History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Oliver Sacks died of cancer at his apartment in Greenwich Village New York on 30 August 2015 , aged 82. He was the famous neurologist who wrote the best-selling books, ‘Awakenings’ and ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat’, which were based on case studies of his American patients. Mapesbury Road He wrote the first part of his autobiography which he called ‘Uncle Tungsten’ after his uncle Dave who had a light bulb factory in Farringdon. The book is a delightful intertwined account of his family and his love of chemistry. It was while I was reading this in 2003 that I was startled to find that Oliver had lived in Kilburn. In ‘Uncle Tungsten’ Oliver talks about his love of history and old photos: I loved old photos of our neighbourhood and of London . They seemed to me like an extension of my own memory and identity, helping to moor me, anchor me in space and time, as an English boy born in the 1930s. Marianne and I had recently published a book of old photos abo...