Facts about Kilburn
History of Kilburn
Under Roman rule, the route was paved. In Anglo-Saxon times the road became known as Watling Street. A paving stone on Kilburn High Road commemorates the route of Watling Street. Kilburn Priory was built on the banks of a stream variously recorded as Cuneburna, Kelebourne and Cyebourne.
The first two names perhaps imply meanings of “King’s Bourne” and “Cattle Bourne”. The word Bourne is the southern variant of burn, as still commonly used in the technical term, winterbourne – a watercourse which tends to dry up in dry periods. The river is known today as the Westbourne. From the 1850s many of its feeder ditches were diverted into combined sewers feeding away to the east.
Gemeral Info
Kilburn is an area of north-west London, England, which spans the boundary of two London Boroughs: Camden to the east and Brent to the west. There is also an area in the London Borough of Westminster, known as West Kilburn and sometimes treated as a distinct locality. Kilburn High Road railway station lies 3.5 miles north-west of Charing Cross.
Kilburn has never been an administrative unit and has therefore never had any formally defined boundaries. However, it is generally accepted that most of the area of London between the North London and Watford DC railway lines east of Queen’s Park and west of West End Lane lies within what is known as Kilburn.
