At the beginning of the tTwentieth cCentury a new street had appeared in Willesden,. Meyrick Road, running which ran between Willesden High Road and Dudden Hill Lane. It had been built by speculators at the very end of the nNineteenth cCentury. By 1901, its 42 houses were filled to overflowing with the young families of semi-skilled and unskilled workers. Many of the men worked in the building industry, mainly as labourers, and a few as skilled carpenters, housepainters, plasterers, or bricklayers. Some had jobs associated with horses, such as grooms and, harness -makers; , others wereeven blacksmiths; and a. A few were employed in transport as coalmen, engine stokers, and carmen. Many of the women worked as servants or undertook laundry work.

“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”

— Quote Source

Many of the houses were already multi-occupied and many of the families were large. Most houses had at least two families living in them and a number squeezed in a lodger as well. Number 7 had 14 occupants, 11 people lived at number 27, while number 24 was home to 13 souls.

The occupants of the new Meyrick Road were all migrants. They had all come from somewhere else to live in this new working-class suburb. Many came from other areas of London. Some from the home nearby counties of Surrey, Hertfordshire, and Bucks. But some from much further afield, from Hampshire, Cornwall, Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire.

Wherever they came from, their journey was not yet over. By 1911, only one house was still occupied by the same family as had lived there a decade prior. All the others had moved on.

We know about the road in this such detail because of the surveys held in this country every 10 years: t. The census. It is a fantastic resource for historians, both professional and amateur. From it we can learn the names, family relationships, age, occupancy, and place of birth of everyone alive in Britain at the time. We can look at a street like Meyrick Road and using that knowledge and our imagination we can begin to put together what life was like then.

In 2021, a new census is wasbeing be held. We will were all be asked the same questions as in the past, plus some new ones. We will be happy to answer these questions, knowing that, and our responses will be kept secret for 100 years. In 2022, we should have access to the 1921 census, so we can bring our knowledge forward by a decade. Any Willesden resident can use the census to discover the early history of their own street and speculate on the lives of the people who came to live in the area a hundred years ago.

All the information is drawn from the 1901 and 1911 Censuses available at Brent Archives

MEYRICK ROAD - WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE CENSUS? (TEST)