Bust: Kilburn head - 4 - Beethoven
Erection date: 1890
Site: Four musical heads - Kilburn (4 memorials)
NW6, Kilburn High Road, 70-72 Traid
We've numbered these heads left to right and identified them ourselves. Do let us know if you think otherwise. The building is very plain and these portrait octagons are not integrated into any design, just placed on the blank brick walls between the first floor windows, like an afterthought.
West Hampstead Life has the story on this building: In 1890 Alfred Phillips, already successfully publishing music and running a music shop at 43 Kilburn High Road (opposite what is now the modern Kilburn Library), bought numbers 70-72 Kilburn High Road. "He demolished the two existing shops and built one large warehouse with room for 70 pianos on the ground floor. The architect was E.A. Heffer and the builder H.B. Oldrey of Kilburn. Four composer’s heads (Bach, Handel, Mozart and Beethoven), are still visible at first floor level."
Without West Hampstead Life's list of the 4 busts we would not have been able to identify them.
