Somali Road, NW2

Place Name

A reference either to British Somaliland or the people Major Powell-Cotton employed on his shooting trips in East Africa and that he wrote about in his book A Sporting Trip Through Abyssinia. This was originally part of Shoot Up Hill Farm purchased by John Powell, a secretary to George III and onetime Paymaster General, as an investment, in 1773. The following year he bought Kilburn Wood Farm. These farms were passed down through the family. Once the railways lines in the Kilburn area were established the land began to be sold for housing. All the roads were named after places local to the family’s property at Quex Park and later after places Major Powell-Cotton visited on his travels – particularly Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia) in 1899 – 1900.

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