History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

The Old Bull and Bush is a Hampstead pub on the North End Way about halfway between Jack Straw’s Castle at the top of the hill and Golders Green in the opposite direction. It was made famous in an Edwardian music hall song by Florrie Forde, ‘Down at the Old Bull and Bush’ which can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZlkScbpwbg Rather oddly the publican kept monkeys in a cage in his garden. On the afternoon of Friday, 19 August 1898, two escaped and stayed hidden on Hampstead Heath until noon the following Sunday, when they were spotted by some boys who threw stones at them. The monkeys jabbered and made faces at their assailants, swinging from tree to tree easily eluding anyone who climbed after them, tempted by the cash reward for their capture.   On Monday, the monkeys gave themselves up and returned to the Bull and Bush, ‘forlorn, dirty-looking, and evidently very miserable’. But within days they not only escaped again but took two more monkeys with them. The four e...