History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

In our first book ‘Kilburn and West Hampstead Past’ (Historical Publications 1999), we showed an engraving from Edward Walford’s 1878 ‘Old and New London’ Vol. 5, which was entitled, ‘Hampstead from the Kilburn Road’. At the time we believed the artist’s viewpoint was looking from the Kilburn High Road down West End Lane over the small bridge across the Kilbourn Stream at that point, with St John’s Church in Hampstead on the hill. In September 2020 we found a painting on the Art UK website, entitled ‘Hampstead from the Kilburn Road’ by AW Sharp, 1824. This must have been used to produce the engraving in Walford, but the engraver has made a few changes including the bridge. The painting is in the Camden Local Studies and Archive Centre so we asked archivist Tudor Allen if he would kindly look on the back of the painting for any provenance and check the records. Unfortunately, there was nothing on the back. The only reference Tudor and his staff found was that the Hampstead Library Commi...

This is a story of a clever con man who committed crimes around the world and his link to West Hampstead. On 21 May 1924 the Oxo export manager Cyril Aldersley was at his desk in Thames House, Queen Street Place in the City of London, when to his surprise he was told Chief Inspector Wallace wanted to see him. Wallace confronted Aldersley, accusing him of being involved with cheque frauds in Portsmouth amounting to £700.  Wallace produced photographs and a newspaper article about a civil case that he said involved Aldersley. Cyril said he had never been to Portsmouth and knew nothing about it. The Chief Inspector ignored Aldersley’s protests and said he must consider himself under open arrest. After Cyril handed over his passbook and some cheques, Wallace left saying he would return at 5pm with his Superintendent.     Thames House  Aldersley was concerned that something was not right. His fears were confirmed when he telephoned Scotland Yard and wa...