A recent video sees him takes a stroll around the history and hostelries of Kilburn – or ‘County Kilburn’ as it was once known due to its thriving Irish community.
In between pints at The Black Lion and Kilburn Arms – and a slap up roast at The Priory Tavern – he shares facts about the famous folk who lived in the area, and the lost landmarks.
The author George Orwell for example lived in Mortimer Terrace during the Second World War while writing his classic Animal Farm. When a bomb struck the property he had to dig his only copy of the manuscript out of the rubble to send off to publishers.
It’s thought he drank in The Priory Tavern where Joolz drops in for one of their award-winning roasts, telling landlord and chef Glyn Bell it was “possibly the best I’ve had in London.”
A plaque in Mortimer Crescent marks the site of Henley House school where Winnie the Pooh author A A Milne was born. His father was headteacher there in the 1880s, and HG Wells, author of The Time Machine and War of the Worlds was a teacher.
Other fascinating folk include landlord Michael ‘Butty’ Sugrue who ran the Admiral Nelson and was known as Ireland’s strongest man for his incredible stunts.
He once pulled a double decker bus up Kilburn High Road while pushing a pram, and arranged a record breaking stunt for the longest person to be buried alive – in a Kilburn Builders’ Yard.
He also turned the Grange Cinema on the High Road into the Kilburn National Ballroom where the likes of David Bowie, Nirvana and The Smiths played gigs.
Joolz, aka Julian McDonnell grew up in Belsize Park and now lives in Primrose Hill, and published his book of Rather Splendid London Pub Walks earlier this year.
He also explores Kilburn’s unsettling past including a lost pub – Biddy Mulligan’s which is now a betting shop. In 1975 a UDA bomb exploded in the porch, fortunately not killing anyone.
The event came after the funeral of 24-year-old hunger striker Michael Gaughan which drew thousands as it processed from The Crown in Cricklewood to The Sacred Heart church in Quex Road – led by an IRA guard of honour.
Gerry Conlon, who was wrongfully convicted of the Guildford Pub Bombings and imprisoned for 15 years, had an alibi that he was staying in an hostel on Quex Road that night – but it was withheld from the defence.
Joolz visits another lost pub, The Bird in Hand in West End Lane which has lain empty since 2003, when an application to demolish and replace it with a block of flats was refused.
And he celebrates the films shot in the area, including a scene from Highlander where St Augustine’s Church stood in for New York City where Conor MacLeod confronts his mortal enemy The Kurgan “on holy ground”.
Other film connections include a scene from Withnail and I of girls walking along Kilburn Park Road, and the 1957 Brit flick The Smallest Show on Earth starring Leslie Philips and Peter Sellars and Virginia McKenna which saw a false cinema facade built under the bridge next to Kilburn tube station.
The Tin Tabernacle, a corrugated iron Victorian church built for the workers building the underground, houses a chapel from the movie Beckett starring Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton.
Other cinemas along the street including the Gaumont State, whose tower was modelled on the Empire State in New York, which was once Europe’s largest cinema. Now a church it served for four decades as a major music venue hosting stars from The Beatles to Bowie and Frank Sinatra.
After taking a tour of Paddington Cemetery to pay respects to the grave of Paddington bear creator Michael Bond, Joolz enjoys a final pint in The Kilburn Arms on Willesden Lane before signing off with a pip pip.
