History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Cyril Stapleton was a famous band leader who from about 1957 to 1965 lived at Flat 157 Cholmley Gardens in West Hampstead.  Here he is with his wife Sheila and their three young children in Cholmley Gardens in 1957. Later he moved to 6 Meadowbank, Primrose Hill where he died aged 59 on 19 June 1974, leaving £31,741.     Horace Cyril Stapleton was born in December 1914 in Mapperley, Nottingham. A talented boy, he began learning the violin from the age of seven, and when only 12 years old he made his first broadcast from the local Nottingham radio station. To improve his technique, Cyril went to Czechoslovakia to study under Sevcik, the famous teacher of the violin. Cyril’s early professional career found him playing in the pit orchestra of a cinema to accompany silent films. At 17 he won a scholarship to Trinity College of Music in London, and while there saw a newspaper report that Henry Hall was forming a dance band at the BBC. He passed the audition and started playing ...