The only issue I have with the circuit now is the potentiometer's value of 100k is be a bit high, as the impedance looking into the base will be about 7k, assuming an Hfe of just over 200.
Two points.
One is the OP, seems to say he has a 10K pot, rather than a 100K one.
Both. I did just that and still same result. I am using a 9v battery. Below are pictures of the potentiometer tuned to both ends. At level 0 Ohm LED is dull and at 10k Ohms bright(at any resistance level above 0 ).
Secondly, the 7K impedance looking into the base, is only at full brightness, when the pot will be a very low resistance (as regards, the top two terminals of the pot, the other will be at nearly 100K, of course).
As the pot then decreases the current/brightness, into the base, the current flow reduces, so the effective impedance into the base, increases.
E.g. At 10% brightness = 10% of base current at full brightness = 10 x 7K = 70K very approximately, since Hfe will probably increase as the collector current drops.
tl;dr
Assuming OP has 10K pot, it should work reasonable well in that circuit, assuming there are not other issues.