Place Name
The road leading onto Brondesbury Park, the main route from Kilburn to Brondesbury. The name Brondesbury was first mentioned in 1254, as Bronnesburie, this was one of a number of St Paul’s Cathedral’s prebend estates (an area of land used to pay for the upkeep of the church or its priests) carved out of the parish of Willesden. It was named after one of the cathedral’s 12thCentury canons named Brand, thought to be from the Anglo-Scandinavian personal name Bronde. The area’s name went through various incarnations, Brondesbury in 1291 and Brondesbiri in 1328. By 1341 it was referred to as Prebende de Braundes. According to John Field in his very useful book Place-Names of Greater London there appeared to be some confusion between Brondesbury and another area Brownswood in Hornsey also held by a canon of St Paul’s creating the name Bromeswode in documents from 1346.
