The Hidden History Of Your House In Bedford Park

Local group to work with house historian to uncover secrets of garden suburb

The Bedford Park Residents' Association (BPRA) has announced the first steps of its family activity programme – the Bedford Park ‘House History’ initiative.

This is intended as the first of a number of projects aimed at connecting the families who live in Bedford Park today with the people who lived in their homes in times past. The House History will complement the work done by the Bedford Park Society on the architectural history of Bedford Park, with a focus on the personal and family histories of people who have lived here.

Image from BPRA

The BPRA say; "We know that we have a treasure trove to uncover of stories that are well known, and not so well known. It has been well documented that the estate has had a number of famous residents including WB Yeats, one of our greatest poets, who twice lived with his family in Bedford Park; the French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro; the playwright Pinero; the actor Henry Oscar and the Russian revolutionary Stepniak, who had killed the chief of secret police in St Petersburg (and would himself be killed by a train on the Bath Road level crossing).

"With the help of the current families living here we also want to discover the lives of the less well known people that have lived here since Jonathan Carr first bought 14 acres of land next to Turnham Green station in 1875. We also know, from the work done by David Beresford, for the St Michael’s 1915 Memorial, about how the human tragedy of the Great War affected Bedford Park. We are looking to repeat the process for WWI and for WWII enabling us to commemorate both the people and buildings lost in those conflicts."

Melanie is a freelance house historian and the author of two books: House Histories: The Secrets Behind Your Front Door (2011) and Historic Streets and Squares: The Secrets on Your Doorstep (2013) and regularly writes for luxury lifestyle magazines and the national press.

To help them in this work the BPRA have commissioned the house historian Melanie Backe-Hansen (mel@house-historian.co.uk)to work on a programme of events this year, aimed at giving residents the tools to uncover the magic concealed in their home histories.

Melanie said, "I'm very excited about working with the Bedford Park Residents' Association in their new house history initiative. It will be fascinating to delve into the stories of former residents and to help uncover the social history of this unique part of London by researching the history of its houses."

Their aim is to help residents to discover and catalogue these famous lives to build a unique set of Bedford Park house histories.

"We will be providing online tools to record the histories they discover and to share them with other residents and neighbours. Individually these will enrich our relationships with our own homes and cumulatively will create a shared online resource for members and friends," said Nigel Whalley of the BPRA.

Melanie commented “Bedford Park is one of those rare opportunities where the individual, human stories in the houses stitch together into a wider social narrative. Bedford Park itself becomes one of the ‘characters’ we will be researching”. Our online resource will bring this narrative to life.

Over the next few months the BPRA will be working with Melanie to put together a pack of materials to help Residents who want to start their own search. The project will kick off on 8 September at an event at High Road House. This will be followed by a series of workshops and talks on house history research and Bedford Park.

July 23, 2016