History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

This is the most detailed account ever published of an unusual story about Spiritualism, which has local connections to West Hampstead and Hampstead. Louisa Ann Meurig Morris (Getty) On Sunday evening 11 January 1931, the audience at the Fortune Theatre waited in anticipation of something special. They had come to see a young woman trance medium, Mrs Meurig Morris. Also on the stage was Lady Jean Conan Doyle and her 22-year old son Denis. Her husband, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, had died six months earlier, and had spent the last years of his life speaking and writing to promote Spiritualism. Lady Doyle said they were there to show their support for Spiritualism and a collection would be made at the end for a memorial to Sir Arthur. After the audience had sung hymns, the producer and playwright Laurence Cowen spoke about how he met Mrs Morris at his local Kenton Spiritualist church in 1929. He said he had gone as a lifetime agnostic but after hearing her spe...

Today in Kimberley Road, near Paddington Old Cemetery, there is a large modern block of flats called Kimberley Court. This covers the site of the Welbeck Works which were built here in 1904 by a remarkable man called Frederick Richard Simms. Born in 1863 in Hamburg and educated in Germany and London, his grandfather was a merchant from Manchester who established a trading company in Hamburg to supply the Newfoundland fishing fleet.  Fred went into business making suspension cars and in 1889, while supervising the assembly of an overhead cableway at Bremen he met Gottlieb Daimler the car manufacturer. Fred negotiated the British patent rights for Daimler engines and in 1890 set up Simms & Co, consulting engineers, which introduced Daimler engines into Britain. The work was carried out by the Daimler Motor Syndicate, which Simms founded in 1893 and then sold to the financier H. J. Lawson in 1895. This laid the foundations for the British motor industry, with the Daimler works a...

On 21 January 1908, a messenger arrived at Cox and Co. the army bank at 16 Charing Cross. He presented a typewritten bill of exchange for £300 from the account of Captain EH Brassey of The Lifeguards, payable to Mr AF Cox. The money was put in an envelope addressed to AF Cox at 87 Shaftesbury Avenue and the messenger boy delivered it to that address.  Cox an Co, army bank Charing Cross, c1918 On 27 January this happened again. But the sum at the top of the bill was for £700 while the body of the bill said £300. In accordance with custom, the bank paid the lower amount and wrote to Captain Brassey about the discrepancy. He was away on leave and did not receive the letter until a few days later. On 1 February, a messenger again came to the bank, this time with a bill for £1,000. Knowing the Captain was away, the bank did not pay. The following day Brassey returned and told the bank the bills were forgeries. The police were informed, and Detective Inspector Benjamin A...

Surprisingly, Kilburn has had nine cinemas in the last 110 years, or ten if we include the Queens Park Electric in Salusbury Road, but today there is only one. The early days of cinema It is generally agreed that the first moving pictures in this county were shown in London in 1896. The early shows were given in ‘Penny Gaffs’ often with just a sheet hung in a converted shop. In December 1897, the large Bon Marche draper’s shop near Kilburn’s main line station, hosted what was probably the first moving picture display in the neighbourhood. They advertised, ‘The Cinematograph, animated photographs’ at the cost of one penny. They were showing early film of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebration parade which was held on the 22 June 1897 and The Two Macs, a comedy act. Bon Marche next to the Kilburn and Maida Vale Station Six-year old Charles Landstone who lived locally at 32 Plympton Road went along. Remembering the event he said, ‘I, of course, had no idea w...