From loo to The Louvre as Sudbury brightened up in homage to Covid19 workers & volunteers

From Paul Lorber

Following on from Philip Grant’s excellent Wembley history series - especially the last one about Sudbury, perhaps I can provide an update on Butler’s Green.

A very large part of Sudbury was originally massive green open space called the Sudbury Common with a large number of farms being established over the years.

John Copland who was a Purser (Sort of accountant/purchase manager) on British Navy ships and served during Horatio Nelson’s time at the Battle of the Nile acquired a property called Crabbs House on what is now Barham Park. Over the next 40 years he continued to acquire land in the area and at his death in 1843 (he is buried in a vault in Kensal Green cemetery) he owned around 350 acres  of  land stretching from the Triangle in Wembley all the way to the bottom of Harrow on the Hill - this must have also included what is now Butler's Green.

At some point in the 1870s that part was acquired by William Perkin when he moved into Sudbury near to the present Methodist Church.

Sir William Perkin (he was Knighted in Early 1900s) is probably Sudbury’s most famous person in the world.

As a young boy he was very keen to pursue scientific education. While experimenting with tar (residue of coal) trying to create a substitute for anodyne he accidentally created a purple liquid substance. When trying it on some cloths he realised that he actually created a first synthetic dye for colouring cloth. Following a few more experiments, tests and refinements his dye product turned out to be much more reliable and longer lasting than natural dyes used at the time.

He set up a factory in Greenford and started manufacturing dyes as a business. It was a big success and young William is claimed to be the founder of the modern clothing industry which his colour dyes revolutionised.

In the 1870s when he moved to Sudbury the population was tiny and most of the land was still open fields. Like in other nearby places the population explosion came as part of the arrival of the Railways with the Sudbury & Harrow Road station opened in 1903 and Sudbury Town a year later.

Sir William Perkin died in 1907 and the land that is now Butler's Green was purchased by Wembley District Council in 1920 from the Trustees of his Estate. As Philip mentioned in his article it was renamed Butlers Green after Edwin Butler who became the first Mayor of the newly formed Wembley Borough Council in 1937.

He only became the 1st Mayor because Titus Barham who was due to be the “Charter Mayor” and who paid £4,000 for the mace and chains of office (over £250,000 in today’s money) died on the very day he was due to take up the his office.

I am one of the Trustees of Barham Community Library based in Barham Park. Philip Grant has kindly presented a number of his history talks in our library and we hope for more in the future. We are always keen to help local people learn of the local history of our area but also to pursue improvements with a bit of art.

Despite its important local history Butlers Green has been somewhat neglected in recent years. 

We therefore decided to bring a bit of colour to the area by creating a Thank You Mural to all the workers and volunteers who continued to support our community during the Covid 19 crisis, on hoarding erected around a disused toilet block.

The Mural was designed by Alessandra Grasso, who is Barham Community Library ‘artist in residence’ with the help of her sister Francesca and others.

The idea was supported by Sudbury Town Residents Association and Daniels Estate Agents. It has been paid by a small Love Where You Live Grant and donations from local people.

Barham Community Library and Sudbury Town Residents Association plan more murals to brighten up the Sudbury area and are identifying more sites and raising funds.

Artists Alessandra on the left and Francesca on the right.

The disused toilet block is leased by Brent to U.K. Power Networks. Hoardings had to be placed on 3 sides as the brickwork is cracking up.

They were painted white with fading paint and a bit unsightly.

We decided on a colourful makeover with people, animals and flowers. Young children passing by love the animals and the overall reaction was positive.

We also painted other bits and provided a Notice Board for local history and local information.

We asked the Council to improve the outlook of the 2nd disused toilet next door which is also unsightly.

The bear in the picture is our mascot ‘Titus Bear’ after Titus Barham. The bear was part of the Barham Coat of Arms.

Uncovering the history of Church End and Chapel End, Willesden – Part 1

Responding to readers' requests, after the popular local history series by Philip Grant, for some local history of the south of the borough this is the first of a new local history series, by Margaret Pratt of Willesden Local History Society.

Church End, in the Parish of Willesden, has grown from a small medieval hamlet surrounding the church of St. Mary, Willesden. The main routes to other parts of the Parish converge here. Church Road, leading to Harlesden, meets Neasden Lane (to Neasden!), and Willesden Lane (later the High Road) to Willesden Green and Kilburn.

1.     A pictorial map of Willesden in 1840. (Based on a map in “The Willesden Survey, 1949”)

Other villages in Willesden (“the hill of the spring”), such as Neasden (“the nose-shaped hill”), Oxgate, and Harlesden (“Herewulf’s farm”), date from the Anglo-Saxon period, and were already established settlements at the time of the Norman Conquest. Willesden and Harlesden are mentioned in the “Domesday Book”, commissioned by King William I in AD1086, to record all his newly acquired lands, and the tithes, or taxes, due to be paid.

2.    A copy of the entry for Willesden in the Domesday Book. (From “Brent: A Pictorial History” by Len Snow)

There is no mention of any church in the Domesday survey. The reason could be that Willesden lands were already under the control of St. Paul’s Cathedral, at Ludgate Hill in the City of London. St. Paul’s had been gifted the Willesden lands in late Anglo-Saxon times, and now “farmed” them. Farming, in the medieval period, also meant the collecting of tithes (one tenth of the income and produce of land that was owned), to provide the monks and Canons of the Cathedral (‘canonici S. pauli’) with their food and living expenses. 

The tithes collected would not appear on King William’s list, nor would most churches, as they did not pay any taxes. There could have been a small wooden Saxon church on the site at Church End, a base for the priests who would minister to the 300 or so parishioners of Willesden at the time. However, there is no documentary evidence to prove it.

What is a matter of record is that a small rectangular stone church was built by AD1181, when an “Inquistion,” or visitation, from St. Paul’s records the church and its contents. The church had been built on the rising land to the east of the marshy ground bordering the River Brent, and fed by the Mitchell and Harlesden Brooks. It was soon increased in size, by around AD1200, when side aisles and a tower were added to the original structure, and was known as St Mary’s Church by 1280.

3.     St Mary's Church, Willesden, in a print by E. Orme, 1799. (Brent Archives online image 703)

Willesden is rich in sand, gravel, clay and flint, like many places in the Thames Valley, but has no building stone. The loads of ragstone used in the construction of the church must have been brought for some distance, probably from Kent. The stone could have been shipped up the Thames, and then hauled up the River Brent from Brentford, on flat-bottomed rafts. Ingenious engineers of the time could have dammed off sections of the Brent to form ponds to make their task easier - unfortunately this is just conjecture! 

The 800-year history of St. Mary’s has been well documented (though not online) by our best local historians. Suffice it to say here that the church has weathered storms, wars, plagues, famines, times of social turmoil, pilgrimages, the depredations of Henry VIII, neglect, restorations, and calls for its demolition. It still stands firmly on its plot, surrounded by the churchyard which is the resting place of untold thousands of Willesden people.

In 1830, the author Harrison Ainsworth, who lived at Kensal Manor, on the Harrow Road, described Church End as: “A very retired little village, with its church, rectory and vicarage, and about twenty cottages, housing , among  others, a bricklayer, a butcher and a general dealer; also a group of wooden poorhouse dwellings in the churchyard.”  Ainsworth used Willesden and its church as the setting for his novel about the 18^th century highwayman, Jack Sheppard. His “very retired little village” was to go through great changes as the century progressed.

4.    Jack Sheppard, thieving in the church, arrested in the churchyard and escaping from the Round House.
(Illustrations by George Cruikshank from Ainsworth’s 1839 novel “Jack Sheppard”: Brent Archives no, 1696/97/98)

The opening of the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, across the fields to the south of Willesden, in 1801, brought new transport opportunities to the area, and industries such as brickworks, gasworks, and rubbish removal appeared alongside the canal. The Great Western, and London to Birmingham Railways appeared, again to the south of Willesden, in 1838. The first railway to be built across Church End was the Acton branch of the Midland and South Western Junction Railway in 1868, which cut off the village from the farmland to the north. 

Chapel End came into being when a brick chapel was built by non-conformist villagers in 1820. This was to the east of the Church End settlement, at the corner of Willesden Lane and Dudden Hill Lane. The name “Chapel End” was soon in use, and the residents felt themselves to be different from the people of Church End. A few years later the name “Queenstown” was also used, supposedly commemorating a visit by Queen Victoria. There does not seem to be any record of such a visit, so perhaps it was simply an attempt to commemorate Victoria’s Accession in 1837!

5.     Willesden's Fire Brigade, passing the 1820 Willesden Chapel, c.1900 (Brent Archives online image 1265)

The Queens Town name was used well into the 20^th century. The small original chapel, at the Dudden Hill Lane corner, was replaced around 1890 by a much larger Congregational Chapel, on the corner opposite Pound Lane, of the soon to be renamed Willesden High Road. The old chapel was used as a Sunday School, then demolished for road-widening in 1908.

6.     The Congregational Chapel, High Road, Chapel End, c.1900. (From “Willesden” by Adam Spencer, 1996)

During the 19^th century, people were attracted to Church End and Chapel End to find work, and needed somewhere to live. In 1810 the ownership of land in Willesden, and legal boundaries, were finally settled by the passing of an Act of Inclosure.  Landowners began to see the profit which could be made by selling off acres of farmland to developers for building houses. 

The land at Church End was part of the old Manor of Willesden’s Rectory Estate. John Nicoll of Neasden had purchased this Estate back in 1738, and after passing through several hands in the early 19^th Century, it was sold to The United Land Company, in 1869. In the same year, the company bought some land at Chapel End from the daughters of James Henry Read, who had died. This would later become the Meyrick Road estate. “Land for Sale” notices began to appear in the district, and developers and builders purchased plots at auction.

7.     Bramley's Farm, just north of Chapel End, c.1880 – one of the farms lost to housing in the late 19^th century.
(Photograph by Stanley Ball – Brent Archives online image 1261)

8.     Beaconsfield Road, Chapel End, 1960. (Brent Archives online image 2570)

Nine acres at Church End Paddocks were sold in 1873, then Church Farm Estate went up for sale in 1875. This consisted of 4 acres next to the White Horse, and became the Cobbold Road estate. Roads and building plots were also laid out at Beaconsfield Road. House building on The United Land Company’s estates was finished by the mid-1890s. Southward expansion from Chapel End was prevented by the opening of the Jewish Cemetery (1873), and Willesden New Cemetery in 1893, because St Mary’s churchyard was no longer large enough.

9.     Willesden New Cemetery, early 20th century postcard. (Brent Archives online image 7255)

To the disappointment of the directors of The United Land Company, Church End and Chapel End did not provide them with big profits. Their stated aim was to build first-class estates which would attract investors, but the plots of land were small in size, so small houses were built, and the area became working-class. It was Church End Ward that elected the first Socialist member of Willesden Council, in 1904! The quality of the building work varied, but many of the terraces of small houses have survived into the 21^st Century, and have stood up well to being modernised and extended.

Amenities such as shops and laundries flourished, especially along Church Road and Willesden High Road. Other buildings such as public houses, meeting rooms, schools and cinemas were put in place alongside the housing, and some of these landmarks have survived to the present day, while others live on in people’s memories. We will explore these landmarks in Part 2, next weekend.

Margaret Pratt.

Developers' free for all: Stop Dominic Cummings Stripping Away Our Rights - Sign the petition

If you think developers are getting away with murder in Brent at the moment - you ain't seen nothing yet if these proposals go through.

This petition has been launched  recoognising the damage that will be done to our urban environment if planning controls are limited even more.

THE PETITION - SIGN HERE

TO: Boris Johnson 

Please don’t strip back the right of communities to a say on what gets built in their area. Letting property developers do whatever they want will lead to badly designed and poorly located housing. We need smarter solutions to the housing crisis

EXPLANATION

 

Wave goodbye to your right to a say in what’s built in your local area -- if Dominic Cummings gets his way. We’ve got just weeks to stop him.

He's working on a plan to rip up the rules for new buildings in England -- and replace it with a US style scheme. It could fill neighbourhoods with shoddy flats and ugly office buildings.

But Cummings’ plan won’t affect every community the same way. City streets, not the countryside, will be the focus -- so people of colour will be far worse affected.

Cummings is trying to sneak this plan through as part of a coronavirus recovery programme -- and Boris Johnson just announced the first of the changes.

The full outrageous plans will be published within weeks. If no one seems to care, these changes will become law before we know it.

Dominic Cummings’ reckless US-style plan would take power over your local area away from expert planners with extensive local knowledge -- and give it to giant new “development corporations”. 

Remember, this is the same government who brought in a planning loophole that has allowed developers to build new flats without windows. Too many people are already trapped in poor quality housing.

But more than a million homes given planning permission in the last 10 years haven’t been built. So ripping up England’s planning rules to give power to profit hungry developers won’t fix things.

We need to build a huge public backlash right now-- can you add your name today?

 

'It feels almost like prison': the developers building homes with no natural light
The Guardian. 19 December 2019.

England’s planning system set for shake-up
Financial Times (paywall). 10 June 2020.

Boris Johnson heralds biggest reform of planning laws since the war
The Times (paywall). 30 June 2020.

Let’s not diminish our places in the name of ‘economic stimulus’
Local Government Chronicle. 9 June 2020.

Brent Council: No evidence of rise in Covid19 cases in the borough & no plans for a lockdown

Wembley High Road (Credit: Amanda Rose)

Brent Council, on  a post on its website, has sought to reassure residents in the face of reports that the borough is facing a lockdown after events in Leicester:

You may have seen news reports that Brent could shortly be put into a local lockdown. The situation is constantly monitored, but public health data does not suggest that cases are rising in the borough and there are currently no plans for a local lockdown.

However, it remains important to follow the latest government guidelines. Please keep your distance and get tested if you display symptoms.


Professor Kevin Fenton, London Regional Director for Public Health England, also commented on the reports, saying that:

The number of new cases of coronavirus is under close, active surveillance across the country and small fluctuations day by day are to be expected.

The increases in some boroughs that have been reported are mainly sporadic and are being uncovered as we scale up testing and contact tracing activity across the city.

Importantly, the overall levels of coronavirus in London remain low and steady. We’re working closely with all local authorities to prepare for and manage any potential local clusters and outbreaks and our epidemiological analysis will play an important role identifying if there is a significant sustained increase in the community.

As we carefully emerge from lockdown, it is important now more than ever that Londoners continue to follow government advice on social distancing, self-isolation, wearing face coverings, and practicing good hand hygiene, in order to keep the number of new cases in London on its way down. If you have a new continuous cough, a high temperature or a loss of, or change to your sense of smell or taste, stay at home and arrange a test immediately.

A teenager has been charged with the murder of sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in Kingsbury

From OWL Messaging, Neighbourhood Watch

Danyal Hussein, 18  of Guy Barnett Grove, SE3 will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today (Thursday, 2 July) charged with: the murder of Bibaa Henry; the murder of Nicole Smallman; possession of an offensive weapon.

Hussein was arrested at his home address in the early hours of Wednesday, 1 July and subsequently charged as above.

This follows an investigation by homicide detectives from Specialist Crime.

North West BCU Commander Roy Smith said:  

I would like to thank the local community for their support both with the investigation and the police activity at and around the scene. I know that colleagues from across the Met have been working tirelessly on this investigation. My officers will remain on patrol in the local area providing continued reassurance – please do stop and speak with them if you have any questions or concerns.

Police were called to Fryent Park, off Slough Lane, at 13:08hrs on Sunday, 7 June to a report of two women found unresponsive. 

Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended the scene and they were pronounced dead at the scene. 

They were sisters, Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, who lived in Harrow and Brent respectively. 

Enquiries established that they died in the early hours of Saturday, 6 June.

A post-mortem examination conducted on Tuesday, 9 June gave the cause of death for both women as stab wounds”.

Lockdown in London sees pollution halved at commuter hotspots

From Global Action Plan

New research by Environmental Defense Fund Europe (EDFE) and Global Action Plan has found that three commuter hotspots in London, such as Borough High Street, have shown an average decrease in nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) of 30% compared to 9-17% across Greater London. Additionally, these busy areas saw up to 50% drops in pollution during rush hours.  

EDFE analysed pollution data from the Breathe London monitoring network during morning (8-11am) and evening (5-8pm) commuting hours in the first four weeks of lockdown, finding reductions of: 

·       Borough High Street, at the base of London Bridge: 37% morning and 47% evening 

·       Cowcross Street, near Farringdon Train Station: 38% morning and 43% evening 

·       South Street, adjacent to the major transport thoroughfare of Park Lane: 32% morning and 50% evening 

These three sites were also in the top five of overall NO₂ pollution reduction locations for the Breathe London network. NO₂ is a toxic pollutant produced when fossil fuels such as diesel, petrol or natural gas are burned. 

In order to keep air pollution down, particularly during rush hour, Global Action Plan is calling on businesses to offer remote working to employees to ease pressure during peak travel times. 

Additional research also shows that Londoners are more concerned about the air pollution since lockdown and are keen for it to stay low. A recent survey by Global Action Plan, commissioned by urban health foundation Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, finds: 

·       72% of Londoners noticed cleaner air during lockdown  

·       70% of Londoners want government and local authorities to tackle air pollution and traffic more urgently than before the coronavirus outbreak 

·       40% of Londoners are more concerned about air pollution since the coronavirus outbreak 

·       80% of Londoners would like to work remotely after lockdown to some extent 

·       73% of Londoners are happier not dealing with rush hour 

As part of Global Action Plan’s call for continued remote working through the Build Back Cleaner Air project with Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Charity, they are helping businesses emerge safely and sustainably from the coronavirus pandemic. The project is offering businesses free support through the Business for Clean Air Initiative which launched on June 24^th. It’s the UK’s first free initiative to help businesses prioritise the most impactful ways to cut air pollution and make a green recovery post lockdown. Companies can sign up for free, here: https://bit.ly/2V44hpl 

Shirley Rodrigues, Londond Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, says:

Toxic air contributes to thousands of premature deaths in London every year and there is emerging evidence linking air pollution with an increased vulnerability to COVID-19. The Mayor has taken bold action with measures such as the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone and Low Emission Bus Zones, and they are already transforming the air we breathe. 

London’s recovery from this pandemic must be a green, fair and prosperous one, and it’s clear that Londoners agree. Our challenge is to eradicate air pollution permanently and ensure the gains we’ve made through policies such as ULEZ continue. The Mayor’s new Streetspace programme is fast-tracking the transformation of streets across our city to enable many more people to walk and cycle. By making the right choices we can all play a part in tackling our air pollution crisis.

Chris Large, Co-CEO at Global Action Plan, says:  

These findings are clear: air pollution clears up rapidly when we stop driving polluting vehicles. Children in some London boroughs average 10% smaller lungs than the UK average, and this stunting stays for life. Businesses can end this disadvantage to London’s inner-city children by committing to tackling air pollution.

Oliver Lord, Head of Policy and Campaigns, EDFE says: 

Last year, the Breathe London network recorded seriously elevated levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution at some of the busiest commuter areas during rush hour. Lockdown has made a huge difference and shown how much it is in our hands to build back better.

Kate Langford, Programme Director, Health Effects of Air Pollution, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, says:  

We know that air pollution disproportionately impacts some people’s health more than others, including children and people with long-term conditions. There is also emerging evidence that COVID-19 leads to long-term lung damage and the groups disproportionality impacted by the virus are likely to be affected by air pollution as their lungs recover. This research makes clear that Londoner’s want the cleaner air and safer streets they have experienced in the last few months to remain, and that all parts of society including employers and businesses have a part to play in making the cities we live in healthier.