History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

This is a short piece following our recent story about Zeppelins (scroll down to see the previous story). During WWI when the Germans stopped their Zeppelin raids in 1917, they continued to attack London using Gotha heavy bombers. German Gotha Bomber In the raid on the 28/29 January 1918, Gotha GV 938/16 approaching from the north, commenced its attack shortly before 10.00pm and dropped three bombs along Belsize Road close to the railway line. Two people were killed and two others were injured. 118 houses were damaged. The Princess of Wales pub at No.121 Abbey Road on the corner with Belsize Road , (today the site of the Lillie Langtry pub), was wrecked. Robert Hill, the landlord since 1911, survived the attack. When the pub was repaired he continued there for another 10 years, until his son took over. Princess of Wales pub in the 1890s (Marianne Colloms) Three more bombs from the Gotha landed in St George’s Road (today’s Priory Terrace), Mortimer R...

It was May 1942 and London was in the middle of the War, when Pauline Barker was murdered at 184 Belsize Road . The story did not receive much attention in the press. Here we use the Metropolitan Police files from the National Archives to look at the stories of the main participants in this sad crime. The house has since been demolished as part of the Council redevelopment in the area. Pauline Barker was born in Islington in 1899, the daughter of Frederick Charles Barker and Lydia Care. He was a solo harpist and she was a leading contralto with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, they married in London in 1898. But the marriage did not go well and Frederick left Lydia in 1910 and she sued for divorce in 1911. Frederick said in the divorce papers the reason he left her was because of: Her violent temper and ungovernable behaviour and constant and habitual use of filthy, disgusting and obscene language and constant disagreements for ten years which have rendered his married life...