Paul Terry wrote:
In message , John Rowland
writes

I discovered Brent Terrace (the Cricklewood end) this afternoon.
Most of the east side has no houses. The houses on the west side are
all built backwards, with their back gardens facing the road, and
their fronts facing the railway. The only explanation I can think of
is that there was originally a road where the railway sidings are
now, and when this old road was removed, Brent Terrace was built as
a substitute access for the already existing houses. Does anyone
know the real story?

Bacon's London Atlas (1923) shows the original name of the road as
"Midland Bren[t] Terrace" so I guess they were originally railway
houses facing the depot and built on Midland Railway property.
Individual
houses in Midland Brent Terrace are clearly shown in this atlas, and
there is a railway shunting neck *very* close indeed on the railway
side - no room for a road there at all.

For a scan see: http://www.musonix.demon.co.uk/temp/Brent1.JPG

Bartholomew's 1913 atlas (showing the area before the North Circular
was driven through) is less detailed, but shows no sign of an
additional
road on the railway side:

http://www.musonix.demon.co.uk/temp/Brent2.JPG


If you go to http://www.old-maps.co.uk and enter
523500,186512
in the search box and click on Coordinates, you get an 1873 map of the same
area. There are no houses, no road and no sidings. So the key period for
further investigation is 1873-1913.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)