Willesden Green

Just one stop on from Kilburn but it seemed much further. Stepping off the tube onto the platform I was immediately struck by a much more attractive and characterful station mainly because this one has many of its original features from when it was rebuilt in 1925. The station was opened in 1879 when the Metropolitan railway was extended out from Baker Street. Charles Walter Clark was responsible for the design of this station when it was rebuilt. He designed 25 stations in total. Willesden Green is now a listed building. 

 

Willesden Green is one of the few stations to retain all its platform buildings from the old metropolitan railway.

The colours of the tiles take you back in time. This is the waiting room.

At the end of the waiting room you can see the Mark Wallinger labyrinth hanging on the wall. Wallinger was asked to create an art installation to celebrate the tube's 150th anniversary in 2013. He decided to create a labyrinth for each of the 270 tube stations. Each one is unique to that station. They represent the maze that is the underground system and life's journey being a labyrinth. They are not always in such an obvious place as this one but a little search will usually reveal its whereabouts.

The ticket hall interior still retains the original green mosaic tiling. This was mentioned as one of the reasons for the station becoming Grade II listed in 2006.

The exterior was also a pleasant surprise with its white marble looking so bright and clean in the morning sunshine. 

The diamond shaped clock is a trademark of the designer Charles Walter Clark.

Across the road from the station is a more modern mosaic displaying the name of this small town.

In the middle of the town's name is this mosaic of a cat. This is the first of a series of cat mosaics that are going to be created by the local community and displayed around the the high street. The mosaics are based on the cat designs of Louis Wain (1860-1939) a local resident and cat illustrator. This mosaic of 'Louis' the cat was made by over 30 members of the local Willesden Green community. I spotted this second cat mosaic a little further down the high street.

This is the first time I have visited Willesden Green so I decided to begin with a walk down the high street, Walm Road. The first shop that took my eye was The Galaxy Newsagent, a common type of shop usually found close to a station selling newspapers, soft drinks, sweets and cigarettes. However, not many advertise stocking Havana Cigars! Were they really selling genuine Havana cigars? I wonder how old that sign is as I can't remember the last time I saw someone smoking a cigar. I didn't go inside to ask but now I wished I had.

The high street was full of shops but it looked very quiet for a Monday morning.

A variety of eating places but more of a cafe culture here than a fast food culture which seemed to be present in Kilburn, the last station I visited. The range of shops and restaurants reflects the diversity of the area.

At the end of the High Road is Willesden Green library. The Victorian library has been extended to provide a library, art gallery, community meeting rooms. a performance space as well as Brent Museum and archives. The building has been the subject of disputes between the local council and the community. In 1984 Brent Council wanted to demolish the old Willesden Library's late Victorian facade seen here. Locals protested and the decision was reversed. A modern library was built behind the old library. Again in 1988 the Council tried again to demolish the Victorian library building but again were unsuccessful. Finally developers withdrew their plans. The 1990 library building was demolished and the Victorian facade was incorporated into the design for the new library. The design won the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architecture) London award in 2017.

The library is now a locally listed heritage building and recently celebrated its 125th anniversary.

Inside the library.

On one floor of the library is the Brent Museum with some very interesting displays about the history of the Borough.

I left the high street and turned down Willesden Lane. I am so glad I did because I came across this Buddhist temple. It is called the True Buddha Temple. The building was once a Welsh chapel and Welsh Boys' school until declining numbers led to it being sold 11 years ago. It was bought and converted into a Buddhist Temple in the mid 1990s. The cross was removed  and put in safe keeping at the back of the church. Symbols and items important to the Buddhist faith were added to the old church and built in the grounds.

A Kouro was placed in front of the temple. This is a deep bowl with a small roof that contains incense and ash used for purifying.

A rather fierce looking Buddha looked on from the garden.

 

The Buddhist faith has many different strands. The 'True Buddha' is one of the newer forms of Buddhism. It has about 5 million followers around the world. Anyone is welcome to visit the temple but sadly it wasn't open at the time I visited.

On the same road and just a few minutes walk away is this Hindu temple which also took over a disused church building. In the 1960s and 1970s, Gujarati communities began to settle in the Willesden area. Many were refugees from East Africa, especially Uganda, where the dictator Idi Amin had ordered their expulsion from the country. 

This group of Hindus were looking for a place of worship for their growing community and so the building of the Shree Swaminarayan temple at Willesden began. In 1975 the temple began in the old church but as the congregation grew it took over the building next door. It was then decided to demolish both buildings and build this three storey temple which opened in 1988. It is now one of the biggest temples in Europe.

I liked the wide suburban roads in this area. The ones I walked down were all clean and very quiet.

Many religions are represented in the streets close to the high Street. Around the corner on Brondesbury Park is a synagogue. There was considerable Jewish immigration at the end of the 19th century into Brondesbury and Willesden Green. Then again prior to the outbreak of WW2 about half a million European Jews fled to England to escape persecution in Europe. This lead to the establishment of several synagogues in this area.

One of the most impressive churches close to the station is St Gabriel's Church. It was consecrated in 1897 and is now grade II listed. In 1891 an Iron Church was built on the site of the present church hall. An iron church or tin tabernacle is a type of prefabricated ecclesiastical building made from corrugated galvanised iron. They were developed in the mid 19th century and it became a cheap way of building churches, chapels and mission halls. The iron church was built on land bought from All Souls College, Oxford who were big land owners in the area. The congregation soon outgrew the iron church which could only accommodate 300 people. Fund raising began and a new church was built on land given by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the foundation stone was laid in 1896. The Iron Church was converted to a church hall once the new church was built. The church bells which were installed in 1919 came from Whitechapel bell foundry that also made Big Ben and the Liberty Bell.

Walking back to the station I came across another place of worship, the Central Mosque of Brent. The mosque was established in 1981. Next to the mosque is the Pakistan Community Centre. It began life as the Pakistan Workers Association in 1965 helping the newly arrived migrant workers from the Indian subcontinent to find jobs and housing.

The mosque was next to the railway lines so a short walk brought me back to the station. I enjoyed my walk round Willesden Green with its clean, wide streets and interesting High Street. But I'll probably remember its wide range of places of worship more than anything else.

Kilburn

 This is the 19th station I have visited on the Jubilee Line. The station opened as Kilburn and Brondesbury in 1879 as part of the Metropolitan railway, which later became the Metropolitan tube line. Originally it was just a two track line through the station but that was quadrupled in 1913. As with other previous stations the Metropolitan line services were transferred to the Stanmore line of the Bakerloo line in the 1930s and then transferred again to the Jubilee line in 1979. 

The station has an island platform and only serves the Jubilee line. The Metropolitan tube trains run through the station on the outer tracks. The height of the platform wasn't changed when tube trains began to use the station and consequently instead of stepping down onto the platform you have to step up to the platform as you exit the train.

The platform is enhanced with some raised flower beds. These ones contain herbs.

The station was extensively rebuilt when it was transferred to the Bakerloo line and then refurbished in 2005 but the 1930s buildings remain.

The station entrances look as though they have been squeezed into the spaces between the railway bridges.

 
The blue railway bridge has the name 'Metropolitan Railway' and the year 1914 emblazoned across it, the year the extension to the track and this viaduct would have been completed.

The station brings you out onto Kilburn High Road. The road is part of an ancient roman road which runs from the north-east side of Hyde park to St Albans. In Anglo-Saxon times the road became known as Watling Street. It started at the ports in Kent, going through Canterbury, London following an almost straight path to Wales. In the 12th century Kilburn became a popular resting point for pilgrims on their way to the shrine at St Albans. A priory was developed here which provided food and shelter for the pilgrims but under the Dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536, it closed and nothing of it remains. The earliest industries in the area were tile and brickmaking. Tile making in Kilburn was first mentioned in the early 16th century. By the late 19th century there were coachbuilders, bicycle manufacturers and a railway signal factory in the area. The developing town of Kilburn was centred around this road. By  the 1880s, Kilburn High Road had more than 300 shops. Foreign nationals, some of them Jewish immigrants owned a number of the shops. There was considerable poverty and overcrowding in Kilburn in the 19th century. By 1890 20% of families in Kilburn were classified as living in poverty. After the 2nd World War much of London needed rebuilding.  In Kilburn, this meant a reduction in industry and the replacement of overcrowded slums with flats. Many of the labourers were Irish leading to Kilburn being given the nickname 'County Kilburn'.  Today it is a very diverse area. In the 1970s a number of people from the Caribbean and Asia moved to Kilburn. The 2011 census showed that almost half the residents were not born in the UK.

The road connects several stations including two underground ones. Kilburn Park on the Bakerloo line and Kilburn on the Jubilee line. 

Beneath the Kilburn station bridges are a couple of fading murals. These were part of the Signal Project in 2004 to bring together graffiti artists and the local community. The murals included characters from the works of Kilburn residents George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and  H.G. Wells's 'War of the Worlds'. The murals also include the Gaumont State Cinema as well as representation of Kilburn's Irish and Black communities. At the time it was the largest public graffiti art ever commissioned in the UK and was voted Best Mural by Time Out magazine in 2006.

This is Folkies, an independent music shop near the station. Looking in through the window I could see a large range of stringed instruments.

At the last count there were 16 pubs on Kilburn High Road and this was one of the biggest. The Black Lion is a Grade II listed building built by R A Lewcock in 1898. The pub was closed when I visited but I managed to take a few photos of the interior through the windows.

One of the main reasons for it being listed is the plasterwork ceiling and the several gilded bas relief plaques by Frederick Callcott (sculptor).

Another pub from the same era is the Sir Colin Campbell. The pub was named after the first Baron Clyde (1792-1863) most famous for his campaigns during the Crimean War and his service in India. His leadership inspired a group of his former soldiers to open a pub in his honour. The pub now has an Irish following with traditional Irish folk music  performed here at the weekends.

Across the road from the pubs is this building from 1929. The building has had many different uses during its lifetime. It was built as a meeting place for the local branch of the Foresters' Friendly Society which provided financial and social support to its members. In the 1930s the building was also used as a music hall.  When war broke out in 1939 it was used as an air raid shelter and a food distribution point. The society continued its work in the 1950s and 60s helping West Indian immigrants now known as the Windrush Generation. (The Windrush generation is the name given to around 500.000 people who moved to the UK between 1948 and 1971 from Caribbean countries. Some of them arrived on a ship called the Empire Windrush.)

In 1979 the building was sold by the Foresters' Society to a  theatre group called the Wakefield Tricycle Company. The Society continued to operate from a small office nearby. The theatre company established itself with political and thought provoking plays. In 1987 the building was destroyed by fire and took two years to be rebuilt.

 In 1998 a new cinema was opened next to it which provided more rehearsal space. The entrance to the cinema is around the corner.  Another project in 2018 improved the facilities once again and the Tricycle theatre re-opened as The Kiln with a new cafe, rehearsal rooms and a flexible stage. The Kiln also has a 300 seat cinema. 

The most well known building on Kilburn High Road is the Gaumont State Cinema which opened in December 1937. It seated 4000 people and had a separate dance hall and restaurant. It was the largest cinema in Europe at the time. The 37m high tower appears to have been inspired by the Empire State building in New York hence the inclusion of the word 'State' in its name. The tower housed the theatre's own radio station and could be seen for miles around becoming a local landmark. The building houses the Wurlitzer organ and is the largest working organ of its kind in Britain. It is one of the few cinema organs than remains in its original location. It seems that the organ is now in a poor condition and has not been played for several years.

Here is a poster from Brent Museum advertising the organ and its music.

Gracie Fields, Larry Adler and George Formby performed at the opening ceremony which was broadcast live on BBC radio in December 1937. From the 1950s to the 70s live concerts were held here with stars such as Frank Sinatra, Buddy Holly, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who and many others. As was the fate of many cinemas and theatres in the 1980s it became a Bingo Hall before closing in 2007. In July 2010 it was reopened by the Ruach Ministries church and still functions as a church today.

Another large building on Kilburn High Road is The Grange. Once the site of the Grange mansion  it opened as a 2000 seat cinema in 1914. The cinema closed 60 years later and the building became the National Club in 1976 and was a popular music venue for the large local Irish community. As well as Irish showbands it also featured other well known performers including Johnny Cash, Simply Red and David Bowie until it closed in 1999. It became a listed building in 1991. Now the building is used by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

Behind the old Grange Cinema is Kilburn Grange Park. Once part of the Grange estate it opened as a park in 1913 and is looked after by the London Borough of Camden and includes a children's playground, tennis courts, garden and outdoor gym equipment

I walked through Grange park and came out onto Kingsgate Road. This building is the Kingsgate community centre and embedded in the wall is this decorative foundation stone laid by Lucy Baldwin. From 1892 until her death in 1945 she was the wife of Stanley Baldwin, three time Prime Minister and, as with this plaque, was known as Mrs Stanley Baldwin.

Opposite the community centre is this old Victorian factory which is now a multi use art space providing workspace for a mix of artists and designers.

On my way back to the station I came across, quite by chance, Maygrove Peace Park. A small park but one that struck a chord with me today. Today, began the third week of fighting in the Ukraine.  A war that has shocked the world. A war where thousands will lose their lives, millions will lose their homes and for what? Just so one paranoid bully can claim to be all powerful.  

On the 27th April 1983 Camden Council agreed to designate Maygrove as a peace park as a reminder of the council's commitment to peace. The opening of the park was timed to coincide with the 39th anniversary of Nagasaki Day on 9th August 1984 with a thousand white balloons released over the park.

At the Maygrove Road entrance is Hamish Black's 'Peace Crane' which represents a Japanese origami crane which is linked to the story of a little girl called Sadako who survived the bombings of Hiroshima only to fall ill ten years later. To help her get well, she started to make 1000 paper cranes because it was said to bring good luck. Sadako died just before her task was complete. Her friends were devastated. In her honour a statue of a girl holding a golden crane was built as the Children's Peace Monument in Hiroshima Peace Park.

Winding through the park is Peace Walk with seven stones inscribed with messages of peace from famous people over the years.

At the top of the park sits Antony Gormley's 'Untitled (listening)' statue on top of a granite block which symbolises 'part of the old deep history of the planet and sculpted by time..'

The world is listening to the cries of the Ukrainians. Peace in our time seems a very long way off.