Cedars

A local West Hampstead builder, Thomas Potter, constructed Cedars in 1878.

It was put up next to West End Green but under a decade later, new buildings were going up throughout West Hampstead. This corner, owner by Potter, became known as the Cedars Estate.

28 houses and a Methodist church were built on the estate fronting Mill Lane in 1886-7 and seven blocks of flats in West End Lane in 1894.

Holmdale Mansions were built in Holmdale Road in 1904 and Cavendish Mansions at the east end of Mill Lane about the same time, when the Cedars, which had become a school, was demolished.

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Cedars

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Julia elsdon Added: 22 Nov 2017 18:19 GMT IP: 87.112.95.228 2:1:3221	Post by Julia elsdon: Shirland Mews, W9 I didn’t come from Shirland Mews, but stayed there when my father was visiting friends, sometime in the mid to late forties. As I was only a very young child I don’t remember too much. I seem to think there were the old stables or garages with the living accommodation above. My Mother came from Malvern Road which I think was near Shirland Mews. I remember a little old shop which had a "milk cow outside". So I was told, it was attached to the front of the shop and you put some money in and the milk would be dispensed into your container. Not too sure if it was still in use then. Just wonder if anyone else remembers it.yz5
Irene Whitby..maiden name crighton Added: 17 Nov 2017 22:50 GMT IP: 94.3.120.166 2:2:3221	Post by Irene Whitby..maiden name crighton: Netherwood Street, NW6 I was born at 63netherwood street.need to know who else lived there.i think I moved out because of a fire but not sure
Cassandra Green Added: 19 Sep 2017 21:39 GMT IP: 95.149.2.213 2:3:3221	Post by Cassandra Green: Rudall Crescent, NW3 I lived at 2 Rudall Crescent until myself and my family moved out in 1999. I once met a lady in a art fair up the road who was selling old photos of the area and was very knowledgeable about the area history, collecting photos over the years. She told me that before the current houses were built, there was a large manor house , enclosed by a large area of land. She told me there had been a fire there. Im trying to piece together the story and find out what was on the land before the crescent was built. This website is very interesting.
Brenda Jackson Added: 13 Aug 2017 21:39 GMT IP: 94.13.78.193 2:4:3221	Post by Brenda Jackson: Granville Road, NW6 My Gt Gt grandparents lived at 83 Pembroke Road before it became Granville Road, They were married in 1874, John Tarrant and Maryann Tarrant nee Williamson. Her brother George Samuel Williamson lived at 95 Pembroke Road with his fwife Emily and children in the 1881 Census Apparently the extended family also lived for many years in Alpha Place, Canterbury Road, Peel Road,
LDNnews Added: 29 Nov 2019 16:27 GMT IP: 3:5:3221	Post by LDNnews: Aldwych Kilburn Bridge Farm stood beside Watling Street until the late 1830s. Kilburn Bridge Farm stood beside Watling Street until the late 1830s. https://www.theundergroundmap.com/article.html?id=3011
LDNnews Added: 28 Nov 2019 16:27 GMT IP: 3:6:3221	Post by LDNnews: Aldwych A farm existed in Kilburn Lane until the 1860s, by which time it had been disrupted by the railway line. A farm existed in Kilburn Lane until the 1860s, by which time it had been disrupted by the railway line. https://www.theundergroundmap.com/article.html?id=34628

	VIEW THE WEST HAMPSTEAD AREA IN THE 1750s The 1750 Rocque map is bounded by Sudbury (NW), Snaresbrook (NE), Eltham (SE) and Hampton Court (SW). Outside these bounds, the 1750 map does not display.
	VIEW THE WEST HAMPSTEAD AREA IN THE 1800s The 1800 mapping is bounded by Stanmore (NW), Woodford (NE), Bromley (SE) and Hampton Court (SW). Outside these bounds, the 1800 map does not display.
	VIEW THE WEST HAMPSTEAD AREA IN THE 1830s The 1830 mapping is bounded by West Hampstead (NW), Hackney (NE), Greenwich (SE) and Chelsea (SW). Outside these bounds, the 1830 map does not display.
	VIEW THE WEST HAMPSTEAD AREA IN THE 1860s The 1860 mapping is bounded by Brent Cross (NW), Stratford (NE), Greenwich (SE) and Hammermith (SW). Outside these bounds, the 1860 map does not display.
	VIEW THE WEST HAMPSTEAD AREA IN THE 1900s The 1900 mapping covers all of the London area.

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West Hampstead

The name "West Hampstead" was a 19th century invention - the original name was West End.

Lacking its own supply of spring water and situated away from the main roads, medieval West End barely qualified as a hamlet until a few country houses were built here from the 17th century onwards. The tendency for West End Lane to become impassably muddy after heavy rain further enhanced the hamlet's isolation.

By 1815 West End was still exceptionally quiet – so much so that its inhabitants claimed to have heard the cannon fire at Waterloo. The construction of the Finchley Road in the 1830s brought few additions to a population that consisted of a handful of squires and some farm labourers, gardeners and craftsmen. By 1851 West End had one inn and two beershops.

Railways were the prime stimulus of growth in many country corners of modern London but few places were transformed as wholly as West End. With the arrival of the Hampstead Junction Railway in 1857, the Midland Railway in 1868 and the Metropolitan and St John’s Wood Railway in 1879, the new suburb of West Hampstead spread in all directions.

Rapid development in the 1880s and 1890s swept away the large houses and the streets were laid out in today's pattern. A local estate agent in Kilburn claimed that he coined the name ‘West Hampstead’, for one of the local railway stations. Public amenities such as street lighting, gas and electricity were provided and much of the frontage to West End Lane was developed as shops.

Some of the new estates were the work of big developers like the United Land Company, whose inclination was to build fairly densely, and during the latter decades of the 19th century parts of West Hampstead became increasingly working-class in character, with policeman, travelling salesmen and railwaymen mixing with clerks and artisans. Engineering workshops operated near the railway lines.

Twentieth-century building was limited mainly to interwar blocks of flats in the north of the district, often in place of Victorian houses that had already become run-down.

The West Hampstead ward now has relatively few families and a great number of young single people. A large proportion of homes are privately rented and fewer than a quarter of adults are married, compared with more than half for the country as a whole. This socio-economic profile is evident in the upmarket cafés that have lined West End Lane in recent years.

Famous West Hampstead residents have included the singers Dusty Springfield, Joan Armatrading, Olivia Newton John and Jimmy Somerville, author Doris Lessing, actresses Imelda Staunton and Emma Thompson, and the playwright Joe Orton, who lived on West End Lane with his lover Kenneth Halliwell from 1951 to 1959. Stephen Fry has also lived here.