One of the most surprising things about southern Brent is that not so long ago a lot of it was open land.
There is a striking instance of this the Raffles book The Amateur Cracksman, first published in 1899. Cricketer and gentleman thief Raffles is being blackmailed and decides to confront the blackmailer. He takes the train to Willesden Junction in order to "walk on through the streets into fairly open country." We are told that he left St James Park at 11.21pm and when midnight strikes he is on "a dark footpath between the woods and the fields." There he burgles a solitary house. It is hard to think of that as happening in Harlesden or Kensal Green today.
No comments:
Post a Comment