Kilburn, Middlesex

Historical Description

Kilburn, a metropolitan suburb, partly in the parish and parliamentary borough of Hampstead, county of London, and partly in the parish of Willesden, Middlesex. It lies on the Edgware Road, the Old Watling Street, at the head of Col-bourne Brook near the Grand Junction Canal, 4½ miles NW from St Paul's, and 2½ from Hyde Park Corner. It has stations on the L. & N.W.B., M.R., and Metropolitan and North London Railway, and is in the NW Suburban Postal District of London. It was anciently a hamlet known as Cuneburn; it had till 1722, on ground called the Abbey Field, remains of a Benedictine nunnery, a cell to Westminster Abbey, founded on the site of Godwin's hermitage; it continued till a recent period to be a rural village, containing several genteel houses; it has of late undergone great and rapid extension, and it now is a populous suburb of London. The Paddington Cemetery here has an area of 24 acres, and Church of England and Dissenting mortuary chapels. There is a recreation ground of 30 acres, which was formed under the Highgate and Kilburn Open Spaces Act, 1886. The ecclesiastical parish of St Mary was formed from the parish of Hampstead in 1863. It has an area of 334 acres; population, 6963. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of London; net yearly value,, £687 with residence, in the gift of the Church Patronage Society. The church is a building of Kentish rag in the Early English style. The ecclesiastical parish of Holy Trinity was formed in 1867 from the parish of Willesden. It has an area of 400 acres and a population of 7624. The living is a perpetual curacy; gross yearly value, £500 with residence. The church is a building of brick and stone in the Early Decorated style. The ecclesiastical parish of St Augustine was formed in 1870 from the parishes of St Mary, Kilburn, St Mark, Marylebone, and St Saviour, Paddington. It has an area of 34 acres and a population of 5431. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of London; gross yearly value, £300. The ecclesiastical parish of St John the Evangelist was formed in 1872 from the parish of Holy Trinity, Kilbum. It has an area of 709 acres and a population of 13, 572. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of London; gross yearly value, £430. The church is a building of stone in the Early English style. The consolidated chapelry of St Luke was formed in 1877, by Order of Council, from the parishes of Holy Trinity, Kilburn, and St John, Kensal Green. It has a population of 5593. The living is a perpetual curacy; gross yearly value, —£300. The church is a building of brick in the Early English style. The Episcopal chapel of St Paul is a proprietary chapel, and the living is a perpetual curacy; net yearly value,, £300. There is a Roman Catholic church, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and there are Baptist, Bible Christian, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels, some mission halls, and a Salvation Army barracks. A cottage in it was Goldsmith's residence when he wrote the " Vicar of Wakefield " and the "Deserted Village," but was taken down in 1837 to give place to villas. The Colbourne brook, which rises here, goes to Bayswater, supplies the Serpentine, and falls into the Thames at Rane-lagh. A medicinal spring which adjoins the site of the old priory was formerly of much note.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Kilburn from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Kilburn)

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Middlesex is online.

Maps

Online maps of Kilburn are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)