History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

‘A Jersey Lily’ by John Everett Millais, 1878 Lillie Langtry, known as the ‘Jersey Lily’, was a mistress of Bertie the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII. It is widely believed that she lived in South Hampstead and today her name is remembered by Langtry Road which runs off Kilburn Priory, Langtry Walk in the Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate, and the Lillie Langtry pub at 121 Abbey Road, on the corner with Belsize Road. The Lillie Langtry was built in 1969 to replace a demolished Victorian pub, The Princess of Wales, named in honour of Alexandra, Edward’s wife. In 2007 it was briefly called The Cricketers before the name reverted to The Lillie Langtry in 2011. Lillie Langtry’s address is given as Leighton House, 103 Alexandra Road which is now demolished and lies under the Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate. It was thought that Bertie visited her there during their affair which lasted from about June 1877 to June 1880. The dates are approximate as there is little evidence of...

In 1915 The Foreign Office were contacted by the British Consul General in Barcelona about a poor boy in Granollers near Barcelona, who had received an advertisement written in Spanish, from an astrologer called Professor Zazra shown in a turban and Indian dress, requesting money for a horoscope. A resident of Granollers forwarded the advertisement to the Consul General and asked for action to be taken against Prof. Zazra.  The Foreign Office in London took the matter seriously and raised the complaint with the Home Office who asked Scotland Yard to investigate. This advert by Prof. Zazra appeared in numerous newspapers. The police went to 90 New Bond Street and found that Zazra, ‘The Chief Mystic of the Hindu School of Predication’, was an Englishman called Arthur Drew Clifton. They warned him that unless he stopped advertising, he would be prosecuted under the Vagrancy Act (1824). The police described him as a very shrewd man and one not easily scared, but he complied (for a time...

On 3 September 1939 the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced on the radio that Britain was now at war with Germany . People expected air raids, but nothing happened until the Blitz began in September 1940. This was the period that came to be known as the ‘phoney war’, but while Britain waited there was considerable public concern and rumours about German spies. A German Spy Ring On the 30 Sept 1939 , 27 year old Wilfred Ronald Ward who lived with his parents at 187 Heathfield Road , Handsworth, appeared at the Birmingham Police Court. He was charged with demanding £500 from a man, never named but referred to as ‘Mr X’ throughout the proceedings. Unless the money was paid, Wilfred had threatened to expose Mr X as a German spy. Mr X had received a letter on 5 September signed by ‘Jim Rickards’ and had gone to the police. They had listened in when Ward, using the name Rickards, telephoned and repeated the threat but Mr X had lost his temper and the call was ended...