Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for KILBURN

KILBURN, a metropolitan suburb and four chapelries in Hampstead and Willesden parishes, Middlesex. The suburb lies on Watling street, at the head of Colbourne Brook, and on the West London and the Northwestern railways, near the Grand Junction canal and the Great Western railway, 4¾ miles NW of St. Pauls; and has stations on the West London and Northwestern railways, a post office‡ under London NW, four churches, and several public schools. It was anciently a hamlet, known as Cunebnrn; 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 few years ago, to be a rural village, containing several genteel houses; it has, of late, dergone great and rapid extension; and it now includes new streets, and has, at one end, an extensive brewery. 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 Ranelagh. A medicinal spring adjoins the site of the old priory, was formerly of much note, and is sung as follows in a periodical of last century: "Where sweet sequestered scenes inspire delight And simple nature joins with every art; At Kilburn wells their various charms unite, And gladly all conspire to please the heart." The oldest of the four churches is St. Mary's, a cruciform structure in the decorated English style, with tower and spire 160 feet high, built in 1856, at a cost of £8, 000; and the newest is All Souls, comprising nave, N aisle, and apsidal chancel, of brick, with coloured bands and arches, built in 1865, at a cost of £3, 900.-The chapelries are St. Mary, St. John, St. Paul, and all Souls. The pop. is returned with the parishes. The livings are p. curacies in the diocese of London. Values, not reported. Patron, of St. Mary, the Hon. A. Upton; of St. John, Trustees; of St. Paul, the Rev. J. Heming; of All Souls, not reported.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a metropolitan suburb and four chapelries"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Hampstead Vest/Ch/AP/CP       Willesden AP/CP       Middlesex AncC
Place: Kilburn

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