Garnet Ampong remembers Primrose Hill in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I lived with my family at flat 3, 46 Fitzroy Road, we were there between 1988-1995. I know I was really young at the time but I still […]
Treasure in the Drains
Home Front Film – Childhood Memories of VE Day
The generation who were children during the Second World War remember VE Day 1945, on the seventy-fifth anniversary Residents of the London boroughs of Camden, Ealing, Croydon, Hounslow, Kingston and Merton shared their memories of VE Day for a short […]
Before Darwin Court
By Martin Sheppard. Until 1970 the houses bordering the railway at the entrance to Primrose Hill from Gloucester Gate, 4–24 Gloucester Avenue, were a distinguished group of high-quality Victorian villas. They had been built by the architect Henry Bassett in […]
The Colourful Life and Death of José Rizal
By Maggie Chambers. José Rizal, former resident of 37 Chalcot Crescent, was a doctor, writer and national hero of the Philippines. An English Heritage blue plaque was erected to him in 1983, and there has long been a statue of […]
Tearooms and Rockets
By Martin Sheppard. Primrose Hill has no tearoom, although Regent’s Park has five. But a new tearoom is now being built next to the playground… This is not the first tearoom on Primrose Hill since it became a public park […]
Where Have All the Primroses Gone?
By Martin Sheppard. There are many Primrose Hills in England, but by far the most famous of them is our own local one. A park since 1842, and before that a well-known landmark, its name is first recorded in the […]
Primrose Hill in the 1940s‒1950s
by David Edwards. I remember the 1940s in Regent’s Park Road when all the shops had big blinds fitted. Most were sign-written with the name of the shop, and their purpose was to keep the shop cool in summer. If […]
W. B. Yeats: Our Primrose Hill Poet
By Maggie Chambers One hundred and two years ago this Easter, Yeats wrote one of the world’s most famous poems, Easter 1916 after the uprising in Ireland. William Butler (WB) Yeats lived at 23 Fitzroy Road in Primrose Hill from […]
Primrose Hill During WW2
We lived at 154 Regent’s Park Road, Primrose Hill. My grandfather had a shop in the terrace that led up to the hill. The front of the shop was boarded up with rough sawn boards salvaged from bomb-damaged houses, and […]
Compton Lodge: Primrose Hill’s Marigold Hotel
A blue plaque on the front of Compton Lodge is dedicated to its original owner, Dame Clara Butt. Dame Clara entertained Edward Elgar, Sir Henry Wood and Ellen Terry regularly after buying the place in 1903. Today Compton Lodge offers […]