The oldest paper in town?

There is something about a newspaper whereby the credibility and esteem in which it is held is built on when it was founded - almost as though the sense that it has survived all those years means it is well read, respected, attached to it's community.

So here we are at Premier Corner, on Kilburn Lane near Queen's Park Tube station (West Kilburn by my geography) and have the foundation stone in the new offices (built, according to the plaque in 1964).

The masthead of the Kilburn Times still proudly proclaims
Established 1868

So the plaque reads:
The north-western printing and publishing association limited.
This stone was laid by Mrs Kate Hewlett
Daughter of Thomas Smith - Proprietor
of the Kilburn Times in 1874 and Managing
Director of the Present Company from
1894 to 1910 - in the presence of his
Great Grandson Mr J H M Page - grandson
of Sidney Page who was chairman
From 1904 to 1930

Architect Sidney & Bettesworth LRIBA FRICS
Surveyors McCann & Bracken
Builders Y J Lovell & Son Ltd
23rd July 1964

Ayo gorkhali

Padding round Kensal Green cemetery this little gravestone stood out amidst the significant undergrowth - and considering the scale of the undergrowth...!

It's the grave of Henry Boisragon and his two children Guy Boisragon (a winner of the Victoria Cross) and Mabel Dent.

Cllr Carol Shaw, Cllr Simon Green and myself are shown here - the grave is immediately adjacent to Simon';s ward and he has been a staunch supporter of the armed forces and Royal British Legion and Carol's father fought alongside the gurkha's in WWII.

The grave reads:
In loving memorial
Major Genl. Henry F.M. Boisragon
Late of the 5th Gurkhas and 4th Sikhs
Born March 27th 1828
Died Sept 22nd 1890
and
Guy Huddleston Boisragon V.C.
Col. 5th Gurkhas
Born November 5th 1864
Died July 14th 1931
The shall be mine saith the Lord
In that day when I make up my jewels
Malachi 3.xvii

Sacred to the memory of
Mabel Maxwell Dent
Born November 7th 1862
Died February 17th 1942
Daughter of
Major Genl. H.F.M. Boisragon
wife of the late Major H.W. Dent
2nd Queens Royal Regiment
"I know that my redeemer liveth"

For more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Hudleston_Boisragon and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensal_Green_Cemetery and http://www.kensalgreen.co.uk/ and http://www.gurkhajustice.org.uk/

All roads lead to... Kilburn?

I was down in the City of London for the meeting of the management committees of Hampstead Heath , Keats House and Queen's Park when I spied this little gem.

Ye Olde Watling public house
There's a great summary review here http://ultimatepubguide.com/pubs/info.phtml?pub_id=353
including the much repeated claim that this pub was built on the instruction of Christopher Wren for workers on the St Paul's project...

The picture isn't great quality - I was in a rush and the light was falling and failing, but of course it's also on Watling Street.

The road later (physically and historically), as it heads north, becomes Edgware Road, then Maida Vale, the Kilburn High Road and Shoot Up Hill, Cricklewood Broadway and off into England's shires...

But of course it starts somewhere and as I dashed for my tube to Mansion House I had forgotten that it was in fact here.

Don't worry good readers I didn't delay, but a return visit to the watering hole before emabarking north to Kilburn seems appropriate at some point...

Anyone else want to join me here for a sneaky half one day soon?

The lovely rural scenes of North West London

Is this the best park ever or am I biased? I love Kilburn Grange Park for it's history, I love Fortune Green for it's community focus, West End is superb for it's sheer cheek and atmosphere.

But as an all in one Queen's Park is pretty impressive. It's owned/run/maintained/held in trust by the City of London Corporation: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Environment_and_planning/Parks_and_open_spaces/queens_park.htm

But crucially it is deceptively large - when you stand at the corner of say Kingswood Avenue you can see the whole length of it, but when you actually walk about it is much much larger than the eye at first appreciates - this is further enahnced by the way in whcih it is lovingly tended with different sections and components.

One of these is the bandstand - charming, used, and very very colourfully maintained - it's one of the features that makes the park stand out and was one of the mainstays of the centenary celebrations.

Councillor Mark Cummins was a leading light in those celbrations and has been a hugely interesting font of information on both the pak, it's iconic significance to the community and also his own role (which he plays down).

It's now 20 years since he was first elected as councillor and I guess I wanted to take this small chance to thank him and place on record my own appreciation for his work.

http://www.brent.gov.uk/Democracy.nsf/66d8b8e642f063d780256a9400404f4e/9489a972f5ae375f8025716b00341e77!OpenDocument

Other posts about the Park:
http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/01/queens-park-squirrels-with-demon-eyes.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/01/stucco-patterns-in-skill-of-pargeting.html

Did you know that at one end of the park there is underground drainage - in order to cope with the naturally boggy ground - when it was the grand exhibition it became so boggy and wet that the area was almost unuseable - there is some story about Queen Victioria not visiting due to the poor ground!

A school with environmental trimmings?

So when did trimmings in school architecture go the way of the dinosaurs? Was it with the end of the Victorian and Edwardian obssession with education.

The building of a new school was a major things - supported by benfactors, enthused by the population - it was part of an aspiration that lifted people up and out.

Now there feels like no such pride - schools are protected by a moral good, a sense that whilst we want standards to rise schools are not to blame and teachers have made a vocational choice.

Yet I am convinced that much is in fact dictated by the quality of the environment and so the built environment. There are discussions progressing in Camden and Brent about building new schools - both under the aegis of this Labour Government have to explore academies - so quality of build will be important.

So when it comes to new build - will we see the extra trimmings - such as in this door way here - or the ones below (from the school on Salusbury Road, Queen's park IIRC) - or will we, as I hope, see long lasting serious environmental measures? Measures such as rainwater collections, inbuilt recycling capacity, waste reduction measures, on site combined heat and power plants... surely we will...

A new definition of the school crossing - Salusbury Road and Winchester Avenue junction

It's interesting how things cluster - in China, for example, towns feel like they are organised by trades - all the butchers are in one street, all the tailors in another - so here in Queen's Park (an unlikely connection I grant you!) I noticed how Salusbury Road was quite a serious municipal heartland upon a time - now much much reduced (just a Police Station and a Library really)...

But the junction of Winchester Avenue, Salusbury Road has maintained the education links it was built with at the start of the last century. College Mansions (1900) - on the southside of Winchester Avenue with the Islamia school now just down the road, the old sixform block opposite on the North side (1901 if i recall correctly) and of course Winkworth Hall opposite (later but in the same tradition).

And the quality of the architecture just feels better - or is that too sentimental a response?

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/winkworth-hall-anyone.html

The vexed issue of flags... (great pun!)

Here are two flags I found flying locally - the first is the Green Flag awarded to Queen's Park and the second is the new Union Flag flying from Hampstead Police Station (the team in blue seem rather proud of the new one :-))

So I went back to when flags first came about and their purpose. It all starts in ancient china (don't most things innovative?) and then spread across the far and near east. However, our linguistics gives a clue in that the study of flags come from vexillum - Latin for flag - and the study of flags is vexillology.

The flippant situation is that the flag is just a piece of identifiable cloth - now for identification but of old for signalling.

In medieval and indeed until recent times they were key military identifiers especially on a confused battlefield or at sea where they are lightweight and can therefore be elevated quite high.

But there is also something about the flying of a flag that is quite emotional and raises the heart and emotions. I guess that's how the patriotic dilemna has then kicked in...

Saying it in three words

Sometimes newspapers say the nicest things - or at least their billboards do...

For some of us the Queen's Park by-election (march 13th 2008) wasn't a great shock - but the scale of the victory was at the upper end of anyone's prediction. But it's good to see it on the record.

Well done to Simon Green - he's proving to be a great councillor already and has only done one planning committee for local residents.

Following the train theme...

Following on the railway theme here is the North London Line looking east:
http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/perspectives-on-railway-line.html

The picture was taken the other day from the top of Weston House on Winchester Avenue, Queen's Park.

I think there has been a significant clearance of trees making this view possible, but it also made me realise just how wide a piece of land was necessary for the rail line to exist at all...

The bridge here is the bridge under Willesden Lane between the junctions with Winchester Avenue and The Avenue.

My grandfather was a major train advocate and indeed train buff... he used to make model steam trains for Walt Disney when at Bassett Lowke workshops and my love of trains and transport modes has, I'm sure, come from him.

Winkworth Hall anyone?

In the genre of plaques and inscriptions I snapped this pic. on Chevening Road (in fact visible from Salusbury Road).

Winkworth Hall is the building on the corner of the junction current occupied by Hopscotch and The Avenue School in Queen's Park.

I hadn't appreciated the name, nor the history or the set of previous occupants.

Perhaps most of all the extent to which this was effectively the sixth form block for Brondesbury and Kilburn School had escaped me: http://www.bkreunion.co.uk/reunion_pics/

Are there any memories of the Hall out there? E-mail ed.fordham@hampsteadandkilburn.org.uk

Just how early are the underground extensions?

I've been using Kilburn Park tube station on the Bakerloo Line quite a lot since I moved and the most striking things about it is the tiling and the colour.

Having lived and worked in Stoke-on-Trent I have a very strong sense of admiration for the colours and types of glazing having seen something of the production methods and skill that went into this sort of process.

There is also the control box at the platform join at the bottom of the escalators, but the colours of the tiling are really strong and vibrant.

The control box is clearly of-a-type - it reminds me of the benches (was plural now singular) on Belsize Tube platform northbound), similar to the office at the top of Kilburn Park escalator on the righ as you come up and was probably the standard mahogany finish for the London underground in this era and that was maintained throughout and since.

Kilburn Park Tube is much earlier than many realise - it feels 30's, looks earlier (perhaps 20's) and in fact is very late edwardian (architecturally at least!).

The section from Paddington to Kilburn Park was opened on 30th January 1915 and the further extension from Kilburn Park to Queen's Park opened on 10th May 1915.

The things you see and take for granted

I found time to pause and look up along the Kilburn High Road the other day and have now sorted out and picked out what I think are this illuminating set of pics - nothing much, but just little insights into the vibrancy and history of the area.

Picture 1:
GW & AE Thomson Ltd
CASH LENT
JEWELLERY DIAMONDS
It's a great old metal sign from an age now slipping out of view - magnificently the shop beneath is still a jewellers - I do think that this needs either the building owner to leave the sign up or to take it down now and put it in the Museum of Kilburn (whenever that comes about! - perhaps Kilburn Library or one of the archive offices should take the sign now with the owners agreement?)

Picture 2:
The Tricyle Cinema and Theatre has a landmark status now for the area leading on Irish and Black traditions, drama and culture. The Theatre opened in 1980 in the old Forresters Hall (the Forresters shop front still survives in full operational status) before being burnt down in 1987 and rebuilt opening in 1998. The sign on the KHR is just great and I love the tricycle mechanism just inside this open hallway also (well worth a look if passing) - and has a great little coffee bar inside.

Picture 3:
The Black Lion Pub is just an architectural masterpiece of it's type - great street presence, well maintained, and inside - well, it just takes our breath away. It has the best of pub architecture and probably my best and favourite pub for aesthetics. I have other critieria such as atmosphere, beer quality, fond memories etc. that put other pubs high up my list. But the long and short is if you haven't been in this pub you are really missing something.

Pic 4:
Vacancy board on the High Road. This dates back to a time when the High Road was identified as the heart land of temporary and indeed very packed bed and breakfast boarding. I suspect that it was areas such as this that generated the definition of 'garret' in old parlance. I'm told that this sign is the last one of what used to be one on every building advertising vancies - the Old Bell used to have boards showing vacancies and that this little sign is one of the last vestiges of the need for hundreds of rooms for rent from the days of the thousands of Irish workers who moved into the area and were very mobile and transient when they first got here...

Picture 5:
The old sign advertising the newspaper of record: THE KILBURN TIMES. Founded in 1867 the Kilburn Times has outlived all of the other newspapers of Kilburn and area. papers it has seen off have included Kilburn & Queen's Park Post, Kilburn Free Press, and Kilburn News and the Kilburn Post. I'm told that this sign dates from the 1970's and has been updated at various times.

Picture 6:
My favourite: the old cigarette wall painting advert - previously covered in the blog and reproduced here because it is my favourite picture.

Stucco patterns and the skill of pargeting!

I found the most amazing visage when I was down Clifford Gardens before christmas and finally today was down there with my camera. In short, every single house has a decorative feature on the front gable end - it looks like just floral decoration - and that I thought was that.

But in fact on closer inspection you realise that every single gable is different. Most are indeed floral, many are psuede gothic - others are very contemporary and date the street (1896). One of them depicts two scouts playing cricket with their tent pitched up.

According to my local history they were built by Charles Langler (sic Langler Road) and Charles Pinkham (sic Pinkham Way on the North Circular) and they in turn employed local firms to decorate the houses with stucco patterns.

The technique is known as pargeting http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/pargeting/pargeting.htm and makes the street incredibly distinctive. Take the time and have a walk down there - not least cos when you do you will be walking across the site of what used to be the National Athletic Ground - Queens Park Rangers early ground (one of many) - opened in 1890

The ongoing saga of the wall advert murals in North West London

I was quite happily out and about when I was caught by a reader of this website/blog who wanted to show me another wall mural they were aware of.

They were quite pleased cos when the tree is in full leaf then the mural is barely visible - as you can see from this picture it's pretty faded. After much squinting I think the first line is A S ***TINY. I suspect that it's something that will be more legible in different weathers - this was a pretty grey and overcast day last week.

There is one other factor that I have an obligation to draw attention to officionadoes of this blog and that is that it is on College Road, Queen's Park. Strictly speaking this falls outside of my purview. the nature of ward and constituency boundaries means that this falls into Kensal Rise ward but nonetheless I think it qualifies.

Oh, and to the reader who has pointed out that I have missed the wall advert mural in West Hampstead Mews - you're right and you are the second person to point it out to me - there is indeed another wall mural on the other side of the road and I missed it first time round with the camera - so watch this space...

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/save-old-visible-painted-wall-adverts.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/12/promotional-adverts-for-smoking.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-advertising-walls-by-popular.html

Why are old signs better?

I've been noticing just how much better, more attractive, more stylish the old features of the local area are - it's really curious - I saw an old picture of the first Ian Drury and the Blockheads first album cover (apparently taken outside Woolworths on the Kilburn High Road) and even that makes the shop look better than it does now!

So I caught these two images - one is a small label road sign above a road name in Hampstead and the other is a old street frontage from Kilburn Lane, Brent.

The first (first pic) is a stret sign pre 1964 (i.e. before the creation of Camden) when Hampstead was it's own Borough.

The lettering is old fashioned, perhaps it is out of date, but to me there is something that is inherently attractive about it and that adds to a locality. If I recollect correctly it's Rosecroft Avenue (Frognal and Fitzjohn's ward).

The sense of detail and the individual lettering gives residents a real sense of pride, that their Borough matters and that their Council cares. It's good that Camden still repairs and restores these old signs, but perhaps more of a shame that where new signs go in they are the standard metal formulaic signage.

The second is taken at the other end of the constituency on Kilburn Lane (where it meets Chamberlayne Road) in Queen's Park ward. It's an old shop front - lying empty and there is this old mosaic from when the shop was Craven Laundry.

The more I find things like this I can't help but think there should be some kind of historic audit of an area that seeks to save, enhance, promote these sorts of features.

Perhaps this is one of things that residents associations could be mobilised for? I spent much of tonight in a residents association and one of the discussions was about the formal role - maybe there should be a remit of environmental responsibility - identifying features, assets and historic hangovers.

Oh, and just to make my point even better the shop front (albeit closed) has the old mosaic protected by a set of old railings (granted, they are prob post WWII) but they do add character and charm.

More advertising walls - by popular demand...

Who would of thought that this would trigger so much traffic on the issue of old local wall advertising - not the bill board type, but the old painted wall adverts.

It was kicked off with this one in West Hampstead

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/save-old-visible-painted-wall-adverts.html

followed up with this one in Kilburn, on the High Road

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/12/promotional-adverts-for-smoking.html

I've now been contacted by a local residents in Dyne Road pointing out that there is in fact another hiding on Kilburn High Road, literally next to the Black Lion... (pic left - not the Leftovers advert!)


Part of me likes the neatness of the grey concrete skim, more of me is hoping that the cold weather will lead to more of the skim cracking, falling off to reveal the old advert - smoking or matches I assume :-)

This is perhaps the most intriguing so far and is the one that of course raises the question about whether these old adverts merit 'saving' - my instinct is that they should not be consciously saved, but that a dialogue with land-owners about not deliverately removing them and obliterating them as they contribute to the ambiance of an area is a dialogue that would be worth having...

But more intriguingly, but much less colourful, and I'm grateful to the resident on Harrow Road who contacted me on this one, is this washed out ghost of an advert (pic right).

At first glance I thought it was in fact just the shadow from where a board had once hung, but as the resident points out "I reckon it must have been a painting, first is the shading on the white wash which you can just see, and second is the bevel indent corners which show that it was a design feature of the advert."

The resident goes on to tell me that they have looked for old postcards of this bit of Harrow Road (Queen's Park) but have not so far come up with anything. Any leads appreciated...

Tomorrow sees me exploring another tip off I have had from a reader - an advert that has apparently been staring me in the face and I have missed! More to follow.