History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Cholmley Gardens is a rectangular block of flats bordering Mill Lane, Aldred Road, Hillfield Road and Fortune Green Road.  OS Map 1950s Cholmley Lodge   The site was previously a large house set in extensive grounds, called Cholmley Lodge dating from 1813 and built for Thomas Walker who was there by January 1814. He was a senior legal officer with the title ‘Master of the Court of Chancery’.    After several other occupiers, Dr Herbert Evans rented the Lodge in 1844 and later purchased the property but only lived in West End for a few months. He had been family physician to the artist John Constable and cared for his wife Maria, who died of tuberculosis in 1828, at the family home in Well Walk, Hampstead. Constable painted the doctor’s portrait the following year. Barrister Edward Thornton lived at Cholmley Lodge from about 1847 to 1852. He did a great deal to help the West End villagers, who presented him with a written testimonial and silver inkstand as an expressi...