History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

To look back in time we searched the British Newspaper Archive to see what the papers said happened in Kilburn in 1920. Some of the stories are tragic, others are comic and we present them in chronological order across the year. The attack by the Kilburn Lads While on patrol in the Kilburn High Road at 10.30pm on New Year’s Day, PC Burrows came across two men and two women who were quarrelling. When he asked them to stop, John Henley a 23-year old carman, hit the policeman in the face and called upon the ‘Kilburn Lads’ ‘to do him in.’ A large crowd of about 300 people had gathered and about 40 men attacked Burrows as he lay on the ground. Fortunately, PC Wright came to the rescue and saved his colleague from being kicked to death. He picked him up by his belt and at the same time managed to grab hold of Henley’s hair. The mob then turned on PC Wright and Henley escaped. Henley was known as a member of a local ‘gang of roughs’ and was arrested at his home in Granville Road Kilburn. In c...