History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Dr Arthur Fuller was called to the Old Bailey to testify about a fatal accident he attended on Maida Vale, around midday on Sunday, September 26, 1909. He said: ‘Birdseye was lying on his back in the roadway, quite dead. The injuries were consistent with the man having been run over by a motor bus’.  At the inquest, the driver of the bus, Sidney John Hughes was charged with manslaughter, ‘the killing and slaying’ of 59-year-old William Birdseye and bailed pending trial at the Old Bailey.  The Victim and the life of a costermonger William was born and bred a Londoner. He lived at several addresses in St Marylebone and by the time he was 28, was working for himself as a costermonger, along with two younger brothers. Costermongers were a common sight on London streets. Their wares included fruit, meat, fish and vegetables sold from a basket or more commonly, a barrow pushed by hand or harnessed to a donkey. William Birdseye sold periwinkles and shrimps from a hand barrow.  E...

On the corner of Belsize Road and Kilburn Vale, opposite the Priory Tavern, is a large building which has been refurbished to house modern offices. If you look up at the roof you can see on the two parapets signs for ‘LGOC’ and ‘1892’. This is the date when the London General Omnibus Company stables were built. Omni House today Today the building is numbered as 252 Belsize Road but it was previously called Priory Mews. In 1866 Thomas M’Craken had a small livery stables called Priory Yard in the road. The 1871 census showed Alfred Richards in Priory Mews as an omnibus proprietor employing four men. The stables and yard were run by several owners until the LGOC took it over in 1890. It was a good site for horse cabs and omnibuses as it was opposite Kilburn Station, which at this time had its main entrance in Belsize Road . The first railway passed through Kilburn in 1838 en route from the Midlands to Euston, but a station was only opened in 1852, with the entrance in Belsiz...