Broadhurst Gardens is a street in the London Borough of Camden running eastwards from

West End Lane West End Lane is a street in inner north-west London, England (grid reference TQ2585) that runs for about one mile between Kilburn High Road to the south and Finchley Road to the north. Located in the London Borough of Camden, and the NW6 post ...

in West Hampstead and ending near to the Finchley Road. It forms the northern border of South Hampstead, and runs parallel to the Midland Main Line. It meets or is crossed by Priory Road, Fairhazel Gardens and Canfield Gardens. Construction began on the street in the 1870s and it was completed by 1887. It takes its name from an estate in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

belonging to the Maryon Wilson family like many other roads in the area developed during the era. It follows route of a much older pathway known as Gypsy Lane that linked the Kilburn and Belsize parts of Hampstead Parish. The northern side of the street was badly damaged by German bombing during the Second World War due to its proximity to the railway lines. The bomb sites were bought by the LCC in 1947 and redeveloped as flats. The Decca Studios were located in the street from 1937 to 1981, based in a building that had previously been a factory and West Hampstead Town Hall which despite its name was primarily an entertainment venue. They were then sold off when

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

was acquired by

Polygram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

. It was renamed Lilian Baylis House, and is now used as a rehearsal space by the English National Opera. The building is now

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The former residence of the physical education pioneer

Martina Bergman-Österberg Martina Sofia Helena Bergman-Österberg (née Bergman; 7 October 1849 – 29 July 1915)Westrin, p. 194 was a Swedish-born physical education instructor and women's suffrage advocate who spent most of her working life in Britain. After studying gym ...

is now commemorated with a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

. Other notable residents include the

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

s Walter Sickert, founder of the

Camden Town Group The Camden Town Group was a group of English Post-Impressionist artists founded in 1911 and active until 1913. They gathered frequently at the studio of painter Walter Sickert in the Camden Town area of London. History In 1908, critic Frank R ...

, and

John Henry Henshall John Henry Henshall, usually known as Henry Henshall (Manchester 1856 – 18 November 1928 Bosham) was a British watercolourist and etcher. Life Henshall was born in Manchester. Leaving school at the age of sixteen, Henry – he preferred hi ...

. The Railway pub is at the western end, on the junction with West End Lane close to

West Hampstead tube station West Hampstead is a London Underground station in West Hampstead. It is located on West End Lane between Broadhurst Gardens and Blackburn Road and is situated in Travelcard Zone 2. It is on the Jubilee line between Kilburn and Finchley Road st ...

. The shops at this end of an otherwise largely residential street are known as Broadwell Parade.Wade p.72

References

{{Reflist

Bibliography

* Bebbington, Gillian. ''London Street Names''. Batsford, 1972. * Baron, Wendy. ''Sickert: Paintings and Drawings''. Yale University Press, 2006. * Cherry, Bridget & Pevsner, Nikolaus. ''London 4: North''. Yale University Press, 2002. * Thompson, Francis Michael Longstreth. ''Hampstead; Building a Borough, 1650-1964''. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974. * Wade, Christopher (ed.) ''The Streets of West Hampstead''. Camden History Society, 1992. Streets in the London Borough of Camden Hampstead

See also

References

Bibliography