History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

In 1888 Jack the Ripper had terrified the East End of London with a series of gruesome murders. His story haunted people for years later and letters signed by the Ripper were still being received by the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee in October 1889. People across London were fearful. On 15 December 1884 Charles Burcham Farnell a 36-year-old commercial traveller, married 24-year-old Edith Turnor at St Peter’s C hurch in West Hackney. They lived at Church Road Hackney where their first daughter Mary Eleanor was born in 1886. Two years later they moved to Kilburn. Frederick Percy ran a tobacconist’s shop at 143 Kilburn High Road, between Glengall Road and Priory Park Road, and let out rooms above the business. In December 1888 the Farnell family moved in. A second daughter Beatrice Isabel was born the following year. At 6.00pm on Wednesday evening 28 October 1889, Mrs Percy heard moans coming from the Farnell’s rooms at the top of the house. Very concerned, she ran out into Kilburn High...

This the story of a 1916 murder, but it is a very sad case. Mathilde Curtis was a nursery governess aged 35, and her sister Ellen was a music teacher aged 32. They were staying with their aunt Ade Curtis, who was also a music teacher at 5 Finchley Road, a large house close to St John’s Wood station.  On Saturday afternoon 8 January, they had gone shopping and returned to the house just before 1.00. At lunch Ellen whispered to her aunt, ‘Auntie, I’m going to be murdered’. She left the dining room to go to the bathroom followed by Mathilde. The servants heard a thud, and Mathilde ran out of the house holding a table knife dripping with blood. She shouted, ‘Its done, she is dead’. Ellen was found lying in the bathroom with her throat cut. Inspector John Elliot of S Division arrived at the house and arrested Mathilde who was taken to Portland Town police station. She said, ‘I hope I shall be hanged. I have prayed for it for weeks. We both have. She asked me to do it. It is for the best...