June Rose Barberpassed away after living on Webheath for 50 years

A CLOSE-KNIT group of neighbours of a lifelong council tenant are holding a ­memorial service outside a four-storey mural of her put up on her estate during the pandemic.

June Rose Barber, a legend on Webheath in Kilburn where she lived for more than 50 years, died in hospital from cancer before Christmas.

The 88-year-old had been looked after in her final years by friends who have been battling to give her a proper send-off.  They are upset that she was moved 17 miles away to a care home in Leyton in Whipps Cross Hospital, Walthamstow, in the last months of her life.

With no close family in this country, there had been a dispute about who would pay for a funeral service and in which borough her remains should be buried.

One of her closest friends, Lynda Stuart, secretary of the Webheath TRA, said: “June was going to be left without a funeral ceremony until Webheath tenants and concerned friends demanded it.

“She didn’t have any children, and as far aswe are told, her closest relative is a niece in Australia. It’s been such a struggle finding out about anything about her death and organising anything for her as we are not next of kin.

“Really, this is a lesson to other people to share your decisions with the people you were closest with and want to be there at the end. Don’t just leave it to the social services or the solicitors sorting out your will.”

The New Journal understands a service will now be held in Golders Green Crematorium – but her old pals have been blocked from choosing music or speaking at the service.

Instead, they are holding their own memorial for June right by the eye-catching estate mural that continues to attract street art fans from all around the world.

Ms Rose Barber, who lived in West Hampstead and Kilburn all her life, worked as a dental mechanic and in aeroplane upholstery, making parachutes that come out of the back of jet fighters from the Rumbold’s factory in Belsize Road.

She was born in Messina Avenue and grew up in Kingsgate Road, before moving into Webheath more than 50 years ago with her late husband Neville, who she met at a tea dance in Kilburn. She was very much into Spanish dance and loved donkeys, cats and dogs – often taking in strays – and helping out with many charities in later life.

Ms Stuart, who is acting-chair of Kilburn Older Voices Exchange (KOVE), said: “You used to see her a lot on the estate because she would always put the CNJ newspapers through people’s letter boxes.

“She would also go around to the bins and take out all the stuff that was too good to waste. She didn’t want it for herself, but she would find homes for it. She was a real recycler in the truest sense.

“So when she became less out and about people noticed, and we would go around a lot. There’s three of us that are close friends that she relied on over the last four or five years for anything she needed to speak to Camden about. She had gone deaf in both ears and we would communicate by writing notes to each other.”

When the mural was put up in September 2020 by artist Smug 1, of the Global Art Collective, June, with her wonderful turn of phrase, had told the New Journal how she had been surprised by its scale.

“Oh my god, when I set eyes on it I thought, ‘Good grief!’,” she said. “I thought it was going to be a little image in the corner somewhere. I thought I’d be under a twig, but I’d say I was two buses high.”

The mural had been planned to be taken down if it had got into disrepair after two years but Ms Stuart – who also has a smaller mural of her up in the estate as part of the same project – said it had not been defaced at all and remains in perfect condition.

“People come from all over the world and I’m often talking to them when they take pictures – I’m so glad it’s there.” An official funeral is being held at Golders Green on March 6 at 2.30pm, with the memorial taking place at 3.45pm on the Webheath estate.