Charles Cannon, a dye merchant who lived at Kidderpore Hall, converted an old footpath into Cannon Hill, and West House and Wellesley House were built west of the junction of Finchley Road and West End Lane.
One of the tributaries of the Kilbourne (downstream becoming the Westbourne) ran beside the original footpath and this before it was culverted became known as Cannon Stream.
E. J. Cave, one of the district’s most prominent Victorian builders, built the Cannon Hill estate where Marlborough, Buckingham and Avenue Mansions were built in the triangle formed by Cannon Hill, Finchley Road, and West End Lane in 1896-1900.
Conductor Sir Adrian Boult lived at at 78 Marlborough Mansions on Cannon Hill and has a blue plaque to his memory there. Nigel Balchin, the novelist, died in 1970 also in Marlborough Mansions.