Hampstead - A Short Visit

Since at least the 17th Century, Hampstead in North London was regarded as a healthy place to live. It therefore attracted - and continues to attract - many of the rich and famous and also sometimes the "eccentric". The time-honoured houses in Hampstead Village and nearby Kenwood House across Hampstead Heath are all testimony to an interesting history; many of their past residents made important contributions to British life. Hampstead is only about 4 miles (6.4 Km) from the centre of London (Charing Cross), but together with Hampstead Heath and Kenwood, engenders a real sense of rus in urbe.

Fenton House has fine gardens.
When I visited the house, I was impressed by the huge numbers of harpsichords and spinets on display within. I found that the furnishings and pictures were also worth seeing.

I grew to love both Hampstead, Kenwood and Hampstead Heath, when, as a child I made weekend day visits from the centre of London to this area with my parents. They taught me an appreciation of history, of art and of nature. What you will see on this page are the pictures I took now more than a decade ago on my visit on Saturday, 16 September, 2008. Why should I let these pictures "gather dust" in my archive, when I can share them with a wider audience? You will see the result on this web page. The pictures, while not providing an in-depth description of Hampstead and Kenwood, will, I hope, give you, the visitor to this web page, a flavour of this interesting part of the Capital.

Here is an outline map of Hampstead and Kenwood.
The x and y-axes represent degrees longitude and latitude respectively.
If you would like to see what this area looked like around 1861, then you can also experience
a "cartographic flashback" to the Victorian age!

There are factors which influenced the choice of pictures you see here, as well as their technical aspects. The pictures were taken almost 10 years ago in 2008, and the first two of the Footnotes aim to draw your attention to these issues.

Heath Street

Heath Street is the connecting link between Hampstead tube station and the pond and Jack Straw's Castle, both on the top of the hill. Around Heath Street, you'll also see some of the associated smaller streets, yards and alley ways. Many of the houses are Georgian or early Victorian.

Flask Walk is very close to Hampstead tube.
The houses look early 19th Century - and still going strong!




Here is another view.




Heath Street always seems to be very busy.
The Mount is the road rising up to the left.




Close by is "Golden Yard",
which is quietly tucked away from the busy traffic in Heath Street.




A narrow passage way leads up Holly Mount.




The "Holly Bush House" is straight ahead and the "Holly Bush Pub" is to the left.
The Grade II listed "Holly Bush" pub was bought in 2010 by Fullers®.




Here is the detail of the old pub sign.

Fenton House

Fenton House - in Hampstead Grove - was built in 1686 by a rich London merchant. It is Grade I listed. Its last owner and resident - a Lady Binning - bequeathed it in 1952 to the National Trust. When I visited the house, I was impressed by the large collection of musical instruments - harpsichords and spinets - on display within. I found that the furnishings and pictures were also worth seeing. At the time, photography within National Trust properties was not allowed. However, the gardens - formal, sunken, rose and kitchen - certainly provided worthy subjects for my camera.

The impressive wrought iron gate makes a fine entrance.




Here is a first view of the house and its main entrance.




Formal Garden




Formal Garden




Sunken Garden




Formal Garden




Sunken Garden




Formal Garden




Kitchen Garden




Kitchen Garden




Formal Garden




Sunken Garden




Sunken Garden




Formal Garden




Formal Garden




The 300-year-old orchard has about 30 types (some rare) of apple trees.




Apple Orchard




Apple Orchard




Apple Orchard




Kitchen Garden




Ornamental Lead Water Basin




Rose Garden




Water Fountain




Formal Garden




Formal Garden




Formal Garden




Fenton House from the public road

Hampstead Grove

While Fenton House is on Hampstead Grove, there is quite a maze of narrow lanes in the area. The traditional houses are mainly Georgian or early Victorian. Close by are Grove House and Grove Lodge, erstwhile residences of the architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott, and the novelist and playwright, John Galsworthy, respectively.

Close to Hampstead Grove ...




... there is quite a maze of ...




... narrow lanes which one has to negotiate before reaching Admiral's House and Grove Lodge.





Admiral's House, otherwise named Grove House, was built during the reign of George III (as in the "Madness of King George"). At one time a certain Fountain North, an eccentric former naval officer, lived here. Later, a notable resident was Sir George Gilbert Scott, a famous English Gothic revival architect. His works include the Midland Grand Hotel (at St Pancras Station, London), the Albert Memorial (London), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (London), the two St Mary's Cathedrals, (Glasgow and Edinburgh) and the main building of the University of Glasgow. The "blue plaque" itself is actually an early LCC plaque made of brown encaustic.
(The blue plaque shown here above the picture is my simplified version,
included here for "immediate readability".)





Grove Lodge is where John Galsworthy lived for a time and died in 1933. John Galsworthy received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1932 and is perhaps best known for the Forsythe Saga, whose subsequent TV adaptation in 1967 was hugely popular.
(The blue plaque shown here above the picture is my simplified version,
included here for "immediate readability".)




This traditional street sign, near the top end of Heath Grove, gives an air of permanence to the surroundings. From here one can reach Whitestone Pond which, apparently, provided some refreshing comfort to the horses that had laboured up Heath Street.
A little further, and one reaches "Jack Straw's Castle".

Jack Straw's Castle

Jack Straw's Castle is a Grade II listed building and former public house which was built in 1965; it replaced an earlier public house of the same name which was badly damaged in the Blitz in WWII. Now Jack Straw's Castle is no longer a pub, but contains a number of luxury apartments and a gymnasium. Jack Straw led the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 and is supposed to have lived on the site.

Jack Straw's Castle is at a busy traffic fork. Traffic from Hampstead Village has the option of going to Golders Green or to Highgate. The Grade II listed war memorial was dedicated in 1922, and now commemorates local individuals who died in WWI and in WWII.




Here's a side view of Jack Straw's Castle.




This impressive house stands in the fork between the Golders Green and Highgate Roads. It seems to have been unoccupied for quite a while. I wonder why.




Here's another view of the house.

Vale of Health

Below Jack Straw's Castle is the "Vale of Health", both an area and the name of a cul de sac with expensive houses. The "Vale" was originally a malarial marsh. In 1777 the London Water Company made a pond to drain the marsh so that houses could be built. The name "Vale of Health" was first recorded in 1801. The road increased in popularity - after all, with such a name what could one expect? - and its famous residents subsequently included DH Lawrence, Compton Mackenzie, Edgar Wallace, Rabindranath Tagore and Liam Gallagher.

        

Famous Residents of the Vale of Health




We can glimpse the distant London skyline ...




... over the top of the "Vale of Health" - some of whose houses you see here.




"Along the top" the path leads from Jack Straw's Castle ...




... to the east side of Kenwood.
From here Kenwood House will soon come into view.

Kenwood House

Kenwood House was built in its original form in the early 17th century, when it was called Caen Wood House (see map below). The orangery dates to about 1700. However, the house has a very strong Adam influence which came in the second half of the 18th Century. Between 1764–1779, Robert Adam was commissioned to remodel the house, adding the library with its famous interior and also adding the Ionic portico that graces the entrance. Elevations of north and south fronts are by Robert and James Adam.

Lord Iveagh, a rich businessman of the Guinness family, bought the house from its then owners, the Mansfield family, in 1925. On his death, shortly afterwards in 1927, the house was left to the nation. The following year, it was opened to the public.

The Kenwood Preservation Council bought part of the grounds in 1922, in order to counter threats from building developers. The estate is Grade II* listed; the landscape was probably designed by Humphrey Repton.

Kenwood House in the landscape.




Here you can see "Caen Wood House" in the geographical context of the London of circa 1861.
The house is approximately west-north-west of Highgate and north-north-east of Hampstead.
Details of the map are given in the relevant footnote below.




The south front ...




... was designed by Robert and James Adam.




Here is another view of the South Front.




The main entrance on the north front has an Ionic portico by Robert Adam.




Looking up into the "ceiling" of the portico we see ...




... the blue and white decoration reminiscent of the Wedgwood bone china of the era.




It was raining at the time.




However, the "Regency style" awning ...




... on the west side of the house ...




... looks elegant ...




... whatever the weather!

Viewpoint & Kitchen Garden

Kenwood House and nearby Highgate are on higher ground which affords distant views across to the Capital. A small ornate shelter was erected to the south-east of the house to mark a convenient spot from which visitors can appreciate the views, unimpeded by the surrounding trees and bushes.

From this shelter one gets views ...




... towards London ...




... and towards neighbouring Highgate.

Most country houses would have a kitchen garden to provide fresh vegetables, fruit and, of course, herbs. Kenwood House was no exception. Today, of course, the Kitchen Garden no longer serves its original culinary purpose. Instead, flower beds provide a colourful display.

Lawns and flower beds ...




... make a colourful display.




The aesthetic aspect has ousted the erstwhile culinary purpose.

The Two Lakes & Kenwood

A slope descends from the house to the two lakes, which border on Kenwood. From 1951 to 2006 the area by the lakes was the location for Summer Saturday Evening Concerts ("The Concert Bowl"); from 2008, the concerts were moved to elsewhere on the estate. The mock bridge across the end of one of the lakes has been in place ever since I visited Kenwood, but I don't really know anything about its origins. Kenwood is the wooded area to the south of the lakes. A great part of Kenwood appears to be allowed to grow wild, but there are some fenced-off paths through the wood and some open spaces at its southern end.

Before we enter Kenwood, we can look back and appreciate
the commanding position of Kenwood House over the surrounding landscape.




We walk down to the lake ...




... and towards the mock bridge
to the left of which is one of the entrances to Kenwood.




At the southern end of Kenwood ...




... the fenced paths disappear ...




... and the woods open up somewhat ...




... while retaining that "wild wood" feel.

From the gate at the southern end of Kenwood, a main path leads back above the Vale of Health to Jack Straw's Castle. From the "Castle", it's a short walk to Heath Street and to Hampstead Tube. Thus, finishes our short walk through Hampstead Village and to Kenwood House. I hope you enjoyed your on-line visit!

Dedication

Of course, I dedicate my web pages to all you who visit my web site. However, in this case, I have some very special people in mind, as you will see. The reason for, and origin of, the decorative frieze below, you can find out by clicking on the frieze itself.

I dedicate this page to my parents who, in my tender years, showed me a great deal of Hampstead, the Heath and Kenwood. It is from them that I developed an appreciation of history, of art and of nature. Hampstead was one of the places where I was able to develop this appreciation.

I also dedicate this page to June Neilson who was at one time a librarian at the former Westfield College (originally part of the University of London) in nearby Kidderpore Avenue. Her destiny in life would be an erstwhile industrial town north of Hadrian's Wall. Hence, she probably will not find a ready occasion to return to her former haunts in Hampstead.

Footnotes

Choice of Pictures. In 2008 there were still restrictions on photography inside properties belonging to English Heritage and to the National Trust. Hence, you will see here only the exteriors of the buildings. Photography restrictions were eased a few years ago, and so, at a later date, I propose to get pictures inside the relevant buildings. This will give this page added value.

Camera. Here is a quick note on the camera I used. In terms of digital technology, 2008 may be ancient history. However, the Samsung S730 camera which I used, was a good digital camera at the time. It produced 7MP pictures - 3072 x 2304 pixels to be precise - and could adapt quite well to the ambient lighting conditions. Bearing in mind that the sun made a rather timid appearance on that Saturday ten years ago, I think you'll find that the camera coped quite well.

Map of Middlesex. Cruchley's Railway and Telegraphic County Map of Middlesex. G.F. Cruchley, Map Publisher and Globe Manufacturer, 81, Fleet Street, London. Date: probably between 1860 and 1862.

"Dedication Frieze". I think that this frieze is suitable here, and indeed looks nice here, especially as Kenwood House and many buildings in old Hampstead bear a strong 18th century hallmark. The frieze was found in: "Miscellaneous Works, in Verse and Prose, of the Late Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; London: J. and R. Tonson in the Strand. 1736.". I inherited these three interesting volumes from my parents. Being 1736, the master woodcut was hand crafted; this would explain why the resultant print, which you see here, is not completely symmetrical about its central vertical axis.

"Paragraph Header". The decoration above each section header on the main page is derived from Clip Art supplied with earlier versions of Microsoft® Office®. I chose it and its colour because together they appear to exude a strong 18th century flavour.

Quick Access. You can reach this page directly from your browser with "tinyurl.com/halloham".