In 2005 the London Borough of Brent, in partnership with the South Kilburn New Deal for Communities, produced a planning document that sought to regenerate South Kilburn. The aim was to transform the area from a housing estate into a sustainable urban area. The Council is now looking at how individual sites would come forward in a number of key phases, taking advantage of available funding from different sources.

However this is not the first time that the area has been subject to developments. South Kilburn has a long history and Elaine Cavanagh investigates.

“What greater contrast could there be? Modern day Kilburn, with all its hustle and bustle of urban life, owes its heritage to a small, peaceful community of nuns.

The area, which began developing on the banks of a stream called Kilburn Brook, has its origins in a 12th century priory and in the earliest recording of its name, in 1134, it appears as Cuneburna, which is believed to be a reference to either the priory or the stream.
The priory is long gone. The same, however, cannot be said for one of Kilburn’s other key links to its past – Kilburn High Road.

It may have begun life as an ancient track but it had a pivotal role as a route linking the important centres of Canterbury and St Albans. In Anglo-Saxon times it became known as Watling Street. The priory’s location where the river met Watling Street meant it became a popular resting point for pilgrims.

The major route also encouraged pubs to spring up – notably the Red Lion, the Cock and The Bell Inn. They enjoyed varying reputations, not always good ones, and The Bell was demolished and re-built in 1863.

It may have been a landmark for pilgrims and travellers but it was some time before Kilburn’s indigenous population took off to any extent.

The Kilburn stretch of Watling Street gradually developed with inns and farm houses. Several houses – mainly on the Hampstead side – were built in the 17th century. Houses were eventually also built on the Kilburn Priory estate and at Kilburn Square. But road conditions were poor, including the scourge of highwaymen, and this is one reason why the area remained largely rural until the mid-19th century.

Things improved, however. By the mid-Victorian period the built up area of London had reached the southern boundary of South Kilburn and circumstances appeared to be set fair for its transformation into a middle-class suburb.

That was because one of the most important pre-conditions – regular transport services – was already present. A flurry of train stations opened but it was mainly the rapidly improving bus services from the Edgware Road that encouraged development – towards the end of the 19th century South Kilburn was served by over 45 buses an hour!

In the second half of the 19th century house building expanded from South Kilburn moving northwards.Between 1857 and 1867 local builder James Bailey developed an area around Cambridge Gardens and, later, estates east of Edgware Road emerged. Churches, schools and modern amenities, such as street lighting, followed. And the area became a thriving commercial centre. By 1909 there were already around 300 shops.

One lifelong resident of South Kilburn – 87-year old Edith Richards – clearly remembers the strong retail offer of several years later.

Edith, who was born in Denmark Road, says one of her favourite memories is that of the “lively, vibrant high street and market”. The market, she recalls, included four butchers, three bakers, a haberdashery, a Home & Colonial store, three greengrocers , a boot menders and a fish & chip shop. And she says: “On the street where I lived there were seven shops on each corner and a pub.”

Kilburn is currently undergoing huge amounts of redevelopment as part of a regeneration process. But this is by no means the first time this is happened.

Over time some of the buildings that went up during the building boom of the 19th century fell into dis-repair. Sites around Alpha Place North, West and Alpha Mews were obtained under a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) in the 1930s. Later sites in Chichester Road and Canterbury Terrace that suffered war damage were cleared and new blocks of flats built.

By the 1950s the area was formally proposed for comprehensive redevelopment. This was due to be a phased process with buildings that lie within what is now the South Kilburn Conservation Area scheduled for later stages. However, the scheme was not fully implemented leaving many streets in that area preserved as you see them today – Italian influenced and ornate in design and rhythmical in layout with low walls and tall entrance pillars.

But the wider area began to witness major change as what was known as the ‘Greater London Plan’ called for a reduction of Kilburn’s historic but declining industries – tile making, coachbuilding, and a railway signal manufacturing among them – and proposals that the factories they occupied be replaced by residential flats.

Development work continued to transform areas of Kilburn throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The South Kilburn Estate was given planning consent in 1959, extended in 1963 and further developed in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Eleven tower blocks that characterise the area were consented and built over that period.

Today, the regeneration process that includes new developments on the sites of Gordon House and Marshall House, is the latest manifestation of this constant process of change. Views amongst residents are mixed. Edith Richards voices concerns about the changing nature of South Kilburn and the prospect of moving to new accommodation.

Edith, who was a dinner lady at Carlton Vale and Kilburn Park schools, does, however, like one constant feature of the area – and that is the number of people she still meets who were children at the schools where she worked. “I see them on the bus. They come up and kiss me and they treat me with respect,” she says.

Fifty-five year old Stephanie Barrett moved to South Kilburn from Wembley Park 10 years ago. She was offered other areas but liked Kilburn because it was “not too claustrophobic”.

Now chair of KCA Residents Association, she believes the multi-cultured, mixed and skilled nature of the area makes it one where “you can actually learn”. And she says she likes to describe the area as the “spice of life”.

She welcomes the new developments believing they will make people feel, as she puts it, “that they actually have a home”.