Brondesbury

Brondesbury railway station lies 4.1 miles north-west of Charing Cross, and its proximity to the originally Roman A5 road (the borough's eastern boundary) sometimes leads to addresses on the eastern, Camden, side of the road to also be informally described as part of Brondesbury.

Brondesbury was once the location of residence for Black civil rights leader Billy Strachan and his family, who wrote for local newspapers gave weekly political speeches in the area.

Its relevant statistics are as follows:[7] Willesden parish, which included Durand's estate at Twyford and Harlesden manor, was divided between eight variable, ecclesiastical prebends: East Twyford in the south-west, Neasden in the north-west, Oxgate in the northeast, Harlesden in the centre and south, and Chambers, Brondesbury, Bounds, and Mapesbury in the east.

The leasehold interest of Brondesbury was bought with what remained too of Bounds manor in 1856 and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners retained the freehold until the 1950s and 1960s.

[8] Forty-year leases were made of Brondesbury to William Peter, gentleman of London, in 1538 and to Thomas Young, a Willesden yeoman, in reversion in 1566.

In 1615 the latter, Christian's estranged husband, Henry Shugborow, brought an action for possession against the executors, who had re-entered because the rent had not been paid and it had been sublet to one Marsh, 'an ancient tenant'.

The estate was leased for lives in 1638 to Edward Roberts but Ralph Marsh, who in 1649 bought Brondesbury from the parliamentary commissioners, seems to have occupied the land.

Brondesbury thereafter passed through the same ownership as Bounds, Lady Salusbury obtaining possession (all other competing leases rendered inferior) in 1842.

It appears to have been rebuilt in the third quarter of the 18th century and by the time of Lady (Sarah) Salusbury was a three-storeyed villa with a central canted entrance bay rising the full height of the north front.

In 1789 Humphry Repton landscaped roughly 10-acre (4.0 ha) of demesne grounds and William Wilkins supplied drawings for a Gothic seat.

It continued as a gentleman's residence under Mrs. Howard (1850-3), Henry Vallence (1853-6), Mrs. Geach (1856–61), John Coverdale (1862-7), and Thomas Brandon (1867–76), and in 1877 was offered for sale with 52 acres.

The house continued as a school until 1934 when, described as 'shabby-looking', it was bought by C. W. B. Simmonds, a builder, and was pulled down to make way for Manor Drive.

Church of the Transfiguration, Brondesbury Park, itself in a state of transfiguration