Around Ealing Winter 2016-17 | Page 50

LOOKING BACK WITH DR JONATHAN OATES 22 Montpelier Road The Montpelier Road Montpelier Road is a quiet, residential street. Just over six decades ago, though, it was the scene of arguably one of Ealing’s worst crimes. 50 around ealing Winter 2016/17 T he road now has a mixture of late Victorian detached houses, as well as more recently built flats and smaller houses. The crime occurred at number 22, where the smaller houses of Magnolia Place now stand. At the time, the house was a home for elderly people. On the morning of 11 February 1954, the housemaid, Eileen Thorpe, could not find her employers, Mary Menzies and her daughter, Mrs Chesney. They were not in their rooms nor did they appear to have left the house. Concerned about being alarmist, she contacted her employers’ relations who lived nearby. They arrived at the house and searched it, without initially finding anything untoward. One room not searched, because it was locked and presumably in use, was one of the bathrooms. Eileen saw the key on the kitchen table and decided to check. What she saw horrified her. The body of Mrs Chesney was in the bath, quite dead.