Willesden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Willesden is an area in North West London which forms part of the London Borough of Brent. It is situated 5 miles (8 km) north west of Charing Cross.
The name derives from Willesdune, meaning The Hill of the Spring, and a settlement bearing this name dates back to 939AD. The town's motto is Laborare est orare.
From the 14th to 16th Centuries, the town was a place of Pilgrimage due to the presence of two ancient statues of the Virgin Mary at the Church of St Mary. One of these statues is thought to be a Black Madonna, which was wantonly insulted by the Lollards and burnt in 1538.
The parish of Willesden remained predominantly rural up until 1875, when its population was 18,500. However, this changed with the opening of the Metropolitan Railway (later the Metropolitan Line) station of Willesden Green on November 24, 1879. By 1906 the population had grown to 140,000, a phenomenon of rapid growth that was to be repeated in the 1920s in neighbouring areas such as Harrow. The Metropolitan Line service was withdrawn in 1940, when the station was served by the Bakerloo Line, and later the Jubilee Line.
To the present day, Willesden has been shaped by the patterns of migration which marks it out as one of the most diverse areas in the United Kingdom. Corporation of London records show that the first black person recorded in Brent was Sarah Eco, who was christened in St. Mary’s church in Willesden on September 15th 1723. The 1901 census recorded that 42% of the population was born in London (Willesden only became a municipal borough in 1933). It is at this time that the area became predominantly working-class. A small Irish community had formed in Willesden by this time, which grew rapidly during the period of the Second World War. A small Jewish Community of refugees from Europe also formed during the war, with 3.5% of the population in 1951 born in Germany, Poland, Russia or Austria. The period from 1960 saw migrants settling from the Caribbean and the Indian Subcontinent. Since the 1960s, Willesden has been popular with young working holidaymakers from Australia and New Zealand, although this popularity has declined a little in favour of other areas since about 2003.
In 1965 Willesden Borough was merged into the newly formed London Borough of Brent.
The ward is represented on Brent Council by two Liberal Democrat councillors, Mohammed Anwar and Gavin Sneddon, and one Labour councillor, Lesley Jones.
Willesden forms part of the Brent East parliamentary constituency and is home to the local MP, Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather.
[edit] Willesden in popular culture
The town was featured in the popular novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith in 2000 which was subsequently made into a TV series. Moreover, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros sang from 'Willesden to Cricklewood' on their album 'Rock Art and the X-ray Style'.
Willesden Green is a running reference/joke on the animated TV cartoon series DangerMouse.
Peter Davison, best known as Doctor Who, starred in The Last Detective (from 2002) which is filmed and set in and around Willesden.
Nearest places:
Restaurants:
- Ruhit's (Indian)
- Pizza on the Wood (Italian)
- Shish (Middle Eastern)
- Sushi Say (Japanese with sushi bar)
- The Green (modern British)
Tube stations:
Infrastructure facilities:
- In Willesden was a static inverter plant of HVDC Kingsnorth.
