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.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Kilburn head - 4 - Beethoven

Subjects commemorated i

Ludwig van Beethoven

Composer. Born (we only have his baptism date) in Bonn (now Germany). His nin...

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Kilburn head - 4 - Beethoven

Created by i

Alfred Phillips

Composer, publisher, piano dealer. Alfred William Phillips was born in Whitec...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Kilburn head - 4 - Beethoven

Also at this site i

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