History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

This is the story of a Brondesbury resident who for many years enjoyed a respectable and prosperous lifestyle but was eventually beset by financial problems that led to bankruptcy and drove him to crime.   City trading – prosperity and problems   Leon Tauber was born in Lithuania around 1870, where he married and had two sons Solomon Sidney (b. about 1891) and Samuel (b.1892). We don’t know when Leon and his family moved to England, probably around 1900, and he became a naturalised citizen in 1905. He made a lot of money working as a lace and embroidery merchant in the Houndsditch area where he was a well-known and respected businessman. The Tauber family moved into Fern Brae, 5 Brondesbury Park in 1910; previously Leon had been living in Houndsditch. Leon was absent on census night the following year, when his wife and their two sons described themselves as wholesale lace manufacturers. We know all the family were involved in the business. In November 1913 the property was f...

Created on the River Brent with its tributary the Silk Stream to provide water for the Grand Union and Regent C anals , the Brent Reservoir in northwest London is familiarly known as the Welsh Harp, after the nearby Old Welsh Harp coaching inn. For many years, the water was close to and easily accessible from the Edgware Road or the surrounding fields. The reservoir became a popular destination for Londoners, who went to enjoy the many attractions it had to offer. Early pedestrians walked along the main road and visitor numbers increased as bus, tram and train services were all laid on. Their first destination was often the pub at the edge of the reservoir. The heyday of the Old Wesh Harp was in the mid-nineteenth century under the stewardship of enterprising landlord William Perkins Warner. He used both the pub grounds and the waters of the reservoir to stage a huge variety of entertainments. In season, fishing was particularly popular, but bathing, boating and ice skating were all on...

  Amazingly, there were two murders where the bodies were hidden in trunks in Willesden. In March 1904 George Crossman left a body in a tin trunk in Kensal Rise. Then in January the following year, Arthur Devereux in a copycat murder tried the same method to dispose of a body in Harlesden.  The George Crossman case In 1904, 30-year old George Crossman was living at No.43 Ladysmith Road, near the corner of Dundonald Road Kensal Rise, paying rent of £3 15 shillings a month. He shared the house with his wife and a young son Bertie. Crossman was well-dressed, handsome with dark piercing eyes, a fashionable drooping moustache and thick black hair. He was seen in the neighbourhood smoking cigars and taking seven-year-old Bertie for walks.  In Christmas 1903, to save money he moved upstairs and sublet the lower part of the house to William Delf, a shirt manufacturer, and his wife. Almost immediately they complained of a terrible smell coming from a tin trunk in a cupboard under ...

In the late 1920s and early 30s there were a large number of suspicious fires in business premises and claims for insurance. This is the extraordinary story of how one man solved the fraud cases and brought the gang of fire starters to trial. Like all good stories we have a hero William Charles Crocker, and a villain Leopold Harris.    William Charles Crocker     Leopold Harris In April 1926 there was a meeting between Louis Jarvis and Italian-born Camillo ‘Cappa’ Capsoni, who was an agent for Continental Silks. One of his customers, Jarvis who lived in Deerhurst Road off Willesden Lane, told him he had just had a fire at his premises in 14 Margaret Street Marylebone. Cappa who had flat in the same street, said he was very sorry to hear it, but Jarvis did not seem at all put out, and with a broad grin, said he had received £21,500 (today worth about £1.7M) from the insurance claim. Cappa saw that with the right backers he could make money. The following year, he...