History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

The beast discovered ‘I was the first one to see it and I was very frightened because I couldn’t believe how big it was. I thought it was a leopard or something. It was the size of an Alsatian and about 4ft away from me’. On a Friday morning in May 2001, cleaner Carol Montague went to the home of Alan and Charlotte Newman in Hocroft Road (not the nearby Hocroft Avenue as generally reported), off the Hendon Way. It was her regular job, but it turned out to be far from an ordinary day, after she spotted the animal in their back garden. She immediately rang the police who didn’t take her seriously. But when she persisted, two policemen showed up and were startled to find what turned out to be a lynx on the Newman’s patio. Down the years in the UK, there have been and continue to be, many reports and photos, of what were described as large cats roaming the countryside. But few have ever been caught. The Hertfordshire area had some sightings in the 1990s, mostly in wooded areas. Then in 199...