has been expressed that it had been living in a house on the Hocroft estate (a larger area that included Hocroft Road) where it occasionally escaped and roamed the back gardens. Given no other record of local sightings, this seems unlikely.
Lara’s life and death in France
Lara was the only lynx at London Zoo and when fully recovered, she was exhibited to the public, but only for short periods as she was very shy.
Officials also set about trying to find Lara a mate. They tested her to discover if she was a pure-bred European lynx: ‘If her genetic make-up shows that she is, then a more suitable home will be found for her so she can be used for breeding purposes’.
Such a programme existed on the Continent and a positive result resulted in Lara’s transfer to France, to a new home in the Amnenville Parc Zoologique du Bois du Coulange near Metz. There Lara gave birth to many cubs that were sent to zoos in Spain, Germany, Wales and even as far afield as Nashville. Sadly, Lara suffered from back problems which the Parc Zoologique director believed to be the result of an accident during her life in England. In more and more pain as she grew older, reluctantly Lara was put down in 2009.
The Kilburn connection
This isn’t the first lynx we’ve encountered in our historical ramblings. In the 1920s, John Spedan Lewis (of the John Lewis chain of shops fame), kept them in a cage at the end of his tennis court in Kilburn. This formed part of the extensive grounds surrounding his large house on what is now Mortimer Place.
Recent reprise
In 2023 an artwork was unveiled in Claremont Park, off Claremont Road. Its creator Steven Wilson was inspired by stories, personalities and histories from the Brent Cross neighbourhood. The abstract head of the ‘Beast of Barnet’ (or more accurately Cricklewood), is not immediately obvious, but emerges the longer you look at the collage. It is below and to the left of the Smith’s Clock.
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