Higgins, Kensal Green

Walking today along Kilburn Lane, it is hard to imagine that until the 1960s, near the junction with Sixth Avenue, one could hear cows moo. Yet a couple of elements subsist to trigger one's imagination: firstly, a set of former industrial buildings arranged around a central courtyard and now known as The Old Dairy, and secondly, for those patient enough to decipher it, a ghost sign with the name of the original company and the nature of its business. Actually there are two ghost signs at this location, but the text of the second one has disappeared and if I managed to reconstitute the first line, it is thanks to a postcard from the first decade of the 20th century.

Between the mid-18th century, if not earlier, and the second half of the 19th century, this was the site of Hodson's Farm. The information about it is a bit patchy but the construction of the London and Birmingham Railway's line (later part of the London & North Western Railway) out of London Euston in 1833 must have cut the farm into two because a private bridge spanning the railway was subsequently erected. Until the 1870s the area remained largely rural, with much land dedicated to farming. If only a few acres were dedicated to dairy farming before 1864, their number grew rapidly after an Act of Parliament made it illegal to keep cattle within the limits of the metropolis. However this boom of dairy farming did not last for long. By the 1880s the outward expansion of London reached the Kensal Green area. Pockets of urban developments already existed at the eastern end towards Kilburn and a handful of houses had already been built along Kilburn Lane, but within a few years most farmland was sold to property developers. Still a few farms subsisted, albeit on a much reduced scale. Rows of houses spread across most of Hodson's Farm but on a narrow plot tucked away between Kilburn Lane and the railway line a complete set of new buildings required for dairy farming, including milking rooms, was erected. This certainly happened after the land had been purchased by William Higgins. The earliest mention of Higgins's dairy I found dates from 1890 but it may have been established ealier.

Higgins
Bros
Dairy

Apart from a few references in professional journals, there is virtually no information about Higgins Bros. However as an independent dairy, Higgins Bros must have found it hard to compete with larger concerns. Changes in consumers' habits in the 1950s and 1960s certainly had a negative impact on its finances. In October 1957, Higgins Bros was taken over for the sum of £10,000 (equivalent to £210,000 in 2012) by a new company called Higgins Bros. Dairies Ltd in what looked like a desperate attempt to improve the financial health of an ailing business. The last mention of Higgins Bros I found dates from 1967. Although the full text is not available online, it may well have been to announce it had ceased trading.

While something can still be read on the ghost sign above, by the entrance to the courtyard, the one facing the street, which is much more exposed to the elements, has completely faded.

Higgins Bros.
...
...
...
...

Both ghost signs appear on a postcard from the early 20th century but the quality is not good enough to read what was on the second sign.

In 2003 an application was made for the redevelopment of the site of the Higgins Bros' dairy. The different buildings would have been demolished to make way for two three-storey blocks of flats. This project did not go through for several reasons, one being that the redevelopment would result in the loss of attractive buildings with un-altered architectural features and of historical merit.

Location: Kilburn Lane / Pictures take in December 2011

Woollons, dispensing chemist and photograpic dealer; Kensal Green

Since photographic processing and printing involves different chemical products, it is hardly surprising that these operations were conducted originally mostly by chemists. A couple of ghost signs posted on this blog, from Bath and Islington, illustrate this association between pharmacy and photography. Recently I discovered another one, this time in Kensal Green.
I could not find when Charles H. F. Woollons, MPS (Member of the Pharmaceutical Society), opened his store on Kilburn Lane. Since his widow Louisa died in 1937, aged 78, it seems reasonable to assume he was born in the 1850s. After graduating he might have worked for another chemist before opening his own business. In any case Woollons's name and address, 28 Kilburn Lane, appear in a 1906 issue of The Pharmaceutical Journal and in the 1908 edition of Yearbook of Pharmacy. Interestingly Woollons is also mentioned in a 1906 issue of Photographic Monthly. When C. H. F. Woollons retired or died, his son Charles B. Woollons, MPS, took over the Kilburn store. By 1937 he also owned a branch at 254 Hendon Way, which was managed by his new partner, chemist and druggist Leopold Barnato. Actually Barnato was also deeply involved in photography and filming. In 1936 he photographed and edited the two-reel documentary "Airport" by Ellis E. Somake, which "was judged 'the most efficient production viewed' in the 'Amateur Cine World's' the ten best films of 1936." This documentary was also awarded a certificate at the 1936 Royal Photographic Society Exhibition of Cinematography.
Did the Kilburn branch survive Charles B. Woollons? This seems unlikely. Indeed by the 1960s Leopold Barnato had given up the chemist and druggist side of the business to concentrate fully on photography and traded under the name "Woollons of Hendon." The company was trading until recently at 256 Hendon Way but no longer seems to.

C. Woollons
Dispensing ... Photographic Chemist
Fo... [?] ...m
... ...s
At least the sign at the back of the building has not been painted over.

Dispensing
Chemist
Photographic
Dealer
Given the style of the lettering, this ghost sign certainly dates back from the time of Charles H. F. Woollons.

Location: Kilburn Lane and Ilbert Street / Pictures taken in November 2011

Berens Garage, Kensal Green

As I passed through a quiet residential street of northwest London earlier today, I stumbled across this ghost sign for the Berens Garage. The only mention of this particular workshop I could find is in the 1937 edition of The Royal Automobile Club Guide and Handbook.

Berens Garage
Automobile Engineers
Location: Berens Road / Picture taken in November 2011

Bishop's Stores, Kensal Green

The information available online about Bishop's Stores is very patchy so what follows has certainly many shortcomings. The origins of this family wholesale and retail grocer seem to go back to the first decades of the twentieth century if not slightly earlier. The first Bishop's Stores' shops opened in the Ruislip / Windsor area and over the following decades they increased their presence in West London and the Home Counties. The 1960s seem to have been a decade a rapid expansion. In addition to its local shops, the company operated four distribution depots in Willesden, Stevenage, Ruislip and Didcot. By 1975 Bishop's Stores had 75 food stores and in 1978 they opened several shops offering freshly baked products under the name Bishop's Bakehouse. However by 1979 their number of stores had gone down to 66. In the rather unsettled economic climate of the late 1970s Bishop's Stores seems to have run into difficulties and the company, which was still apparently in family hands, fell prey to its competitors. By 1985 Bishop's Group plc, the parent company of Bishop's Stores, had become part of the Booker McConnell plc group (*). Following this acquisition it is possible the new owner either rebranded or closed down the shops owned by Bishop's Stores.

This sign on this branch was certainly painted in the 1920s.

Branches
Windsor
Slough
Watford
Harrow
Wembley
Kensal Rise
Willesden
Hampstead
-----
Bishop's Stores
-----
...s
&
Warehouses
46 Chamberlayne
Road
Kensal Rise
N.W. 10
Telephone
Willesden 183
Below are pictures of the parts between the second and first floor windows.


(*): the name was shortened to Booker plc in 1986. In 2000 Booker plc was bought by the Iceland Group and merged into the Big Food Group. However in 2005 the group was taken private by the Icelandic company Baugur, which then split them into different companies before returning Booker to the stock market in 2007 through a reverse takeover of the convenience store wholesaler Blueheath Holdings. Baugur sold its remaining assets into Booker Group plc a few months before going bankrupt in 2009.

Location: Harrow Road / Pictures taken on: 17/08/2009