London calling.
London Walks connecting.
This… is London.
This is London Walks.
Streets ahead.
Story time. History time.
Hail fellow, well met London Walkers. Wherever you are.
It’s Tuesday, October 21st. And, yes, time for your daily London fix.
And what’s it going to be for today? Well, I think we better head squarely into Get to Know Your London territory. I think we better do the second instalment of our series on London’s boroughs. We started with Camden. Camden, home to London Walks GHQ. Camden out of which London Calling goes forth. Camden, home to my favourite part of London – Hampstead and West Hampstead. And indeed home to my favourite London Walk of all, Hampstead Village & Hampstead Heath.
Well, in the circs., I think we better get to know Camden’s next-door neighbour: Brent. Brent, the land of the setting sun if you live in Camden.
Welcome to Brent, one and all.
Brent. Short name. Long story.
Oldest name of any London borough, too. Two syllables and a river – that’s all you need. “Brent” – pre-Roman, Celtic. It probably means holy one. Or maybe high place. Nobody’s quite sure – which only makes it lovelier. Words that have lasted two thousand years tend to keep a bit of mystery about them.
Either way, it fits. The River Brent flows quietly, steadily, like an old priest saying his prayers. Holy one, indeed.
The name’s older than the borough, older than London. It’s a survivor from a Britain of hill forts and trackways, long before Saxon or Norman ever showed up. And it’s travelled far. These days Brent is also a first name – a perfectly modern boy’s name in America. But here, in north-west London, it’s still a river, a parish, a borough – and a reminder that language, like water, finds its way and keeps on flowing.
So yes – Brent’s ancient. But don’t let that fool you. It’s got one foot in deep history and the other on the dance floor.
How big is Brent? Big enough to stretch from Kilburn in the south to Kingsbury in the north – 43.3 square kilometres, about twice the size of Camden next door. But Camden’s the denser one. Brent’s 341,000 people to Camden’s 218,000, yet Camden’s more tightly packed –about 12,000 people per square kilometre to Brent’s 7,900. So, more elbow room in Brent – maybe that’s why it’s so good-natured.
And green. Six-point-three square kilometres of green, in fact – that’s 14 percent of the borough. Camden’s greener by proportion (20 percent), but Brent’s got the big-ticket parks – Gladstone Park, Roundwood, Queen’s Park, Barham Park – lungs for a borough that likes to breathe.
Now, who’s from Brent? Who isn’t?
A.A. Milne – born in Kilburn, the man who gave the world Winnie the Pooh. Jane Asher, Keith Moon, Twiggy, Zadie Smith – all Willesden or Neasden. The borough hums with creativity. Twiggy’s sixties sparkle. Keith Moon’s chaos. Zadie Smith’s wit and lyricism. It’s as if Brent’s own rhythm – a bit offbeat, a bit unpredictable – breeds originals.
And the landmarks? Brent’s got showstoppers.
There’s Wembley Stadium – that great arch on the skyline, visible for miles, the colosseum of modern London. The roar of the crowd, the floodlights, the ghost of Bobby Moore lifting the World Cup. Even empty, it feels alive.
Okay, and now I’m going to essay some Hindi. Hindi of course is cognate with the word Hindu. Hindu comes from an old Persian word which meant “people of the Indus River” So initially it described the people and later the faith that developed in that region. The Indus is one of the great rivers of Asia. It takes its rise in Tibet, runs through the Himalayas, flows through Pakistan and empties into the Arabian Sea. And you can drill down further with the word Indus. Originally it was a Sanskrit word pronounced Sindhu, meaning river or large body of water. When the Persians caught up with the word the pronounced the S in Sindhu as an H. So Sindhu became Hindu. The Greeks then got their hands on it, modified it, and called the region India. It’s the most wonderful linguistic chain: there’s the beautiful linguistic chain:
Sindhu → Hindu → Indus → India
All from that one river.
A whole civilisation, religion, and subcontinent named for a river that still flows.
And all of that makes what’s coming up dazzlingly, thrillingly appropriate. A Hindu Temple in Brent.
Brent. Brentford. The River Brent. One eye firmly fixed on the origin of the word Hindu – Indus the name of a great river – it goes without saying that the largest Hindu Temple outside of India has to be located in a London Borough that takes its ancient name from an ancient river.
Ok, now we come to the high wire act. The name of the Temple.
Let’s see if I can get even close to pronouncing this correctly: bahps shree swah-mee-nah-RAH-yun mun-DEER
That’s the the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden – 5,000 tonnes of limestone and marble, carved by hand and assembled piece by piece. It opened in 1995, and when it did, it was the largest traditional Hindu temple outside India. Still takes your breath away. Step inside and you’re in another world – serene, intricate, luminous. For the record, Mandir means temple. Shri means holy or revered. Swami means lord or master or one who is self disciplined. And narayan means God. Put them altogether it means: the house of the Lord who lives through discipline and compassion.
As for BAPS. It’s an acronym. And that’s today’s assignment, class. Your homework. Find out – decipher – the acronym BAPS. There might well be a quiz on it tomorrow.
But back properly in Brent, elsewhere in Brent.
Which is by way of saying, Giddyup, heigh ho and off we go, from 24 letters and three or four words to one four letter word: Kiln.
The Kiln Theatre on Kilburn High Road, reborn from the old Tricycle, keeps Brent’s creative flame burning bright – brave plays, new voices, full houses.
And for something older, quieter, more mysterious – the Black Madonna of Willesden, in St Mary’s Church. A medieval statue that drew pilgrims centuries ago. Still there, still loved. Well, the original statue was destroyed during the Reformation. But it was recreated.
Another very Brent touch, history hides in plain sight here. Take Gladstone Park. It was once the grounds of Dollis Hill House, the estate of the 1st Baron Tweedmouth – Baron Tweedmouth, there’s a showstopper name. Anyway, we have the good Baron to thank for the Golden Retriever. He the Golden Retriever right there, in the kennels on the grounds of his estate. Today’s Gladstone Park. Yes, that’s right – Brent gave the world the Golden Retriever.
And that calls for a London Walks riff. Gladstone Park was named for the Grand Old Man himself, William Ewart Gladstone – four-time prime minister, moral thunderbolt, and tireless reformer.
And it goes without saying, we can’t mention Gladstone without bringing him together with his great rival, Benjamin Disraeli. The two of them were the Castor and Pollux of Victorian politics – inseparable in the national imagination, forever circling one another in debate. You could fill a library with their mutual sniping. Disraeli’s most famous put-down of Gladstone still sparkles:
“If Mr Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune; but if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.”
And while we’re in the neighbourhood – because politics, like London, is all about neighbourhoods –Disraeli also weighed in on that eternal headache, the so-called Irish Question. In a Commons speech in 1844, Disraeli said:
“Thus you have a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and in addition the weakest executive in the world. That is the Irish Question.”
Which brings us neatly back to Gladstone Park. The wonderfully, and unfortunately, initialled W.C. Sellar – unfortunately initialed, what about unfortunately named – W. C. Sellar – W. C. Sellar, that’s one that doesn’t flush down – anyway, W. C. Sellar once quipped that Gladstone “spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the Question.”
All of which is deliciously apt because Kilburn – yes, firmly within Brent – has long been thought of as the most Irish part of London. You can still hear the lilt in the pubs and at the bar counters. So, there we are: a park named for a prime minister haunted by Ireland, standing in the borough where London’s Irish heart beats the strongest.
Final word on the subject goes, perhaps, to MP Keith Fraser, who intoned in the House of Commons in 1919:
“I never met anyone in Ireland who understood the Irish Question, except one Englishman who had only been there a week.”
It’s all about making connections – very London, this. One thing leads to another. Living in London, breathing London – it’s like being Alice. You find a rabbit hole, you go down it, and hey presto – you’re in Wonderland.
So much for our riff, our aside. Time to get back squarely to Brent.
Brent’s oldest building? That’s St Andrew’s in Kingsbury – a church that goes back to the 12th or 13th century. But it’s older than that, really. Look closely and you’ll see Roman bricks and tiles in the walls. Recycled history. They think some stones came from an even earlier Saxon church. The building now serves the Romanian community – a perfect symbol for Brent: old bones, new life.
And that’s the thing about Brent – it’s a borough that never stands still. It’s home to everyone and everything. The census says 35 percent white, 33 percent Asian, 17.5 percent Black, 15 percent “other” – a borough where every language is spoken, every cuisine is cooked, every festival has its day.
Walk down the High Road in Willesden or Wembley and you’ll hear the world talking – and laughing – to itself. And to its friend. And its neighbour. And indeed the visitor if you strike up a conversation with a local. You shouldn’t be shy about that. They’re friendly.
But for a coda, if Camden’s got the glamour of Bloomsbury and Hampstead, Brent’s got the soul of London life – the daily rhythm, the diversity, the mix. It’s not showy, but it’s proud. It’s where people live London, not just visit it.
And so back to that name. “Brent.” The oldest borough name in London. The shortest. A Celtic whisper that’s outlasted empires, kings, fashions, and frontiers. It’s been Roman, Saxon, medieval, industrial, multicultural – and it’s still moving, still changing, still London.
So next time you’re at Wembley, or catching a train at Willesden Junction, or walking the quiet banks of the River Brent, remember: you’re standing in one of the oldest corners of London – and one of the most alive.
Brent – short name, long history, big heart.
You’ve been listening to This… is London, the London Walks podcast. Emanating from www.walks.com.
Home of London Walks, London’s signature walking tour company.
London’s local, time-honoured, fiercely independent, family-owned, just-the-right-size walking tour company.
And as long as we’re at it, London’s multi-award-winning walking tour company. Indeed, London’s only award-winning walking tour company.
And here’s the secret: London Walks is essentially run as a guides’ cooperative.
That’s the key to everything.
It’s the reason we’re able to attract and keep the best guides in London. You can get schlubbers to do this for £25 a walk. But you cannot get world-class guides – let alone accomplished professionals.
It’s not rocket science: you get what you pay for.
And just as surely, you also get what you don’t pay for.
Back in 1968 when we got started we quickly came to a fork in the road. We had to answer a searching question: Do we want to make the most money? Or do we want to be the best walking tour company in the world?
You want to make the most money you go the schlubbers route. You want to be the best walking tour company in the world you do whatever you have to do to attract and keep the best guides in London – you want them guiding for you, not for somebody else.
Bears repeating: the way we’re structured – a guides’ cooperative – is the key to the whole thing.
It’s the reason for all those awards, it’s the reason people who know go with London Walks, it’s the reason we’ve got a big following, a lively, loyal, discerning following – quality attracts quality.
It’s the reason we’re able – uniquely – to front our walks with accomplished, in many cases distinguished professionals:
By way of example, Stewart Purvis, the former Editor (and subsequently CEO) of Independent Television News.
And Lisa Honan, who had a distinguished career as a diplomat (Lisa was the Governor of St Helena, the island where Napoleon breathed his last and, some say, had his penis amputated – Napoleon didn’t feel a thing – if thing’s the mot juste – he was dead.)
Stewart and Lisa – both of them CBEs – are just a couple of our headline acts.
Or take our Jack the Ripper Walk. It’s the creation of the world’s leading expert on Jack the Ripper, Donald Rumbelow, the author of the definitive book on the subject. Britain’s most distinguished crime historian, Donald is, in the words of The Jack the Ripper A to Z, “internationally recognised as the leading authority on Jack the Ripper.” Donald’s emeritus now but he’s still the guiding light on our Ripper Walk. He curates the walk. He trains up and mentors our Ripper Walk guides. Fields any and all questions they throw at him.
The London Walks Aristocracy of Talent – its All-Star Team of Guides – includes a former London Mayor. It includes the former Chief Music Critic for the Evening Standard. It includes the Chair of the Association of Professional Tour Guides. And the former chair of the Guild of Guides.
It includes barristers, doctors, geologists, museum curators, a former London Museum archaeologist, historians, university professors (one of them a distinguished Cambridge University paleontologist); it includes a criminal defence lawyer, Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre actors, a bevy of MVPs, Oscar winners (people who’ve won the big one, the Guide of the Year Award)… well, you get the idea.
As that travel writer famously put it, “if this were a golf tournament, every name on the Leader Board would be a London Walks guide.”
And as we put it: London Walks Guides make the new familiar and the familiar new.
And on that agreeable note… come then, let us go forward together on some great London Walks.
And that’s by way of saying, Good walking and Good Londoning one and all. See ya next time.