William Perkin’s Story – a Sudbury local hero

 Thanks to Paul Lorber for this ‘one off’ contribution to our local history series

 

 

While local history is often just local places, I thought it would be good to write about people, who lived locally in the past, and who made a major contribution. This is a story of a famous inventor who made his home in Sudbury. He made a discovery that propelled the development of chemistry – but he is now largely unknown.

 

 

William Henry Perkin was born on 12 March 1838 at King David Lane, Upper Shadwell, East London. He was baptised in St Paul’s Church – a small church with a tall spire built in 1669 after the fire of London. His early home was demolished a long time ago, but a plaque commemorates the site of his birth and his first experiments. 

 

 

 

 

1. The blue plaque to William Perkin in Shadwell. (Image from the internet)

 

 

His father ran a successful carpentry business employing 12 men and the family was reasonably well off. Shadwell at the time was a crowded mixture of slums and artisan tradesmen. Their middle-class status did not prevent the impact of poverty-based diseases that were all around them and William lost both his eldest sister and a brother to tuberculosis. William attended a private school near his home, and had lots of hobbies including photography. At the age of 14 he got all dressed up and took his own photo, seen here. 

 

 

2. The self-portrait photograph that William Perkin took, aged 14. (From “Mauve” by Simon Garfield)

 

 

Like most young people, he had no idea what career he might follow, thinking at first that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a carpenter. For a while he had ambitions to become an artist or possibly a musician, as he learned to play the violin and double bass. When he was around 13 a friend showed him some simple experiments with crystals and he became attracted by chemistry and the idea of making discoveries.

 

 

Aged 13, William joined the City of London School not far from St Paul’s. The school offered lessons in chemistry, taught during the lunch hour twice a week, and cost his father an extra 7 shillings (35p in decimal currency) per week. Thomas Hall, the visiting master in charge of the lessons noticed William’s interest and made him a helper with his experiments. By this time his father agreed to build a small chemistry laboratory for William in their home, although George Perkin wanted his son to become an architect, like his brother. 

 

 

William also attended chemistry talks given by Henry Letheby at the London Hospital and lectures by Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution. Chemistry then was looked down on as a serious science in Britain, but owing to Faraday’s efforts, with support from Albert, the Prince Consort (a German), the Royal College of Chemistry was founded by private subscription. The first Director of the new College was also a German – August Wilhelm von Hofmann. In 1853, at the age of 15, William enrolled at the Royal College, although it took a number of interviews with Hofmann before his father was convinced.

 

 

The streets of London were at the time lit by gas light. The gas was derived by distillation of coal but the process created great many unwanted by products – one being a large amount of oily tar. Tar was regarded as waste and there was a problem of how to get rid of it, and all the other by-products including sulphur. Chucking it down the drains or into rivers was one environmentally unfriendly solution. Chemistry was still in its infancy, but it was known that coal tar consisted of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur. 

 

 

Professor Hofmann was interested in a substance called aniline. He was keen to create quinine which at the time was the only effective treatment for malaria, then still prevalent in large parts of Europe and quite rampant in parts of England. Britain regarded malaria as the greatest obstacle to more colonisation, and the link with mosquitoes had not yet been established. Quinine was obtained from cinchona bark but was in limited supply and therefore very expensive. William understood the importance of this research and was ambitious enough to try to help find the solution. He did this by undertaking experiments in his makeshift home laboratory – without running water or gas supply. 

 

 

 

3. A vial of Perkin's original Mauveine, and a sample of his dyed silk. (Images from the internet)

 

 

William Perkin had an inquisitive mind and one of his experiments produced a black powder, which when digested with spirits of wine gave a mauve dye. He stained a piece of silk cloth and found that it did not fade with washing or prolonged exposure to light. But what next? He was just 18, and knew nothing of manufacturing processes. With the help of his brother Thomas, William produced a larger quantity of his new dye and sent a sample to Robert Pullar in Scotland who had recently been appointed as dye maker to Queen Victoria. He received an encouraging response, and in August 1856 Perkin obtained a patent for his discovery.

 

 

Although William wanted to concentrate on research, he hoped that making a living from manufacturing would be a means to that end. As investors were impossible to find for such a new industry, it was his own father who decided to risk all his assets to help finance the project. In the mean-time, samples produced using the new colour were tested and “were well received by the ladies”. 

 

 

As getting a suitable factory site in Shadwell seemed impossible, a ‘meadow’ close to the Grand Junction Canal was found. The six-acre Oldfield Lane site, at Greenford Green near Harrow, was purchased from the owner of the canal-side Black Horse pub. Construction started in June 1857, and despite having to design his own manufacturing process and find sufficient quantities of base material, the factory was built and started producing within six months. 

 

 

4. William Perkin's factory at Greenford Green, in 1858 and in 1873. (From “Mauve” by Simon Garfield)

 

 

In 1858, Perkin had his application for a French patent refused, because he applied too late and a French dye works copied his process. He felt that all was lost – only for his good fortune to be revived by Queen Victoria who wore mauve to her daughter’s wedding, while the Empress Eugenie, at the time the most influential woman in the world of fashion, decided that mauve matched the colour of her eyes. Paris went crazy for mauve, and the rest of the world followed. 

 

5. A mauve Victorian dress, and the Empress Eugenie displaying her fashion style. (From the internet)

 

To take advantage of the craze William improved the dyeing methods and devised new ones so the dyes could be applied to calico and paper. Demand grew exponentially and with it his personal wealth. Mauve was the height of fashion for about two years and then the time had come for new colours as the fashion industry took off. 

 

 

In 1859, William married his first cousin, Jemima Lisset, and the couple moved to rented accommodation in Harrow Road, Sudbury (one of the villas between Nos. 797 and 807). Their first son William Henry (junior) was born a year later followed by a second son, Arthur George, a year after that. They moved from rented accommodation to a house of their own, Seymour Villa, also on Harrow Road, which included room for a small laboratory.

 

 

William continued to keep busy running his factory and inventing new colours, including Britannia Violet and Perkin’s Green. He had plenty of competition from others in the UK, but also in France and Germany, as chemists were keen to create new colours to feed the never-ending demand. Perkin also continued with his experiments, and did find a way of improving the dyeing of wallpapers, but also spent time writing scientific papers. Some of the dyes he invented were used to colour postage stamps, including the original mauve from 1881 until withdrawn after Queen Victoria’s death in 1901. 

 

 

6. William Perkin (second right) and his brother Thomas (centre) with colleagues at Greenford, c.1870.
    (From “Mauve” by Simon Garfield)

 

 

In 1869 a new colour (alizarin, a red dye) which William had created was all the rage, and made great profits. By the early 1870s Perkin had personal wealth of £100,000, a very rich man by Victorian standards. He sold his factory, which he regarded as too small to compete with the large German concerns, in 1873. He’d also had enough of constant legal battles to protect his patents. The sale became acrimonious, but fortunately the Perkin brothers won the court case.

 

 

William’s first wife had died of tuberculosis in 1862 and his father died in 1864. In 1866 he married for the second time. His new bride was Alexandrine Caroline Mollwo, the daughter of a neighbouring family originally from Poland, and the wedding took place at St John’s Church, Wembley. They had 3 daughters, Sasha, Lucy and Nellie, and one son, Frederick.

 

 

 

7. The Chestnuts, Harrow Road, Sudbury, c.1900. (From “Mauve” by Simon Garfield)

 

 

In 1874, and retired from industry at the age of 36, William built a new home called The Chestnuts, next door to Seymour Villa in Harrow Road, and converted his old house into a large laboratory. Between 1874 and his death in 1907 he published 60 scientific papers dealing with magnetic rotary power and molecular architecture of various chemical compounds. 

 

 

8. The Chestnuts and New Hall on an extract from an 1895 O.S. map. (Source: Brent Archives map collection)

William was an active Christian, and made a large cart shed near his house available for services, as there was then no church in Sudbury village. He bought some land and buildings on the other side of The Chestnuts, which had belonged to the former Sudbury racecourse. There, in 1878, he built the New Hall, designed for use as both a church and village hall. 

 

 

9. The New Hall, Harrow Road, Sudbury, c.1900. (From a slide in the Wembley History Society Collection) 

 

 

10. Lucy (with doll) and Nellie Perkin, at the old cottages behind the New Hall. (Brent Archives image 9554)

 

 

Perkin became an evangelical churchman preaching charity, moderation and abstinence from alcohol. He created a working men’s club at the New Hall, but the venture was apparently not a success as the men liked to drink. With “The Swan” on one side, and the Sudbury Brewery and its “Jolly Gardeners” pub on the other, temptation was too great! The New Hall’s Sunday School for children, which he actively supported, was popular however, and his daughter Sasha was among its teachers in these photographs from 1899.

 

 

11. The New Hall Sunday School children, 1899, and their teachers, including Sasha Perkin.
      (Brent Archives online images 4695 and 4698, from the Wembley History Society Collection)

 

 

William Perkin received a Knighthood in 1906, exactly 50 years after his famous discovery. In 1907 he received a Degree of Doctor of Science from Oxford University at the same ceremony where Mark Twain was made a Doctor of Literature. Later that year he became ill with double pneumonia and appendicitis. His end was very sudden and Sir William died on 14 July 1907 at the age of 69. He was buried in the graveyard at Christ Church, Roxeth.

 

 

12. A portrait and photograph of Sir William Perkin at the time of his Knighthood, 1906. (From the internet)

 

 

Lady Perkin, who died in 1929 at the age of 90, continued her husband’s charitable work. She offered the New Hall to the Wesleyan Methodist Trust at a modest price, and they bought it in 1913. Twenty years on, it became too small for Sudbury’s rapidly growing population, and was demolished to make way for the present Sudbury Methodist Church, which opened in 1935. Sudbury Neighbourhood Centre now stands on the site of the old buildings behind the hall.

 

 

13. The Perkin Memorial Seat, in a 1950s Sudbury postcard. (Brent Archives online image 8871)

 

 

Perkin also owned part of the former Sudbury Common opposite the church, which he’d allowed the Sudbury Institute football team to use for their pitch. Sudbury shopkeeper Edwin Butler was a local councillor, and persuaded Wembley U.D.C. to buy it from Perkin’s executors in 1920, to become Sudbury Recreation Ground. Butler became the Borough of Wembley’s first Mayor in 1937, and the following year the Council erected a William Perkin memorial seat, in a small garden at the corner of the open space, to mark the centenary of his birth. The seat was officially unveiled by Miss Sasha Perkin in 1939, on her return from Christian missionary work in China. The memorial seat was sadly lost when the Sudbury roundabout was enlarged. 

 

 

14. Chestnut Avenue and Perkin Close, remembering a famous Sudbury resident and his home.
      (Photos by Paul Lorber, 2020)

 

 

The Chestnuts was demolished a long time ago, but it was situated where Chestnut Court now sits just off Chestnut Avenue. Further on is Chestnut Grove and nearby Perkin Close (a tiny close with around 20 maisonettes) named in his honour. Another memorial to Perkin, organised by Wembley History Society, was unveiled outside Sudbury Methodist Church in 1956, marking the centenary of his discovery of the first aniline dye. 

 

 

15. Unveiling the Perkin Memorial plaque outside Sudbury Methodist Church, 1956. (Brent Archives 9628)

 

 

Perkin’s sons, William, Arthur and Frederick, were also part of his legacy. They became successful scientists making their own contribution, doing research at Oxford and becoming Professors of Chemistry at Manchester and Leeds Universities. The methods Perkin used progressed to creating explosives, painkillers, fertiliser, and medical advances including treating ulcers, use as disinfectant and the earliest forms of chemotherapy. The irony of his invention is plain to see - William was conducting experiments to find a medical application and created a new dye. Today scientists are using dyes to find new medical applications.

 

 

In 1944, over 80 years after William Perkin failed to find a synthetic way of creating quinine, an American scientist finally did so. Just in time, as the drug was essential for the treatment of malaria in the Second World War and the fight against the Japanese.

 

Paul Lorber,

Barham Community Library.

 

 

Come back next week, as we travel a short way down the Harrow Road for the story of another local person, whose influence is still felt today!

 

 

As lockdown returns Fryent Country Park offers solace and exercise

 

Facing lockdown in the difference circumstances of Autumn and Winter limits opportunities but it is well worth visiting Fryent Country Park, perhaps with a flask of coffee and sandwiches in your knapsacks. There are many different paths to explore and every visit brings something new.

This morning I walked for an hour on part of the Barn Hill side of the park. Easily reachable from Wembley Park Station and the 206 bus route.  There is parking at the top of the road called Barn Hill (not, confusingly, the road called Barnhill Road which is on the Chalkhill Estate).

 

The wonderful Barn Hill Conservation Group have cleared choking vegetation from the hilltop pond

 

Ant hills on the acid grassland (being restored by the Conservation Group) which are predated by green woodpeckers

A naturally refurbished ant hill

Fallen or felled trees are left to rot to provide habitats this one has been turned into a temporary seat

Redstone applies for permission to Appeal in Cummings case

 Martin Redston has circulated an update on the High Court case he is fighting concerning Dominic Cummings.

He says:

An application for permission to Appeal the decision of the High Court was lodged in the registry of the Court of Appeal on 9th November 2020.  

 

It has taken some courage on our part to go forward with this, particularly in view of the pushbacks to our case to date.  However,  our legal team believe there are solid grounds for appeal and that our case raises major issues of public importance, specifically:

 

- the role of the DPP

- adherence to the rule of law

- public confidence in the rule of law; and

- Seeking to ensure the DPP is free to make independent decisions without undue influence

 

I am profoundly grateful for all the support that has been given to date for the case and would very much hope that supporters agree that we should Appeal and will help us obtain further support to enable us to pursue this with vigour to achieve our ultimate goal.

 

Please share this with everyone you can.

The Pledge Page to fund the case is HERE

Brent Momentum meeting on radical council responses to the Climate Emergency: Decarbonising Brent

 

Brent Momentum, as part of the series of events under the Brent Transformed umbrella, have a well-timed event coming up as Brent Council consults on its Climate Emergency Strategy 

DECARBONISING BRENT

 

Municipal strategies for a radical response to the climate emergency

November 23rd 8-9pm 

How can we make a socialist Green New Deal work locally? What reforms and changes lie within the powers of Councils to combine social and environmental justice? And how can local people organise to realise these ambitions?

Speakers:

Sylvia Gauthereau (Brent Cycling Campaign)

Paul Atkin (Greener Jobs Alliance/Brent Momentum)

Sarah McKinley (Democracy Collaborative)

BOOK ON EVENTBRITE HERE

Brent Cabinet set to launch wide consultation on Draft Climate Emergency Strategy aiming for carbon neutrality by 2030

 

Tomorrow's Cabinet Meeting (10am Monday November 9th) will decide to go ahead with consultation on a Draft Climate Emergency Strategy (Timetable above).

The Strategy aims to involve all stakeholders in the achievement of Carbon Neutrality by 2o30,

Apart from consultation with ward councillors,  who will be seen as ambassadors for the strategy, there will be virtual events and webinars with schools, businesses, environmental groups and residents, especially those who will be most affected by climate change - young people, older people, people with disabilities and BAME communities.

The strategy has 5 themes:

Theme 1: Consumption, Resources and Waste

4. The long-term objective of this theme is: ‘By 2030, our communities will be living more sustainably: consuming less of the products and materials that accelerate climate change, whilst also wasting less of the world’s natural resources. This behaviour shift will have helped to cut Brent’s consumption emissions by two- thirds, and drive a substantive reduction in the amount of household waste produced within the borough’.
5. The key areas of focus in achieving this goal are: creating the optimum conditions for community-led behaviour change; ensuring that the supporting waste related infrastructure continues to be improved; and enhancing the green and circular economy in Brent, shifting to a local economic model where resources and products are kept in use for a long as possible.

Theme 2: Transport

6. The long-term objective of this theme is: ‘By 2030, petrol and diesel road journeys will have at least halved in the borough, being driven as close as possible to zero, with an accompanying increase in journeys made by residents through cycling, walking or public transport’.
7. The key areas of focus in achieving this goal are: supporting and encouraging active travel; moving away from petrol and diesel vehicles; and encouraging public transport where possible and safe to do so.

Theme 3: Homes and Buildings

8. The long-term objective of this theme is: ‘By 2030, as many homes and buildings in the borough as possible will be more energy efficient, be powered by renewable sources, and be resilient to future adverse weather events caused by climate change - and we will do all in our gift to achieve an average Energy Performance Certificate rating of ‘B’ in directly owned council stock.
9. The key areas of focus in achieving this goal are: improving energy efficiency in all homes and buildings, whether existing or new-build, facilitating a shift to powering homes and buildings through renewable energy sources; and adapting our homes and buildings to ensure that they are more climate resilient to cope with the potentially dangerous effects of climate change in years to come.

Theme 4: Nature and Green Space

10. The long-term objective of this theme is: ‘By 2030, Brent will be one of the greenest, most biodiverse and climate-resilient boroughs in London with our residents better connected to nature’.
11. The key areas of focus identified in achieving this goal are: enhancing green (and blue) spaces and biodiversity wherever possible; improving our wider green infrastructure such as green corridors; and adapting our green spaces to assist in mitigating against adverse weather impacts in years to come.

Theme 5: Supporting Communities

12. Underpinning all four themes above is the overarching theme of ensuring that our communities are supported in delivering the proposed climate objectives for the borough.
13. The long-term objective of this theme is: ‘Everyone who lives, works or studies in Brent will have improved access to clear and understandable information on the need to tackle the climate emergency, and as many people as possible will be actively engaged in taking action to help the borough become carbon neutral by 2030’.
14. The key areas of focus in achieving this goal are: developing an environmental network in Brent for organisations, communities and individuals to be the catalysts of driving this agenda forward; supporting the key sectors which will need to be at the forefront of making sustainable change happen (households, schools, businesses, the voluntary and community sector); and through launching and utilising the Brent Carbon Offset Fund to drive carbon reduction at a local level.
15. Once adopted, the strategy will be treated as a ‘live’ document, with the annual delivery plans reviewed each year to ensure that the Borough is progressing against its overall aim for carbon neutrality by 2030. The setting of intermediary/midway targets for the Strategy for the period leading up to 2030 will be considered as part of this ongoing review process.

 The full draft is embedded below: (Click on 'X' bottom right corner for full screen version)

Uncovering Kilburn’s History – Part 7

Thank you for joining me again for the final part of this Kilburn local history series.

 

 

1. New flats in Cambridge Road, opposite Granville Road Baths, c.1970. (Brent Archives online image 10127)

 

In Part 6 we saw the major rebuilding that took place, particularly in South Kilburn, between the late 1940s and the 1970s. Many of the workers on the building sites were Irish. The new wave of Irish immigration to Northwest London, which reached its peak in the 1950s, was quickly transforming the area. As well as abundant work, Kilburn offered plenty of cheap accommodation, and a bustling High Road with cultural and eating establishments, many of them catering for the Irish population, who soon represented a majority in the area. ‘County Kilburn’ was dubbed Ireland’s 33rd county

  

2. Kilburn's Irish culture – an Irish Festival poster and Kilburn Gaels hurling team. (From the internet)

 

The Irish community, close-knit and mutually supportive, hit the headlines in the negative way in the 1970s, when Kilburn became a focal point for “the Troubles” in London. On 8 June 1974, an estimated 3,000 came out onto the streets of Kilburn for the funeral procession of Provisional IRA member Michael Gaughan. An Irishman, who had lived in Kilburn, Gaughan was imprisoned for an armed bank robbery in 1971 and in 1974 died as the result a hunger strike. Gaughan’s coffin, accompanied by an IRA guard of honour, was taken from the Crown at Cricklewood through Kilburn to the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Quex Road, before being flown to Dublin for another ceremony and funeral.

 

3. Michael Gaughan's funeral procession in Quex Road, June 1974. (Image from the internet)

 

The maximum publicity stirred by the IRA only confirmed the general belief that Kilburn was becoming a focal point for the Irish republicans, and their meeting place was Biddy Mulligan’s pub at 205 High Road. Dating from about 1862, the pub on the corner of Kilburn High Road and Willesden Lane was originally called the Victoria Tavern. It became Biddy Mulligan’s in the 1970s, named after the character of a female Dublin street seller performed by 1930s Irish comedian Jimmy O’Dea.

 

 

4. Sinn Fein's Kilburn Branch, marching through Cricklewood in the 1970s. (Brent Archives image 317)

As claimed by Ulster loyalists later, Biddy’s attracted ‘militant Irish extremists, far left activists, revolutionaries and their sympathisers’. Leaders of Sinn Fein in London said they collected about £17,000 a year in Kilburn – a lot of it came from the pub collections and went across the Irish sea to fund IRA activities. On 21 December 1975 the pub was shaken by an explosion from a holdall left at its doorstep by members of the Ulster Defence Association, who said they wanted to stop the spread of IRA in England. It was the first time the UDA struck outside Northern Ireland. Out of 90 people who were in the bar at the time, a small number were hurt, but no one was killed. The perpetrators were quickly arrested and put in prison.

 

5. The former Biddy Mulligan's pub in 2009. (From the internet – picture by Ewan Murray, on Flickr)

 

The pub remained ‘Biddy’s’ for a few years, then it traded as an Aussie sports bar called the ‘Southern K’. It closed about 2009 and today the building is a Ladbrokes betting shop. 

 

The look and feel of Kilburn is changing fast – Woolworths, at 100-104 Kilburn High Road, which was a big feature of the area since 1920s, closed in 2008 and is now Iceland. The elegant 1930s Art Deco building at 54-56 Kilburn High Road is Primark – part of the usual mix of shops found on any major high street in the country. 

 

6. The Lord Palmerston in a c.1900 postcard, and as Nando's, 2017. (www.images-of-london.co.uk / Anne Hill)

 

The Lord Palmerston, 308 Kilburn High Road, is another example of how Kilburn has changed over time. It originally operated as the Palmerston Hotel when it opened in 1869, and served as a terminus for several horse bus services. In 1977 the pub re-opened as the Roman Way, in deference to the road’s historic roots. Now it is a branch of Nando’s. The Cock Tavern, The Old Bell, the Sir Colin Campbell, North London Tavern, Earl of Derby and others continue the area’s tradition of historic pubs, which we saw in Part 2, but now alongside Italian, Japanese, Thai, Afghani, Persian, Turkish, Indian, Moroccan, Burmese eateries on the High Road. 

 

7.  A collage of some of Kilburn's historic public houses. (Photos and collage by Irina Porter)

 

From the 1970s onwards the Irish population started to move out of the area, and immigrants from the Caribbean, Middle East and Asia started to come in. The area is now multicultural - in 2017 the vicar of the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Quex Road said that he regularly welcomed 64 different nationalities to mass. The Maida Vale Picture House at 140 Maida Vale (1913) is now the Islamic Centre of England.

 

“The window logs Kilburn’s skyline. Ungentrified, ungentrifiable. Boom and bust never come here. Here bust is permanent. Empty State Empire, empty Odeon, graffiti-streaked sidings rising and falling like a rickety roller coaster. Higgledy-piggledy rooftops and chimneys, some high, some low, packed tightly, shaken fags in a box. Behind the opposite window, retreating Willesden. Number 37. In the 1880s or thereabouts the whole thing went up at once – houses, churches, schools, cemeteries – an optimistic vision of Metroland. Little terraces, faux-Tudor piles. All the mod cons! Indoor toilet, hot water. Well-appointed country living for those tired of the city. Fast-forward. Disappointed city living for those tired of their countries.”

 

8. Three scenes from Kilburn High Road in 2020, still with a W.H.Smith connection! (Photos by Irina Porter)

 

The 1970s was not all doom and gloom, and music provided one of the bright spots. The band ‘Kilburn and the High Roads’ (local connection unknown!) and its singer Ian Dury were one of the inspirations for the later punk rock movement. In a comment on Part 3, Wembley Matters reader Trevor shared with us his recollections of growing up in Kilburn and taking part in the The Jam’s video for their song ‘When You’re Young’ in 1979. This was filmed in Kilburn Square shopping precinct and in Kilburn High Road (with Woolworths!). The bandstand is in Queen’s Park, and the 12-year old Trevor is wearing a red and blue jacket.

 

 

Another famous 1970s singer/songwriter who has lived locally was Cat Stevens. He became a Muslim in 1977, having found his spiritual home through reading the Qur’an, and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. His many charitable works in promoting education, peace and mutual respect between faiths since then have included setting up the Islamia Primary School in Salusbury Road in 1982, the first full-time Muslim primary school in England. For more about musicians and music businesses in Kilburn, visit North-West London Music Maps, by Dick Weindling. 

 

Kilburn had 10 cinemas in the last 110 years, but today only one remains, and that is part of the cultural focal point of modern Kilburn, at 269 Kilburn High Road. The building dates from 1928, when it was opened as the London headquarters of the Foresters’ Friendly Society, which provided financial help to members in need. In the 1930s it had a music and dance hall, on occasions hired by Oswald Mosley’s fascist ‘Blackshirts’, who used to meet in the area. During the World War II it served as an air raid shelter and a food distribution point.

 

9. The Foresters’ Hall and Tricycle Theatre, late 20th century. (Images from the internet)

 

The Foresters’ stayed in the building until 1979, when they sold it, and moved into a small office nearby. The building was being used by local community organisations, when it was discovered by Shirley Barrie and Ken Chubb, who founded their theatre performance Wakefield Tricycle Company and were looking for permanent premises. In 1980 Tim Foster Architects re-designed the theatre, but in 1987 the building was destroyed by fire and the re-building took 2 years. In 1998 a new cinema was opened next to it, which also offered extra rehearsing space.

 

 

10. The opening plaque on what is now the Kiln Cinema, in Buckley Road. (Photos by Irina Porter, 2020)

 

The Tricycle Theatre was successful and acquired a reputation for political and outspoken, diverse and innovative plays. One of the best known was the Colour of Justice (1999), based on the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and directed by Nicholas Kent who became Artistic Director in 1984. In 2018, after another re-design project, the Tricycle re-opened as The Kiln, with a new café, rehearsal rooms, improved accessibility, better sightlines, comfortable seats and flexible stage. The Kiln has a 300-seat cinema and a slightly smaller theatre complex.

 

11. The 60s/70s South Kilburn today, with Crone Court and the OK Club (left) and Dickens House (right).
      (Photos by John Hill, and from Facebook on the internet)

 

Despite the hopes of planners, and like the Chalkhill and Stonebridge estates elsewhere in Brent, the South Kilburn estate of typical 1960s brutalist style high density housing, in low rise flats and 11 concrete tower blocks, did not deliver an ideal neighbourhood. In 1988, unemployment in South Kilburn was 20%. The estate was plagued by crime, shootings, gun and drug trade. There was ongoing rivalry with gangs from the nearby Mozart Estate, just across the borough boundary in Westminster. Several high-profile police raids in 2007 and 2011 and the shootings of innocent by-standers as the gangs wage their wars against each other continue to contribute to the adverse reputation of the area.

 

12. Network Housing's Kilburn Quarter, in a computer image and 2020 photograph. (Internet / Irina Porter)

 

In 2004 Brent Council started working on a 15-year plan of drastic demolition of much of the estate and creating a new living environment, at a cost of £660 million. The demolition of the old estate started in 2014 with two of the 18 storey housing blocks, to be replaced with 4 ‘smart’ blocks and amenities for the local community. Several different housing associations and architects are involved in the project, which so far has resulted in an overall loss of council housing, as many of the flats are for private sale. Despite the council’s efforts to improve the quality of the area, it continues to be plagued by problems connected to its history of gang violence and drug dealing, as well as issues with maintenance of the newly built homes and cladding for fire safety regulations.

 

One effort aimed at engaging with young people on the fringes was the Signal Project in 2004. The mural they sponsored under the bridges at Kilburn Station brought together graffiti artists and the local community. The subjects painted reflected Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, H.G. Wells’s ‘War of the Worlds’, the Gaumont State and Kilburn’s Irish heritage, and it won Time Out magazine’s best mural award in 2006.

 

13. Some views of the street art murals under the bridges at Kilburn Station. (Irina Porterx3/ John Hill)

 

In recent years Kilburn has been regarded as on the way up – as have been many London locations which are within easy transport links to Central London. The long-suffering South Kilburn estate is not without its crime problems, and occasionally developers cause an uproar too, as in the case of the Carlton Tavern, a pub in Carlton Vale on the border of Kilburn and Westminster. This dated from 1921 and was the only building on this part of the street to survive the Blitz during the Second World War. In 2015 it was bought by an Israeli property developer and demolished overnight, without permission, while being considered for Grade II listing.  Westminster Council ordered the developer to rebuild the public house, recreating the exact facsimile, which has been done, but as of October 2020 it still has not re-opened. 

 

14. The Carlton Tavern, after its 2015 demolition, and in 2020 after being rebuilt. (Internet / Irina Porter)

 

Brent was chosen to be London’s Borough of Culture for 2020, and one of its highlights was to be a summer festival on Kilburn High Road, with a mile-long street party. Unfortunately this was cancelled due to the Covid-19 situation. Kilburn does, however, have two Brent Biennial artworks by British-Filipino artist Pio Abad, just off the High Road in Willesden Lane and Burton Road. There is also the premiere of Zadie Smith’s debut play, ‘The Wife of Willesden’ at The Kiln theatre to look forward to as part of the delayed LBOC 2020 celebrations.

 

15. Pio Abad's two Brent2020 Kilburn artworks, and a Borough of Cultures sign. (Internet / Irina Porter x2)

 

Whatever Kilburn’s future will bring us, I hope you have enjoyed discovering its rich and colourful past, which this series will remain as a record of.

Irina Porter,
Willesden Local History Society

 

A special thank you to local historian Dick Weindling, co-author of 'Kilburn and West Hampstead Past' and History of Kilburn and West Hampstead blog

 

Thank you, Irina, for what has been a fascinating series on Kilburn. Where will our local history journey take us next? If we head west along Kilburn Lane to Kensal Green, then up the Harrow Road for a few miles, we’ll come to …. Find out next week, when another writer joins our “local history in lockdown” team, with a one-off article for you.