History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

In the Summer of 1972, No.41 West End Lane was demolished because of the levels of radioactivity. This is the story of what caused the radioactivity and some of the interesting people who lived in the house previously. The large, detached house, was built in the early 1870s as ‘The Lodge’ towards the Kilburn end of West End Lane. The first person to live there in 1871 was Peter Clarkson Reed. He was a barrister who had qualified in 1859 and practised in Calcutta. He died at the house in 1876 and left £16,000 to his son John Lindsay Reed of Inner Temple, a barrister who at one time lived in Willesden. Patrick John Benson was at ‘The Lodge’ from 1884 until his death in 1895. Benson was a ‘professor of fencing and gymnastics.’ About 1875 he opened ‘Benson’s Gymnasium and School of Arms’ in Orchard Street, Portman Square. This was a successful business, and when he died he left £21,847 (worth about £2.3M today) to his son Charles, who took over the gym.  At the time of the 1911 census ...

The Oaklands Hall estate was a large house on West End Lane near the corner with today’s Hemstal Road with extensive grounds that ran down the hill to what is now Kingsgate Road. The last occupant of Oaklands was Sir Charles Augustus Murray who retired there in 1872. He was born on the 22 November 1806, the second son of George Murray, the 5th Earl of Dunmore, an ancient and eminent Scottish family. Charles grew up in Glen Finart, Argyllshire, though the family spent the winter months in London. In 1815 he was sent to Eton to join his elder brother Alexander Edward Murray, later the 6th Earl. Charles made many visits to Hamilton Palace, the home of his uncle the Duke of Hamilton, where he met Walter Scott and William Beckford, some of many writers that he was to meet during his life. From Eton Charles went to Oxford where he obtained a BA in 1827 and an MA in 1832. Little is known about his college years, but contemporaries remember him as charming, active, strong and a skilled horse r...

The streets of Kilburn and West Hampstead were home to literally hundreds of actors, actresses and musical hall artistes. A handful were very successful, but the majority were hardworking performers who made their living touring the country. They used professional newspapers to advertise their ‘availability’ often giving a friend or relative’s address where they could be sure of receiving a letter, as their nomadic lives made it hard and expensive to maintain a permanent home. When they rented accommodation, it was generally for a few months at a time, to fulfil a local engagement. Actress Mrs Bernard-Beere was successful enough to afford a permanent London home that she left empty when touring. In 1883 she was at 63 York Terrace, Regent’s Park; by 1890 her home was a cottage on Marylebone Road. She next moved to West Hampstead, renting No.8 Carlton Mansions in West End Lane, from April 1899 to 1902. The block of flats was newly built and today is the Francis Gardner Hall for...

This is the case of a man who had previously lived in West End Lane, but who was murdered in his luxury flat in Piccadilly. Horace Stanley Lindsay Horace Stanley Lindsay was the managing director of Linzi Dresses Ltd. He had lived in Acol Court on the corner of West End Lane and Acol Road from 1943 to 1949. At first we could not find details about him until we discovered that he had been born as Horace Stanley Zelinski on 10 Oct 1907 .  His grandfather Leon Zelinski came to Whitechapel from Poland and was an importer of German woollen goods. Leon was naturalised on 11 February 1892 , and his son Sydney Simon Zelinski, changed his name in 1918 to Sydney Melgrave Lindsay. Sydney had a successful drapery business and young Horace grew up in Stanford Hill and then in Maida Vale. Horace followed in his father and grandfather’s footsteps, and set up Linzi Dresses at 48 Poland Street in Soho . This became a very well known brand of dresses in the 1950s. Advert for Li...