VE Day 80th anniversary, and other Brent history events for May

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

Title slide for VE Day anniversary talk at Kingsbury Library on 6 May.

 

The Spring 2025 “Your Brent” magazine promised ‘exciting events across Brent libraries commemorating the 80^th anniversary of VE Day’, and frontline staff at our Council-run libraries have been under pressure to deliver on that promise! As a result, I was asked (and agreed) to prepare an illustrated VE Day talk, which I will be presenting at a Kingsbury Library coffee morning event on Tuesday 6 May, from 11am to 12noon. If you would like to come, you can find out more and reserve your place using this “link”.

 

As the request was made at fairly short notice, I had to use some of my existing Second World War material in putting the powerpoint slide show together, including an article I wrote for the 75^th anniversary, as part of the 2020 weekly “local history in lockdown” series for Wembley Matters and Brent Archives. My talk will cover not only the celebrations in May 1945, but also the six years before that in Wembley and Willesden, and the slides may also be shown in other Brent libraries on Thursday 8 May. As my introductory slide makes clear, it is a talk that celebrates the end of war, not war itself.

 

 

 

The only other special event for the VE Day anniversary in Brent libraries that I am aware of is a lunchtime concert at Willesden Green Library on Thursday 8 May, from 12noon to 1pm. This free 1940s musical hour will be given by the Bluebelle Trio. For more details, and to reserve your place, “click” here.

 

The Bluebelle Trio (Image from the Brent Libraries, Arts and Heritage Eventbrite page)

2025 is also the centenary of the second year of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park. Brent Civic Centre is on the site of part of that exhibition’s Palace of Industry, so it is appropriate that Wembley Library will be the venue for my talk on “A Day Out at Wembley Park in 1924”, on Tuesday 20 May, from 6.30 to 7.30pm.

 

Title slide for my talk at Wembley Library on 20 May.

 

This is almost the same presentation that I gave at a Kingsbury Library coffee morning in July last year, but by putting it on in the early evening, and in Wembley Park, I hope it will make it more accessible for people who are working during the day. If you would like to attend this guided tour, in pictures, around the 1924 exhibition you can reserve your free place here.

 

If you are interested in the British Empire Exhibition, and particularly in the part it played in 1920s British design, then Wembley History Society’s meeting on Friday 16 May may appeal to you. Dr Kathryn Ferry will be presenting an illustrated talk on “Wembley 1924 – The First Concrete City”. The meeting takes place from 7.30 to 9pm at St Andrew’s Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury, and visitors are welcome. You can see more details on the poster below. [I have been watching some of the “Villages by the Sea” programmes on iPlayer recently, and Kathryn Ferry appears as a guest expert on seaside history in several of them, so I know that she is an excellent speaker!]

 

 

There are other Brent Libraries events, for both adults and children, which you can check out on the Libraries, Culture and Heritage Eventbrite page at any time, by using this quick “link”:

http://tinyurl.com/jjhjrrzs

 

I hope that at least some of these events will be of interest to you, and look forward to welcoming you, if one of mine finds its way into your calendar!

Philip Grant.

Kingsbury Mandir anniversary - a chance to enjoy Hindu culture this week

 Guest post by Philip Grant

 

Kingsbury Mandir, at the corner of Kingsbury Road and Townsend Lane. (Image from the internet)

 

The Shree Swaminarayan Mandir in Kingsbury is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this month, and is inviting the local community to join them for a series of events over the next eight days. I know, from personal experience, that the people of this Mandir are very welcoming to anyone, from whatever background, who is interested to experience their culture, and that they are keen to be an integral part of Brent’s wonderfully diverse community.

 

One of the highlights of the week will be a grand procession along Kenton Road and Kingsbury Road next Saturday afternoon, 24 August. The procession will start from St Luke’s Hospice at 3.30pm – chosen because the Mandir has been supporting the hospice charity from the time that its environmentally friendly temple building was being constructed.

 

 

There was a similar colourful procession in 2014, when the Kingsbury Mandir opened, and I can give you a flavour of what you might see with these photos which I took then, as it passed near Kingsbury Library.

 

You may wonder, as I did at first, what a band in kilts, playing bagpipes, has to do with Hindu culture. I learned, from speaking later with a member of the band, that about fifty years ago their spiritual leader (Inspirator) came from India, to visit the relatively new community of this branch of the Swarminarayan faith. While in London, he saw and heard a Scottish military bagpipe band, and felt uplifted by its beautiful music. Wishing to please him, a group of his followers learned to play the bagpipes, and Kingsbury Mandir’s band now performs to an excellent standard. I suggest that you take the chance to hear them!

 

 

The stretch of Kingsbury Road near the Library, with its wide pavement on the less busy side of the shopping centre, would be a good place to watch the procession pass, probably between about 4 and 4,30pm. And if you are early, and have not already seen it, why not pop inside Kingsbury Library to view the small display about the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park in 1924!

Philip Grant.

Display and talk about the British Empire Exhibition - Tuesday July 9th at Kingsbury Library

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

The BEE Palace of Industry at night – a 1924 postcard (Source: Brent Archives)
[Standing in the same spot now, you would be looking at the front of Brent Civic Centre!]

 

I began the year by explaining why I think we should commemorate the centenary of the British Empire Exhibition in 2024. It is an opportunity to consider (or reconsider) our views on “Empire”, learn more about the history of the British Empire and its effect on the lives of the people in the lands it acquired (often by force), and collect the stories of families who have come from across the former “Empire”, and beyond, to live in Brent today.

 

It is also an opportunity to discover more about the Exhibition itself, an event which put a small, little-known Urban District in Middlesex on the world map. People came to Wembley in 1924 from across the world to take part in the Exhibition, and 17 million visitors flocked to Wembley Park to see it.

 

Crowds around the Burma Pavilion on the Whit Monday bank holiday, 1924.

 

To help you get a feel for what took place at Wembley Park a century ago, there is a small exhibition at Kingsbury Library this summer. I will also be giving an illustrated talk, in conjunction with that display, at a free Kingsbury Library coffee morning event on Tuesday 9 July, 11am to 12noon. Details are on the poster below (which includes a “link” to the Eventbrite site where you can reserve your seat for the talk). I hope you enjoy these events!

 

Philip Grant

 

Charlie Watts at Kingsbury Library

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

It’s five months since “Wembley Matters” reported that a bust of the Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts, had been presented to Brent Council. There was speculation about where it should be put on display. Well now, and for at least the next few months, you can see it at Kingsbury Library (“click” here for details of the library).

 

Charlie grew up in a pre-fab home on the Pilgrims Way estate in southern Kingsbury, a fact he confirmed to me when I contacted him (at his rather different estate in Devon) when I was helping Brent Archives with its “Pre-fabs Project” in 2011.

 

 

Charlie went to school at Fryent Juniors in Church Lane, then on to the newly-opened Tylers Croft Boys Secondary School (now the Lower School for Kingsbury High School) on the north side of Roe Green Park. The school has a reminder of his time there, as a skilled student artist, who at 15 went on to progress his studies at Harrow Art School. A trip to London Zoo was the inspiration for Charlie’s painting on tiles, which still hangs on a wall in the school.

 

 

The small Brent Museum and Archives display at Kingsbury Library also includes photographs of the Rolling Stones when they performed a concert at the Kilburn State cinema in November 1963. So, if you want to pay your respects to the “Wembley Whammer” (Mick Jagger’s nickname for Charlie), or are just interested in this piece of our local musical history, Kingsbury Library is the place to visit!

 

 

Philip Grant.

Polish pilots and a Jewish Cemetery – two talks at Kingsbury Library this month

Guest post by Philip Grant

Brent Libraries are putting on a good variety of events this month, but this is about two at Kingsbury Library (see poster), and especially the first talk, which I am looking forward to.

I was pleased to read two articles in the “Kilburn Times” (1^st November), which drew attention to the part played, on the British side, by Indian and Somali soldiers during the First World War. Many of us have grown up with a view of history which fails to acknowledge the contribution made by those not of a typically “British” background, and are only now learning the full picture. Richard King’s illustrated talk on Thursday 15^th November (2-3pm) is another example of this, from the Second World War.

Most of you reading this will have heard of the Polish War Memorial, but it is more than just the name of a roundabout on the A40, mentioned in travel bulletins on the radio. It is the reminder of a close link between Britain and Poland which goes back to the dark days of 1939 and 1940.

Although the prospect of war with Nazi Germany had been growing for several years, it was Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 which triggered World War Two. Although their country was soon overrun, some of Poland's pilots managed to escape, and make their way to France, then Britain.

At first there was some political resistance – they were “foreigners”, they spoke little or no English. However, by June 1940 they were accepted as volunteers into the RAF, and organised into their own squadrons. 303 (Polish) Squadron, based at Northolt aerodrome, was one of the first of these.

Pilots of 303 (Polish) Squadron in October 1940 (courtesy of the RAF Museum)

It soon became apparent that the skills and combat experience which the pilots had brought with them matched, or even exceeded, that of their British and Commonwealth comrades. Many of the fighter pilots who defended the skies over West London, and beyond, from Luftwaffe bombers during the Battle of Britain were Poles, and a number of them died in the conflict. That is a story which deserves to be known, and will be told at Kingsbury Library on 15^th November.

Philip Grant.

The Facebook Page for Willesden Jewish cemetery which records the heritage project there can be found HERE

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“The Beggars Roost” plaque comes home to Kingsbury

Guest post by Philip Grant, local historian

Thirteen months ago I posed the question ‘Where was “The Beggars Roost”?’ in a local history guest blog LINK. I was writing about a photograph I had been sent by a lady in Nashville, Tennessee, of a hand-painted coat of arms she had bought in a charity shop there. It appeared to have been created for Wembley’s A.R.P. (Air Raid Precaution) Warden Post 12 during the Second World War.

I still don’t know exactly where Post 12 was located, or why it was named “The Beggars Roost”, but further research has suggested that it was probably somewhere in the Roe Green area of Kingsbury (though not in Roe Green Village itself, whose wardens had Post 11). However, last summer an amazing piece of generosity happened – Cheryl, who had bought the plaque for her own home, decided that its proper place was back in Wembley, so that people here could see and enjoy the coat of arms in its historical context. 

Cheryl donated the plaque to Brent Museum, and it now forms the centrepiece of a small exhibition which has just opened at Kingsbury Library:

A.R.P. – Wembley’s Air Raid Wardens in the Second World War.

For the past few months I have been working with Alison, a Brent Museum volunteer, and Museum staff, to put this exhibition together. It includes objects and pictures from the Brent collections, and some loaned by fellow Wembley History Society members, and tells the story of Wembley’s A.R.P. Service (wardens, first aid and rescue teams) from 1938 to 1945.

It is a story of thousands of local men and women who gave their time, and in some cases their lives, to help protect their neighbours from German bombing raids. 

This was a very difficult period in our history, and one that those of us born after 1945, including young people to whom it is just something that happened long ago, could benefit from understanding better. Residents whose families have come to our area in recent decades, sometimes from countries which themselves have suffered war, could also see that people here have had that experience too. One of the air raids that the A.R.P. Service had to deal with, and which is pictured in the exhibition, happened within sight of Kingsbury Library.

The exhibition will be on display every day, during library opening hours, until around the end of May 2018. I will be giving a “coffee morning” talk, linked with the exhibition, at Kingsbury Library (522-524 Kingsbury Road, London NW9) on Tuesday 24 April, 11am to 12noon.

I hope that you will take the opportunity to visit Kingsbury Library, to enjoy one or both events. This is the official Brent poster for them:

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For anyone who would like to know more about this subject, but won't be able to attend Philip's talk on 24 April, there is an online local history article available on the Brent Archives website LINK

Social care in Kingsbury...200 years ago

As well as looking at how social care was provided to the poor of Kingsbury Parish in the early 19th century, using examples of real people from original hand-written records now held at Brent Archives, this illustrated talk may help listeners to consider how attitudes to the poor have (or have not) changed since then.

Many characters in search of a library - March on Saturday

Preston Library campaigners are staging a protest march on Saturday to draw attention to the distance residents will have to travel to their nearest library now that Preston has been closed.

The march will begin at South Kenton station at 1.30pm and go to the 'Wall of Shame' at the boarded up library to arrive around 1.50pm. It will then proceed to Kingsbury Library. 

The campaign says:

We’re going to walk to our "nearest library" - Kingsbury.  Join us and show the politicians just how close it really is. Everyone is invited - come dressed as your favourite book. there will be water stations and helpers along the way. See how far you get!

Show Jeremy Hunt why Brent’s 21st Century library service is miles out. Kenton, Preston and Barn Hill ward councillors have been invited – let’s hope they join us and show where they stand/walk!

Campaigners have been infuriated by the chutzpah of Brent Council's statement in the current magazine that every resident lives within 1.5 miles of a library.  It is a measurement that only seems to apply to bats, birds and Brent councillors.