Camden History

On Monday 5 August 1862, Richard Peniston a hackney cabdriver, was waiting on the rank in Great Quebec Street at 12.40 lunchtime. This was a road running south of the Marylebone Road, and today is called Upper Montagu Road near Gloucester Place. He was approached by well-dressed man driving a phaeton (a lightweight carriage) with a pair of horses who suddenly, and without warning, hit the cab man’s horse with an axe just behind its ear. When Peniston shouted at him, the man also aimed a blow at Peniston which missed, and he galloped off. A second cabdriver, Edward Gilbert, saw what had happened and chased the phaeton into Montagu Street and then into Baker Street and north to Grove End Road in St John’s Wood. During the chase, the man turned and pointed a pistol at Gibert saying, ‘If you don’t stop, I’ll blow your brains out’. Gilbert pulled up his horse and hid in the bottom of the cab seat. When he put his head up, the man fired at him and rode off. Fearlessly, Gibert continued the p...

This is an amusing story from the beginning of the Jazz Age about a housewarming party in St John’s Wood which disturbed the next-door neighbour and resulted in two trials. Arthur Bentley had served in France as a driver for the Royal Air Force in the First World War. When he was de-mobbed in March 1919, he took over and ran a teashop in Regent Steet. In June he heard about a house in St John’s Wood which only had a few years remaining on the lease. He was offered a good deal on Number 3 Northwick Terrace, because the Central London Building Company who owned the land, were going to demolish one side of the road to build a large block of flats on the Edgware Road in Maida Vale. Today, this is the distinctive mock-Tudor Clifton Court. Map showing Nos, 3 and 4 Norwick Terrace In July 1919, Arthur negotiated with Edward Hamilton Allen, the current lease holder, and paid him a deposit to buy the lease. On Saturday 16 August the Bentleys held a housewarming party with a small jazz band cons...