History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

On the 26 February 1895 Edwin Levy died from a heart attack at his home, 31 Compayne Gardens West Hampstead. He had bought the newly-built house a few years earlier and named it ‘Beaulieu’ after the village on the French Riviera which he regularly visited. When he died Levy was a very wealthy businessman, but he had a mysterious past. There are no biographies about him but here is what we have found. Edwin was born on 29 August 1840 at 38 Warren Street, the son of Aaron and Hannah Levy. His father was a tailor but struggled for work and was in the Shoreditch Workhouse in 1843 for a short period. Edwin married Annie Sweeney in 1860 and they had two children. Levy started work as an oil and colourman selling paint at 2 Great St Andrews Street in Seven Dials. By 1866 he had changed careers and was doing work for the Marquis of Townshend’s Society for the Protection of Women and Children, when he acted as an observer at several trials involving children. One of the cases wa...

In 1899 George Raymond Birt was living at 58 Compayne Gardens where he had recently moved from 20 Besize Grove , Belsize Park. But when Inspector Murphy and Superintendent Holmes from the City Police called at the house on 17 February with a warrant for his arrest, he was not there: he had gone on the run. Four weeks later the police received a tip-off and arrested him in Barnsbury. The officers took him by cab to the Minories Police Station where he was charged.  George Raymond Birt was no common criminal; he was the Chairman and Managing Director of the Millwall Docks with an annual salary of £2,000 (today equivalent to about £200,000). The New Millwall Docks, 1868 The Millwall Docks After more than two years building and difficulties obtaining the finance, the Millwall Docks eventually opened in March 1868 on the Isle of Dogs. It was one of the largest docks in London. George Birt who had previously been the superintendent of the Victoria Docks for ten years, w...