Menelik Road runs from Westbere Road to Minster Road.
In the 1890s, the Powell-Cotton family cashed in on their land holdings which laid to the east of the Edgware Road. Various new roads were named after places in Kent near to Quex House - the Powell-Cotton family seat: Richborough Road (1885), Minster Road (1891), Ebbsfleet Road (1893), Westbere Road (1893), Sarre Road (1896) and Manstone Road (1899).
One of the stalwarts of the family was Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton (1866-1940) who travelled widely in Africa. The Major made over 28 expeditions to Africa. Powell-Cotton is noted for bringing an extraordinary number of animal specimens back from his travels across Africa, potentially creating the largest collection of game ever shot by one man. Despite this, Powell-Cotton was an early conservationist, helping categorise a wide number of species across the globe.
In 1900, Powell-Cotton met with Emperor Menelik II, who granted him permission to hunt across Ethiopia. Powell-Cotton’s subsequent expedition across Ethiopia formed the basis of his first book.
Due to the Major’s travels, roads began to get African names: Gondar Gardens (1892), Skardu Road (1897), Rondu Road (1900), Somali Road (1904) and Menelik Road (1904). Some 22 houses were built in Somali Road between 1904 and 1908 and six in Menelik Road, only in 1913. By 1913 the only land left unbuilt was on the northern borders of the Powell-Cotton estate and at Kilburn Grange, which was acquired as a public park in 1911.
