Maxilla Gardens , 1908 from St Mark’s Road. Photo: RBK&C Local Studies.
In recent years Maxilla Walk (previously Maxilla Gardens) has been familiar to the local community as a small patch of green that hugs the motorway. For many years it was used annually for the much loved Westway fireworks display (sadly no longer) and for Maxilla Nursery School, also now closed. There seem to be few pictures of the small road that ran from Cambridge Gardens, curving round to come out on St Mark’s Road. These houses were of generous proportions with front gardens and basement, all demolished to make way for Westway, so it was good to hear from Brian who sent in both photos and stories of the original Maxilla Gardens.
A second account written by one of his neighbours, Audrey Burtt (nee Waite) follows. Thanks to Audrey for sending it in. Because of its length, I have added it to this posting rather than putting it as a ‘comment’.
Growing up in Maxilla Gardens –An account by Dr Brian Wybrow Ph.D. (London)
OS map 1950 showing 11a Maxilla Gardens. Where Maxilla Gardens exited on Cambridge Gardens there is now a house.
My parents, and my brother and sister, moved to 11a Maxilla Gardens from Cornwall Crescent W11, before WWII. The houses had a first, second, and third floor, with a basement flat below, presumably originally for the servants. This was in the times when the street had (from my mother Edith’s memory) top hatted men on duty at the gates to Maxilla Gardens, at the entrances from St Mark’s Road and Cambridge Gardens. The houses in Cambridge Gardens were similar, with a basement flat, but tended to be semi-detached, with a side-passage between each pair of houses. We, of course, in our basement flat had the advantage of the garden, and this was essential for my father’s building business. My father, Harold Wybrow, was a Master Builder before, and after WWII, living in Maxilla Gardens until 1957, and then moving to Clarendon Road, W11. He worked for a Mr Crump, an Edwardian gentleman who owned lots of houses in North Kensington. Harold worked with my brother, Clive, and the building business was based at 11a Maxilla Gardens, North Kensington, W10, with the ladders, etc., in the back garden. They maintained houses all over North Ken. and would have been very well known to those who lived in the associated houses.
The surrounding streets, e.g. Cambridge Gardens, Oxford Gardens, and St Marks Road, were all about of the same standard, but Rillington Place (famous for the Christie Murders) was rather older looking, and more primitive, with quite short, sometimes concreted, front gardens, and narrow, cramped rear gardens. There was thus rather a contrast between our side of the railway to the North, and the other, to the South!
During my early years, after WWII, from about 1947 onwards, I remember that Maxilla Gardens was a peaceful street, due to its “U” shape, with little traffic. We children had the street to ourselves, playing cricket (at the other end, where Maxilla Gardens joined Cambridge Gardens; my stretch was from the St Marks Road end, down to the bend) and many games were played, including, Rounders, Hopscotch (marked on the pavement with chalk, outside 11a) and of course, hide and seek; plus stone throwing (no doubt getting on the nerves of neighbours!). I used to help the Express Dairy milkman deliver milk from his horse-drawn milk cart, and I remember the street being re-laid a number of times. They used wooden blocks; covered them with tar, and then spread sand on that. They then rolled over that with a steam roller.
Brian outside 11a Maxilla Gardens looking towards St Mark’s Road
When living in Maxilla, I attended Lancaster Road Infants School, which was situated in the continuation of St Marks Road past the junction with Lancaster Road, on the left, and near the corner; it had large green gates for access in Camelford Road, and I used to like the gates being open, because of the connection with “the outside world”! I attended Oxford Gardens School from the age of 7 years, to 11. Following this, I attended Haverstock School, Chalk Farm, and I then attended Holland Park School, from 1959 to 1961.
Our basement flat had an internal staircase up to the first floor, which was presumably originally used by the servants. In our time, there was a brown curtain draped across the bottom of these stairs, and I often felt rather scared when I was in the house on my own, which was quite often! For instance, in the winter, I would get home from school before my mother came home from her work as a cleaner/housekeeper for some wealthy people around Kensington, and the house would be rather spooky. We only had lino on the floors, and, because the coal fire had “died out”, the house would be cold when I came home from school. The solitary feeling, coupled with the dark winter atmosphere, led me to put on the wireless as soon as I got in (to listen to Children’s Hour) and as many lights as possible; whilst the cellar, just to the right of the front door, added to the drama. As one walked down the passageway to the kitchen, with a narrow, partitioned off bathroom to the right, one passed that curtain, and the stairs to the first floor flat. It always scared me!
Brian with his sister Shirley.
One entered the basement flat via the front door, which was on the right, at the bottom of a set of steps, which were to the left of the steps which led up to the first floor flat. The region to the left of the basement steps, and in front of the basement bay window, was known as “The Area”, and there was a gap of about two and a half feet between the front of the bay, and the wall holding back the front garden. I had a pedal-driven jeep, which I am amazed to remember that I threw down the steps when I wanted to come in! I also used to play “buck and four stones” at the top of our steps.
Pat Friend (the friend of my sister, Shirley) who lived next door to us, at number 9, in the first floor flat, moved to Maxilla at the age of about 8 in about 1936, and Pat has told me that she did have electricity, but that she remembered the man coming to “light the gas lamps in the street, with a long pole”. We had electricity, but I do remember my mother plugging the electric iron into the lighting socket, which was presumably because the, I believe, only two-pin, mains socket in the room, was being used for something else, probably the radio. We had a second-hand radiogram, at one stage, and a radio that could receive all wavelengths (Short, Medium, and Long). The aerial for the radio was strung-up into the Poplar tree at the end of the back garden. My brother Clive used to climb the tree, with me following him. We must have got higher than the railway line!
We did not have a television until we moved to Clarendon Road, but I used to go to a neighbour’s house around the corner, to watch children’s’ television with other children. We watched “Muffin the Mule”.
In the right-hand corner of the kitchen, at number 11a, and built against the wall overlooking the back garden, there had been a “copper”, which was originally used as a boiler for water, but this was not used in my time. The kitchen sink was a large white one, of rectangular shape; now popular as the “in thing”. It was located against the back wall, and just below the kitchen window, which overlooked the garden. The sink had just one cold-water tap.
Brian with his mother, Edith, looking northeast towards No 9 Maxilla Gardens
My father used to boil a bucket of water on the gas cooker, which was just beyond the entrance to the bathroom, and was located against the party wall with number 13a, Maxilla Gardens. Many of these “buckets full of hot water” were tipped into the adjacent bath. Alternatively, I would have a “bath”, in front of the coal fire, in the front room of the house, standing up, in a so-called tin bath, which was probably made from galvanised iron. Clothes washing was either done in the bath or sink (neither, very often) or at the “Bagwash” (very often, and particularly the bed sheets) which was located at the bottom of Lancaster Road, opposite the swimming baths. I believe that one would go to collect it when it was ready, but I also believe that it was delivered to us. We cleaned our teeth with, I believe, toothpaste from a small round, low profile, metal container; and shampoo was in a sachet.
Washing was hung out on a conventional clothes line, with a pole to support it, in the garden, but others, living in the first floor flats of some of the houses, used a continuous clothes line that had a pulley wheel fixed to one of the poplar trees at the end of the garden, so that they could put out, and then retrieve, their washing.
The coal fire needed the ash emptying almost every day, and it was rather messy. It also had to be lit every day, unless it had been “kept alive”. My father used to frighten me and my mother by placing a newspaper across the front of the fire, in order to draw the air into the fire place, via the grill, below. This paper would often catch fire, but my father would quickly screw it up into a ball, and throw it up the chimney! Although it did not happen to us, this could well have been the cause of some chimney fires, or even house fires!
Sometimes some paraffin would be added from a paraffin lamp (used for my father’s plumbing work) to “get the fire going”! Chimneys often caught fire, due to the build-up of soot on the internal brickwork up to the chimney pot on the roof. The Chimney Sweep, with his collection of interconnecting wooden “rods”, having threaded metal ends (male threads at one end, and female threads at the other) connected at the end with the “brush”, used to come every few years to clean out the soot which had built up in the chimney.
Since we lived in the basement flat, we had our coal delivered by so-called “shooting it” down the “coal hole”; a hole in the roughly horizontal concrete path, leading to the steps which rose to the front door of No. 11. The hole was covered by a metal cover, which thieves would try to lift out, in order to get into the house via the cellar! This was countered by having a lock inside, or having a lock on the cellar door, inside the house. The gas meter, which was in the cellar, was a prime target! One could hear the roar and tumble of the coal as it entered the coal cellar, and, since we had no light in our cellar, it was dark, and spooky, and had that characteristic smell of coal dust. The coal came in a horse-drawn cart, operated by I believe, Earlies Coal (spelling may be wrong) which I believe had a depot at West Drayton.
The stairs to the first floor from our flat, were generally unused, except in WWII, when the people on the first floor (“the Proctors”) would come down and shelter in our flat. One place to “hide” from the “bombing”, was the cupboard under the internal stairs to the first floor flat. I had one of those WWII babies’ gas masks but would not go into it. However, I did play with it and with the family gas masks, after WWII. I also used to play with my father’s bits of electrical equipment, such as wires, transformers, a meter, and other junk, and all of this (which was a great inspiration for a future scientist and inventor) was in an old Bluebird Toffee tin! My father also used to make me toy soldiers, from lead (poisonous!) moulded in a special moulding block, into which he would pour the molten lead which had been melted in a pot on the gas stove. He would then wait for it to cool down, so that the toy soldiers would solidify.
There were two cupboards in the hallway. One cupboard was on the left, just beyond the entrance to the front room, and the other, was also on the left, and was located just before the entrance to the kitchen and after the entrance to the back room. Both cupboards were full of my father’s tools, general “junk” (including shrapnel which was collected by my brother and sister; after the bombing) and paint tins; although many of these tins were stored outside. During WWII, there were thus just two rooms; for two adults and three children!
Brian’s brother Clive in the back garden.
We only had an outside toilet (those upstairs must have had internal toilets). Outside, at the rear, immediately outside the back door, the area was covered by the floor of the first floor flat, from the outside of the rear bedroom wall, to a line about three or four feet back from the front of the kitchen wall. After exiting via the back door of the kitchen, you would see the outside toilet, under cover, in the left corner of the intersection of the continuation outwards, of the rear bedroom wall, with the wall dividing 11a Maxilla from number 9a, next door. Mr Waites and Family, lived at number 9a; he was an electrician, and above him, on the first and second floors, lived Pat Friend (my sister Shirley’s friend) and her mother, Doris. Mr Waites would often sit in a hammock, in his rear garden. Pat has told me that, roughly opposite 11a, a famous Band Leader, named Sydney Lipton, and his daughter, Celia Lipton, who was a famous actor and singer, lived for a period.
My mother used to collect her groceries from a small grocers shop on the left side of St Marks Road, in its stretch which continued on the other side of Lancaster Road, beyond Lancaster Road Infants School, and she used an open-topped, single-handled, wickerwork shopping basket to get her daily shopping. Other shopping was done in Ladbroke Grove, Portobello Road, Shepherds Bush (particularly the market) and in Hammersmith; which latter two, were travelled to by Metropolitan Line train from Ladbroke Grove. There were also trips to Edgware Road (where my grandparents on my mother’s side, lived) by train from Ladbroke Grove Station. My grandparents on my father’s side, died before I was born, and although my grandmother died before WWII, my grandfather was alive during WWII, but was “bombed out ” of the family’s “second hand-come builders’ supplies shop” in Westbourne Grove. A frequently bought meal, was fish and chips, wrapped in newspaper in the early days, and bought either in Ladbroke Grove or at the bottom of Lancaster Road, opposite the swimming baths.
I remember that the lady in the top flat of the house opposite number 9, in which Mrs Reynolds lived (first floor flat) often used to throw down her door key, plus money, wrapped in paper or a cloth, so that I could go round to the newsagents (named Maslin’s and later Thomas’s; or the reverse!). I got just threepence for that! I always used to be going into the newsagents to ask if my “Beano” and “Dandy” comics were in. Later, I also had “The Eagle” comic, which was quite instructive.
Brian in the back garden with a fish.
I remember the winter of 1947, during which the gutters of the houses had icicles about 18 inches long hanging from them, and that it was always very cold and snowing.
A boy named Terry (no surname known) who lived above Mrs Reynolds, once went to the White City Stadium with me and my parents, and we spoke to Gordon Pirie, the long distance runner, in the region underneath the stadium seats. My parents often went to the White City, more often, greyhound racing, and I was always dropping used tickets through the gaps, in the concrete seating/standing area, for the supporting pillars for the roof, to see if I could get them to land on mens’ trilby hats! There was not much else to do! I also used to collect “Turf” cigarette cards, which were part of the packaging for the cigarettes.
We finally moved to Clarendon Road in about 1957, and the house was in complete contrast with the basement flat in Maxilla, which we had rented. We owned the whole house in Clarendon Road, and we occupied the basement flat because of my father’s building business.
Dr Brian Wybrow Ph.D. (Lond.) 30-04-16
Growing up in Maxilla Gardens, London W10 by Audrey Burtt (nee Waite) following an account above by Dr Brian Wybrow PhD
Sisters Audrey and Joyce in front of the dahlias in the garden of No 9 Maxilla Gardens. 1930.
I was very interested to read the account by Dr Wybrow about growing up on Maxilla Gardens, as I was the girl next door to him at No 9. More accurately I was one of the girls next door, as I remember there were four of us between 1920 and 1939. I am now 94 years old and was born Audrey Waite in 1923 at No 9 Maxilla Gardens, following my sister Joyce who was born in 1921. The other two were Barbara Acland and Patricia Friend who came to live in the flat upstairs much later nearer WW2.
Number 9, although attached to No 11 was rather different because it was semi-detached and had a substantial, gated, side passage next to the side passage of No 7. This meant that the garden was wider and that the side wall of the house was pierced by quite a lot of large windows on every floor, thus avoiding the cold and creepy atmosphere felt by Dr Whybrow as a little boy, home alone in a Victorian basement.
My family was lucky, as we shared two floors of No 9, the basement and the first floor with my grandmother, Elizabeth Scott and my unmarried Aunt Florence. So, as children, my sister and I had the run of a fairly large garden which faced south with a flight of iron stairs leading up to the big rooms of the first floor where my grandmother lived. From up there one could get a good view of several other gardens facing south to the huge brick viaduct of the Metropolitan Railway (now Hammersmith and City Line) screened by a row of lovely Lombardy poplars. It was a leafy, flowery part of North Kensington with a horse chestnut in No 5, three purple lilacs at No 7, dahlias and sweet peas at No 9 and ladders and builders’ paraphernalia at No 11. These last were of course essential to Mr Wybrow senior’s successful business as a builder based at 11A Maxilla Gardens until 1957.
Other successes were achieved in those times in Maxilla Gardens. For example, Barbara Acland, the oldest girl next door, won a scholarship to the City of London School and dazzled us all with her scarlet blazer and gym slip. My sister and I, starting out at Oxford Gardens Infant and Junior School both won scholarships to the Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith. Pat Friend, who was much younger and also very pretty did well too. Joyce, Audrey and Barbara met again, by chance at Oxford University where they all got degrees.
Now I must write about another very successful inmate of No 9. His name was Joycelyn Acland, Barbara’s little brother who, when he grew up, became Joss Acland the famous actor. I last saw him in a film, Gosford Park playing an old aristocrat, which he was.
Across the road among the even numbered houses at No 6 possibly, lived a little girl called Celia Lipton, the daughter of Sidney Lipton, a musician who became a famous band leader and his beautiful wife, a singer. Every night, the couple would go off wearing evening dress in a taxi to appear at the Grosvenor Park Hotel in Park Lane, waving goodbye to little Celia watching from her bedroom window. Celia herself became a singer and eventually married a rich American.
After the houses and the people, I must not forget my father, the ‘Mr Waites’ referred to by Dr Wybrow, described asleep on Sundays in a string hammock, strung up in the garden. Harold Waite (not Waites) was a veteran of the 1914-1918 war and afterwards suffered badly from post traumatic stress. He countered this by filling his house, No 9 and his garden with pet animals and birds. We had pigeons in their house in the garden, canaries and budgerigars inside our house, an Alsatian dog, a black cat and finally a large heated tank of tropical fish.
When not attending his pets, my father planted and tended a lovely garden, full of roses, sweet peas, dahlias, lily of the valley etc. He even allowed us to pick the flowers for the house. On Sundays he sang regularly in the choir at St Helen’s Church and he had a fine tenor voice. He soothed this, after the service by drinking a quantity of beer at the Earl Percy in Ladbroke Grove. Consequently on sunny Sundays he slept the whole afternoon in his hammock to the amusement of the family next door.
My sister and I finally left No 9 Maxilla Gardens in August 1939 as evacuees with Godolphin and Latymer School. We landed in Newbury, Berkshire, eventually got to Oxford University and married there. We did not return to Maxilla Gardens until after the Second World War, when we both settled in the North Kensington/Notting Hill area in flats in Kensington Park Gardens.
Audrey Burtt, September 2017
Wartime memories of Maxilla Gardens by Michael Shanahan
From about my very early years our family lived in the basement flat of number 5, and my sister Mary, born in January 1944, was the last of the three children. So, for up to 1945 it was the mainly nightly visits to the bomb shelter that have stayed with me. My father Tom Shanahan worked at the White City Stadium and he was a fire watcher there, so that when the alert went it was my poor mother Julia Shanahan who had the task of getting the (finally) three children out of bed and across the road to our surface shelter. It would of course be crowded and I assume the occupants were from the road itself, but not really certain as who could check when the alarm was given. It was often claimed that John Christie from nearby Rillington Place would take shelter in his duties as an emergency policeman but of course I would have no knowledge of this. One of our neighbours would bring her Aladdin vertical oil heater from her basement flat but she must have had her favourites when it came to who could share in the heat.
Walking from St Marks Road, number 1 Maxilla Gardens was lived in ( four levels of course) by members of the Fisher family and that is about all I knew of the residences; there was an entrance to a builder’s yard adjacent to number 1 but I have no real knowledge of that. At number 3, Mr and Mrs Easley * lived with children Peter and Pam in the basement flat (the area, as it was known then). Mr Easley spent the war years in the army (desert). The lady on the first flor was a Mrs Eales (she had clear memories of the first Boer War) and was fond of her overweight dog called Sally. To my eternal shame I found it funny to see the poor animal swung in a circle by her tail when her owner was not about. Almost as bad as my shouting German Black Sausage at the pet dachshund of a lady at the top of the road by the junction .
For the two levels above I have no memory of who lived there. In the basement of number 5 it was the Shanahan family occupying cramped quarters almost identical to that of the Whybrow family. We however had NO bathroom, but would have to employ the services of a bungalow bath normally dangling from a nail outside. Compared to Brian’s description we were at least self contained. Above us would be Sam and Betty Page and above them was an elderly couple, Mr and Mrs Isaacs, but no memory of the family on the top floor .
We had a garden and my father kept chickens for a number of years. In number 7 was Jack and ? Colpitts* and, initially a nice daughter Dorcas*. A son arrived some years later. Above them were Mr and Mrs Hammond and we were to frequently hear about grandson John. I think the occupants above the Hammonds were a Mr and Mrs Gerrard and with two young children and the husband may have worked in electronics. I recall that they formally complained to the council about my father’s chicken rearing activities, and possibly they were not unfair. The above brings me to the first block of four houses. Of course the back gardens were below the Metropolitan line to Hammersmith and electric trains, plus London Transport steam trains became the delight of my life and still are today.
For brevity I will stop for now.
*The closest spelling I can come to.
Michael Shanahan 2018
Postcript: For more on Maxilla Gardens, see
https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/dreams-of-the-westway-2-desolation-row/
Maxilla Nursery Archive http://maxillaarchive.com/
North Kensington Histories 
Very interesting.
Where in Clarendon Road did you live ?
We lived in a prefab there at no. 62. I also went to Lancaster Road Infants school, and then Colville Junior Mixed in Lonsdale Road.
My father was also in the building business (more painting and decorating really). He partnered with his neighbour, a Mr McCall from Ireland so the business was called McCall and Herlingshaw.
We were there from about 1949 to 1956 before moving to Henry Dickens Court. My father used to keep his ladders and “stuff” in an empty space by the side of the Earl of Zetland pub.
The council was desperate to remove the four prefabs as they considered them an eyesore and had them demolished at the earliest opportunity
Or more accurately one particular councillor who lived nearby in Lansdowne Road.
Thanks Ken, for your comments, and thanks to others, who posted earlier.
Thanks, also, to Audrey, whose contribution has provided me with much more information about No. 9! For instance, I did not know that Jos Ackland lived at No. 9! (This is a link that I found concerning Jos: https://1movies.to/celebrity/joss-ackland-3962) It is very interesting to here what you say. Audrey, Pat Friend now lives in Liverpool, and my sister, Shirley, lives in Largs, Scotland.
Please, all of you “out there” reply, and keep this knowledge of our past, “thriving”. Best wishes to all, from Brian Wybrow. Please note that I no longer have any active websites.
Was there a no 77 Maxilla Gardens? A friend says she found that forwarding address on a packing case of a somewhat mysterious Auntie Dolly! She tells me that she hasn’t been able find any reference to number 77.
More later if anyone is interested
Brian Reid
Melbourne Australia
Hello, Brian. I have provided a link to something which might help. It may be that the address was slightly erroneous, and so, if you look at the link below, you will see that the “70’s” are in St Marks Rd, which one end of Maxilla Gardens used to join. (Maxilla Walk now joins here). Also; see my posts on this North Ken site re. 11A Maxilla. Maxilla Gardens seems to cover only up to the 40’s. Regards. Dr Brian Wybrow Ph.D. (Lond.). http://www.theundergroundmap.com/article.html?id=10353
Thanks Brian.
I have checked with the Anne who provided the information. It was definitely 77. But as you say and I’d worked out from the street plan showing 11a that the numbers didn’t go anywhere near as high as 77.
There seems to be more to this woman Dolly than appears at a first look. She is a series of contradictions! She escaped from the Nazis in Hungary and appeared in several places later both in occupied Europe and England I think. She appeared to have unusual contacts. She was invited to cocktail parties of several post war legations, received an invitation to QE11’s Coronation and I card of some kind from the Home Office (I’ve only seen the cover so far). Several strange names appear in her address book.
Were there any Hungarians living in Maxilla Gardens in WW2? Or were there any WW2 related offices there? As an aside did any bombs fall on the street?
I’m away at the moment at our holiday home but will make more enquiries when I return to Melbourne and get back to you.
Sad to see that the whole street – a whole community – has gone.
Best wishes.
Brian
The electoral registers for 1929, 1933, 1938, 1949 and 1965 all list the highest street number as 41 (latterly 41A).
So it seems pretty certain that there was never a number 77 during the period in question.
regards,
Ken Herlingshaw
Anne’s now wondering if it could have been 11 – as the 7s didn’t have the European horizontal dash. Unfortunately she didn’t take a photo of the packing case.
Thanks, Brian
Thanks Ken; you will eventually see that I have provided some more information about Brian’s enquiry.
I have noticed that I forgot to answer your question concerning where I lived in Clarendon Road. It was 91A (basement flat again, because my father was a builder). My parents owned the whole house until about 1962, and one of our tenants was the Actor Bartlett Mullins. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartlett_Mullins).
Best wishes
Brian
Dear Brian,
Anne who has been the source of the information is now wondering (because the 7s she was on the packing crate weren’t crossed in the European way if the number could have been 11.
Now that’s your old number isn’t it?
Anne’s now sent me a postcard with what I believe to be Dolly’s full name:
Brigadier R Staveley DSO
E & E Branch
IAOC Div HQ CCG
Berlin BOAR
Does the name ring any bells in connection with Maxilla Gardens?
Best wishes
Brian
Hello Broam,
Yes; that does, because Pat Manning who lived at No. 9 Maxilla Gardens, and whom I have just contacted by phone (Pat lives in Liverpool, and is a close friend of my sister, Shirley, who lives in Largs, Scotland. Pat is also a close friend of mine) and she confirms that a person in the military lived at No. 13. Pat said she thought he was a Colonel, so what you say makes sense. Pat believes that the gentleman living at No. 13 owned the whole house, and either he moved out, or died, when the house was subsequently sold. Pat believes that the house was sold to a West Indian housing Foundation in about 1949-1950, for use for letting out. Pat also said that, before the sale of No. 13, there were two sisters living there who played in an orchestra for the BBC. The sisters may have been Audrey’s age, and so, Audrey Wait (see earlier Posts) might know more.
I remember that the downstairs basement flat at No. 13, Maxilla Gardens had vertical bars across the window; which makes sense for security purposes.
it thus seems that the 77 was a badly written, or remembered, 13; or even that the number was incorrect in the first place!
How did Anne become involved with this packing case, and when? It is quite intriguing!
Best wishes.
Brian
In 1949 No. 13 Maxilla was occupied by:
1. Colonel George N Ford
2. Ethel D Vickers
3. Edith G Wheeler
according to the electoral register.
kh
A George N. Ford died in Kensington in late 1952. He was 77 years old.
Might have been the Colonel who lived at no. 13 Maxilla.
It seems that the owner of no. 13 Maxilla was George Newton Ford who was wounded in WW1 and had a significant career in the railways. There is a great deal to be found out about him (including a photograph) at:
http://www.railwaymen-nlr.org.uk/the-senior-officers-of-the-north-london-railway
Hello Brian (sorry for the misspelling of your name).
Keep in touch.
Best wishes
Brian
Hello again Ken,
You have now seen my Post, and thus what Pat said about the occupant of No. 13, seems more correct.
Brian
Hello Ken and Brian.
I have read part of the link which Ken sent, and it is very comprehensive. However, from what I have been able to get from this long document, it only says that George Newton Ford died at 13 Maxilla Gardens; not that he owned the house. Did you, Ken, find any direct ref. to him owning No. 13?. This is what I have copied from that link. (If you hold down “CTRL” with “f”, on the keyboard, you will be able to put in any search term such as “Ford” or “Maxilla”, in order to go directly to the first and subsequent words): “Probate notice shows his address as The Bath Club, 41/43 Brook Street, London, W.1, and care of the National Bank of Scotland, 18 Regent Street, London S.W.1. He died on the 22nd December 1952 at 13 Maxilla Gardens, Kensington. Probate was given on 16th March 1953 to the Public Trustee, and his effects were £39,118 9s 4d. Maxilla Gardens were to the west of Ladbroke Grove underground station and now lying under the A40. It was just a stone’s throw from the family home in Oxford Gardens.” I have not yet read the other Posts from ken.
Brian Wybrow
Hi,
I have no means of knowing whether George N Ford owned no 13 or rented it.
However, he must have lived there as he was on the electoral register more than once.
His previous address at the Bath Club in London was destroyed in WW2 (as per references on the site).
Judging by his probate amount he could probably have been able to buy most of Maxilla Gardens.
It seems to me that George died at his home.
kh
In fact George first appeared on the register at no. 13 in 1948.
In those days the official name for the electoral register was “The Civilian Residence Register”.
kh
Odds and ends about 13 Maxilla.
In 1949 Ethel Dunbar Vickers was living at 13 along with another lady and George Newton Ford.
Ethel was at 13 in 1911, aged 43, single and living with her mother Mary (of private means) who was widowed (plus a household servant and cook).
And indeed the Vickers family and staff were also there in 1901 aged 33.
Which might perhaps indicate that George N Ford was renting rather than the owner of 13.
Ethel died on 1st January 1953 leaving an estate worth 3,605 pounds 14s 3d. She didn’t marry.
This site is absolutely fabulous!
My Brother Arnold & I lived at 41a Maxilla Gardens, We remember Brian & Clive Wybrow also The Summercorn Sisters, Our Father worked in the barber shop in Ladbroke Grove on Saturdays and he always talked about cutting Evans & Christies hair ! We went to a local School called Solomon Woolfson in Lancaster road
In our day we all played in the street untill dark with no worries of safety
Hello Alan.
I was interested to hear your comments. I remember those days in Maxilla Gardens. We used to play cricket using the pillar just up the road from you on the other side of the road from your house. We also used to play rounders. I used to get my hair cut in Ladbroke Grove; often by your Father. I contacted Arnold via Facebook some time ago. You may remember the terrible winter of 1947. We rolled a snowball down to the bottom of Lancaster Road, and by the time we got to just opposite the Swimming Baths, it was huge. Very long icicles were hanging from the gutters in Maxilla Gardens.
Best wishes.
I was most interested to read the comments here, and under the other headings on the site.
It is very interesting and informative, and keeps growing. Just to correct an earlier comment that I made; I now have an active website again.
Best wishes to all.
Just to follow on; the website (which I thought would appear here when I included it, in order to reply) is:
http://www.patently-creative.co.uk.
Best wishes to all.
It`s quite interesting looking at the aerial map how most of the back gardens of the houses on the north side of Maxilla Gdns all join together in a Herringbone pattern like old wood floorings,and also the house on the opposite (South) side has a back garden shaped like a Kipper Tie or a baseball pitch….Some quite substantial houses there with enormous gardens too,one of the Cambridge Gardens houses looks like it was about half the size of a football pitch,I bet there was lots of great great kickabouts and cricket matches and other childrens games in those which went on in the Summertime for about 8 or 9 hours all the way from after lunchtime until it was so dark we kids couldn`t even see the ball in front of our faces,I used to love doing that,we must have grown up being incredibly fit children,in contrast to “Generation Google” we see growing now….In fact quite a lot of doctors have reported they`re seeing illnesses and deaths amongst those in their 20s and 30s they previously would only expect amongst those in their 50s and 60s…Heart disease,obesity and circulation problems etc,and more parents outliving their own children now than ever before because of it….Bit of a grim prognosis really.
Hello Mike. I have only just seen your post, and agree with you entirely. My cousin Carl, and all of the children in Maxilla Gardens used to play in the street there. It was a good play area, and our parents would be calling us in at a very late hour. Those long gardens at the upper end of Cambridge Gardens, from St. Marks Road to Ladbroke Grove, were very long, but the elevated section of the A40, and the service road, has removed much of that “length”!
Where did you live, and when.
Regards
Brian
I lived at number 22a Maxilla Gardens and am Brian’s cousin
Hello Carl. Great to see you on this site now.
If you look at the earlier comments to my input on this site, from a lady who lived near me, you will see that the actor Jos Ackland lived just a few doors away from 11A Maxilla Gardens, towards St. marks road, before we were born, but probably when Clive and Shirley were there, and almost certainly when your Mother and Father, and my Mother and Father, were in Maxilla Gardens: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joss_Ackland
Also, a famous Dance Band Leader, named Sidney Lipton, lived over the road from me in Maxilla Gardens. see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Lipton
As you also Know, Arnold and Alan Carmel lived opposite you in Maxilla Gardens, and the “Browns”, lived above you.
Best wishes
Brian
Alan Carmel here
I lived at 41 Maxilla gds with my brother Arnold
Who was friendly with Brian Wybrow
I seem to remember a younger Wybrow who I was friends with,Carl ? Is that you ?
Yes i do remmber you and all the street games we used to play this is all a lifetime away and now all distent memorys.
In an earlier Post, I said that I no longer have any active websites. But I now have one active website: http://www.patently-creative.co.uk
Best wishes to all followers of this very useful site.
Brian Wybrow
I lived with my brother Clive Basden (5yrs older) in the basement flat on the corner of Maxilla Gardens at 117a Cambridge Gardens until around 1958. We had what seemed as a child, like a considerable size garden with corrugated metal air raid shelter and sloping walls with a narrow platform which we would run along and play mock battles with a group of children I think we called the Ellis gang.
I remember Carl Wybrow used to play with my brother Clive and I think they may have been in the same class at Oxford Gardens School. My memory of last seeing Carl’s mother was when I was 14 and sitting with my mother awaiting results for tests she had had on a breast lump. We bumped into Mrs Wybrow by chance at the canteen in Hammersmith Hospital and whatever the reassuring words of hope she gave my mother were, they really had a profoundly calming effect. Mum was so touched by her kindness. Fortunately the tests were negative!
We moved around the corner to St Helens Gardens until 1966.
I remember feeling heart broken when we moved, as there was such a sense of fun and freedom playing in Maxilla gardens, which I never quite felt again!
Hello Jill. My mother was the other Mrs Wybrow, Edith, who was married to Carl Wybrow’s father’s brother, Harold Wybrow (my father). We lived around the corner at 11A Maxilla Gardens. I remember playing with Clive Basden. Have a look at my entry, at the top of the blog on Maxilla Gardens, plus a few other entries. I agree that Maxilla Gardens was a great place to live. We used to play games outside my house at 11A. We sat on the wall of the front garden. Maxilla was U shaped street, and ideal for children to play. Regards from Brian [(Dr Brian Wybrow (Ph.D.)]
Hello Jill.
I had a lot of bother logging in, since i have not written anything for a long time. I therefore look forward to your reply to confirm things are working o. k. Best wishes.
Brian.
Hello Jill.
I used to live at 11A Maxilla Gardens, and remember Clive Basden. If I have got things right, the garden that you refer to was at a lower level than Maxilla Gardens. I have had difficulty using the site recently, so will not say much yet. You will see that I have made many contributions about Maxilla. The postcard at the top of the Maxilla Blog, shows the street in the earlt 1900’s.
Best wishes.
Brian Wybrow (Ph.D. Lond.)
I see all your excellent posts on Maxilla Gardens, thank you one and all.
I was wondering though if anyone could possibly assist me with my research which connects with 41 Maxilla Gardens please. I am researching an Arthur Melbourne Mead who served with the Scots Guards, Army Service Corps and then the Tank Corps during the First World War and who married a French girl in France in 1918. Arthur was living at 213 Ardgowan Rd, Catford at the time of his death on 9 April 1922. However, Arthur actually died at 41 Maxilla Gardens, per his death certificate, having been found dead in the water closet due to ‘suffocation due to carbon monoxide (from coal-gas) poisoning – Accidental Causes’, per an inquest held on 13 April 1922. All very unfortunate and sad. However, I was wondering what Arthur’s connection might be to 41 Maxilla Gardens and whether anyone knew anything about this please? Arthur’s profession at the time was that of a Church School Teacher.
Any information at all would be of great interest to me please to try and establish the link to 41 Maxilla Gardens, if of course there is one. I look forward to receiving any comments you may have please.
Kind regards, Alistair Small
Hi Alister
I was born at 41a Maxilla Gardens in 1944, my brother Arnold was also born there in 1942
We had the basement flat that had the use of the garden which was very large
Upstairs at 41 my Aunt and Uncle lived with their children Margaret and John and above them in another flat My Aunt’s brother Eddie and his wife Mary
We used to play in the street till dark with no worries of safety.
Alan Carmel
It seems that you have much of this but here goes…
Arthur Melbourne Mead presumably had more of a connection with Catford than Kensington as he was buried/cremated on 15 April 1922 in Lewisham. He was a corporal in the Tank Corps after the Scots Guards and got the War medal and Victory medal. In 1920 he lived at Ardgowan Road, with another Arthur Mead (father ?). In 1918 and 1919 he lived at 213 Ardgowan Road, Lewisham but was listed by himself. However, in 1914 that address’s occupant was just listed as Arthur Mead which might have been either of them.
Arthur Melbourne Mead left £21 in effects to Arthur Mead who was described in the probate register as “attendant”.
Arthur M married Berthe Vangrevelynge on 7 Jan 1918 in Esquelbecq Nord, near Dunkirk. Arthur M’s father was listed as Arthur and he was a “photo-micrographer”. Arthur M was described as a “teacher” at the wedding. Berthe’s father Edouard was a “mechanic”.
It seems that Arthur M was born in 1890/1 and Berthe in 1897/8.
Arthur M lived with his parents, Arthur and Agnes Mead at 157 Elsley Road, Battersea in 1901 along with Arthur M’s siblings Elizabeth, Elsie D and Margaret M. Arthur M was born in Paddington.
Needless to say you are unlikely to find anybody still alive with any personal recollections of 1922.
What happened to Berthe I wonder.
To avoid confusion wherever I have referred to “Arthur M” I mean Arthur Melbourne Mead.
Arthur M was listed as an “absent voter” in 1918 (no surprise, he was in the Army).
I cannot find any record of Berthe actually coming to the UK, only of her marriage to Arthur M in France.
Arthur M’s mother was Elizabeth Agnes Troy who was born in 1867 in Marylebone and died in Lewisham in 1957 aged 91. She was living in Ardgowan Road in 1930 and 1948 (and many other years in between) along with her daughters Elizabeth A and Elsie D. and at the same address in 1921-9 at least with her husband Arthur. Presumably Arthur died around 1929-30.
Thank you everyone for a fascinating site and for the information.
I wondered if anyone could add to it by telling me anything you can recall about my family, the Fishers, who lived at number 1 from at least 1920 to the mid 50s. Michael Shanahan kindly mentioned them in his post.
Living there were my father, Alf or Joe (he used both his names at different times), his sister Nettie and brother Harry. My grandparents were called Louis and Golda. Other parts of the house were occupied by one or two other families.
Dad was born in 1914, so would have been a young child when he moved there. He later worked as a hairdresser. I assume this wasn’t a shop as well as residential – Louis was a tailor but I can’t find out if he had his own business. My family are Jewish, I wondered if people had any sense of that, during wartime maybe?
Any thoughts would be wonderful, thank you in advance.
Alan Fisher
You probably already know this but in 1953 Alfred J Fisher, Nettie Fisher and Golda Fisher lived at no. 1 along with Ethel Mary Nash and Olive Townsend. (electoral roll)
And by 1957 Alfred J Fisher was no longer listed there.
Ken, thank you so much for such a prompt response! I’m researching the family history and came across this terrific site, bringing with it the tantalising chance that someone may remember my family and their time here. I’ve chased this too late – all the family of that generation have long since died and there’s no oral history of the family. I hadn’t realised until I followed up the research today that the family lived there for so long. Dad left to get married and have me in 1955. Thanks again
Sorry again if you know this.
In 1939 at 1 Maxilla there were Louis (b. 14Dec81), master tailor; Golda (b. 11Dec81), unpaid domestic duties; Nettie (b. 15Jun13 or 15Jan13), shorthand typist; Alfred Joseph (b. 10May14) hairdresser manager; Harry (b.2Jul18), local govt office ?? Plus what looks like four other non-family people.
Nettie had some connection with civil defence (this was just before WW2).
This is all handwritten in the records and difficult to read so I might have some things wrong.
Some more odds and ends:
Lewis Fisher was b. in Russia on 14Dec81 and left there on 6Aug01, living initially in Bethnall Green. After a trip to NY in 1902 he lived in Bloomsbury in 1911. His father was Nathan (b. 1861, d. 1931). He went back to NY in 1927. His mother was Doris.
Lewis married Golda Saunders who was b. in what is now Finland in 81. They m. in Oct1911.
Lewis died on 26Oct1952 and probate was granted on 11May1953.
Ken, thank you so much. The kindness of strangers is a wonderful thing. Deeply grateful
Hi I’m the last surviving Brown from number 22 my parents were Ernest and Violet Brown Brother was Ken and sister was Yvonne. I don’t remember any of the people as I was only 15 months old when we apparently moved to Blackburn lancs. I have found this content very interesting Cheers Trevor
Hello Trevor.
I used to go fishing with your brother Ken. We both had a [paper round. I think I took over from Ken.
I lived at 11A Maxilla. Have a look at the top of the page on Maxilla. I remember your family moving to Blackburn. We used to watch TV in the late 1940’s, I believe in your sitting room. There was a dog called Foo Foo, mainly looked after by Yvonne. Iused to go fishing with Ken, to West Drayton lakes, and to Maidenhead on the River Thames. Best wishes.
Brian
[Dr Brian Wybrow; http://www.patently-creative.co.uk%5D
Hi Dr Wybrow I vaguely remember foo foo as a very young toddler, dark gray as I remember. Sadly Ken passed away about six years ago, he’d have liked to contacted you he moved to Prestatyn North Wales and was still as mad
Hello Trevor.
I tried to reply recently, but failed.
I will try again, with less initial info. If this works, I will provide more info.
As you can see from the top blog, where there is an early postcard showing Maxilla Gardens, followed by my info. on liviong at 11A Maxilla Gardens, I have much to say.
I used to go fishing with your brother Ken, and we both had a paper round at W.H. Smith Newsagents in , I believe, WestbournGrove.
Best wishes.
Brian Wybrow; (Ph.D.).
Hello Trevor.
Just a quick word because I have had trouble replying, possibly because I cannot communicate in the way I used to, and currently have to login to wordpress.
Briefly, I lived at 11A Maxilla Gardens, and used to go fishing with your brother Ken.
You will see many of my contributions on this site, and the one at the top of the page about Maxilla has a postcard of the street in the early 1900’s.
Best wishes.
Dr Brian Wybrow [Ph.D. (Lond.)]