The curl out of place...

Without a doubt this photograph is one of my favourites of Kilburn of yesteryear.

Full of character and style - all brought about by a number of features - the wide dress, the still left arm - the kinked elbow resting on the cushion holding a white lace hankerchief, the bold buckle, the bodice under the blouse, the formal black collar (matching the belt) and the tight stylised hair with one small hanging curl...

And an apparently emotionaless gaze - slightly pensive and whilstful and yet charming.

Taken in a small smudio room in what was Bennett James the photographers. I'm guessing it was a front room of a house on Quex Road near the junction with the Kilburn High Road... probbaly taken about 1890-1905.

Totally charming.

So what did the Kilburn High Road look like from the inside...

It's relatively easy to track down early postcards and images of high streets or in this instance, High Roads, - more on this to follow.

But I have often wondered who the shop keepers were, the customers and the products.

So this little gem gives us one small insight - dated on the back 1897 it looks like an engagement or aniversary picture... but crucially for this blog is taken on the Kilburn High Road.

It's a studio piece on a card mount, nothing on the back - the sort of thing you would go in have the picture taken and call back a hour or so later and collect it for a shilling or so... It's nice to note the wooden fence prop - relatively common at this period to give it a setting.

The shop of photographer, Edward J Davison, was at 310 High Road, Kilburn.

Now it's Furnishing First - just before Brondesbury Station - opposite the Luminaire (as was) - but a small insight into ye olde Kilburn...