Local historian and BelSoc member Averil Nottage gives a taster of her forthcoming BelSoc walk
At the end of the 19th century, Belsize aspired to be a suburb for the wealthy middle classes. The First World War, the tube, the motor car and competition from newer suburbs all changed that, in the first half of the 20th century. The trend began in 1884 when a large empty house in Belsize Park Gardens was pulled down and replaced with the 20 apartments of Manor Mansions. Then early in the 20th century, it was accepted that it was better to split large houses into flats or boarding houses than to leave them empty.
After WW1 these changes accelerated. Wealthier residents drove off to more spacious suburbs and were replaced by smaller families and young people setting up first homes. To meet their needs, many large blocks of flats were built in the 1930s in a variety of distinctive styles. Hampstead Borough Council and ratepayers protested that there were already far too many flats in the area. Alternatively, “homely” hotels offered food, comfort and sociability. New Belsize residents may have been less prosperous or younger but were still expected to be “of a good class”.
Improved transport made it easy for the growing numbers of clerks working in Central London to live in Belsize. By 1906 electric trams had replaced horses. Belsize Park underground station opened in June 1907 as part of the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway, offering first, second and third-class travel. The platforms provided shelter during the Blitz and by 1944 there were bunks for around 8000 people in extended deep tunnels.
Cinema arrived in 1913 when the Hampstead Picture Playhouse opened at the bottom of Pond Street. In 1934 Oscar Deutsch incorporated a newly built cinema on Haverstock Hill into his Odeon chain. It opened in September with George Robey in “Chu, Chin, Chow”, and was the chain’s flagship cinema until the Leicester Square one opened in 1937. The cinema was in a new parade of shops that extended up to the Town Hall with another new parade across the road. Traders advertised it as one of the finest shopping centres in North West London and vowed to spare no effort to meet every demand made of them.
The Town Hall was a popular venue for talks, concerts and dances. Both Christabel Pankhurst and Oswald Mosely held rallies there. From 1919 until 1932 Cinderella Balls were held every Saturday night during the winter season. In 1926 the Charleston and modified Tango were added to the dances that Jack Hutton’s Manhattan Band played. T.S. Elliot and his first wife Vivien, and Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, were married there.
Some refugees escaped the Third Reich from 1933, but most Jewish refugees were well integrated into German life and didn’t try to leave until after the annexation of Austria and devastating consequences of the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938.
They found England very strange, but for some the faded grandeur of Belsize Park and Swiss Cottage was reminiscent of the cities they’d left. Forming a community here, they could share memories and reactions to English customs, humour and behaviour.
The Cosmo restaurant in Finchley Road serving continental food was a favourite meeting place. Organisations sprung up to provide advice and social contact and promote German and Austrian culture.
As the refugees couldn’t follow anglicised services at local synagogues, they organised their own services in the German Liberale tradition. This started in one room in a boarding house in Belsize Park, but over time became the Belsize Square Synagogue in buildings linked to the old vicarage of St Peter’s Church.
To find out more about Belsize between 1900 and 1945 join our walk on Sunday 13 April at 11.00 am or 2.30 pm.