History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Many of our blog stories have recalled the hardship and pain caused by the tough living conditions among Victorian working people in Kilburn and Willesden, where illness, poverty and poor housing were the norm for many streets. For some people, the festive season over Christmas made little difference to their lives and may even have made matters worse. James and Ellen Doggrell In December 1893 (George) James and Ellen (Eleanor) Doggrell were at 10 Steele Road off Acton Lane, close to the Grand Union Canal. They had no children and rented a single room on the ground floor of the small terrace house which has since been demolished. James was born in 1858 in Bath, Somerset. His father George was an agricultural labourer and he had moved his family to Acton by 1881, to a district generally referred to as ‘Lower Place’. It’s hard to imagine Willesden or Acton and Harlesden as rural neighborhoods, with country lanes and fields divided by hedges or ditches. But that was the case in the 1880s ...

There have been over 60,000 burials in Hampstead Cemetery in Fortune Green Road since it was opened in 1876. But this sad story is about four bodies that were found above ground, the result of suicide and perhaps, murder. Alfred Chambers In 1884, the body of Alfred Pierpoint Chambers was discovered by a grave digger lying face downwards on the grave of his wife. Alfred was a photographer with a studio in Clapham. Alfred and Ellen were married in 1867, but since her death in 1882, Alfred had been very depressed. The post mortem revealed he had taken cyanide which was used in processing photographs. Henry Butterworth In December 1885, an inquest was held on Henry Butterworth, the owner of a chemist’s shop at 70 Tottenham Court Road. Today it is CEX electronics store, one of the few surviving original properties, immediately south of Goodge Street underground station. His widow Elizabeth told the inquest court that Henry had left home on the 26 November, saying he...

Esmond Road is a short, quiet, street on the Brent side of the Kilburn High Road near Paddington Cemetery .  On Tuesday 6 November 1894 , the top floor of Number 48 was the home of Alice and James Simms and their young children. About 11.15 that morning Mrs Simms opened the front door to William Carter who forced his way upstairs.  Soon afterwards, the landlady Mrs Mary Bates was talking to a neighbour when they heard shots. As it was the morning after bonfire night, they weren’t alarmed, thinking it was just children letting off fireworks. But then they heard the faint cry of ‘Murder!’ and they saw Alice Simms on the landing covered in blood.  Mary stopped a man on the road and said something terrible had happened and could he please help. He went upstairs and saw William Carter lying on the floor. PC George Allen X334 arrived soon after to find William Carter was dead with a revolver in his hand. He had shot Alice , intending to kill her and then shot ...