The name of this borough is clearly derived from "ham," or "hame," a
home; and "steede," a place, and has consequently the same meaning as
homestead. Park, in a note in his book on Hampstead, says that the "p"
is a modern interpolation, scarcely found before the seventeenth
century, and not in general use until the eighteenth.
Lysons says that the Manor of Hampstead was given in 986 A.D. by King
Ethelred to the church at Westminster, and that this gift was confirmed
by Edward the Confessor; but there is an earlier charter of King Edgar
of uncertain date, probably between 963 and 978. It granted the land at
Hamstede to one Mangoda, and the limits of the grant are thus stated:
"From Sandgate along the road to Foxhanger; from the Hanger west to
Watling Street north along the street to the Cucking Pool; from the
Cucking Pool east to Sandgate."
Professor Hales, who thinks, whether genuine or not, this charter is
certainly of value, interprets Sandgate as North End, Foxhanger as
Haverstock Hill, Watling Street as Edgeware Road, and the Cucking Pool
he concludes was in the marshy ground at the north-west corner of the
parish.
This earlier charter is only interesting because it carries the history
one point further back; the gift to the monks by King Ethelred was in
its consequences far more important. The Bishop of Westminster, who held
the land after the dissolution of the monastery, surrendered it to the
King in 1550, by whom it was given to Sir Thomas Wroth. It remained in
the Wroth family until 1620, when it was acquired by Sir Baptist Hickes,
afterwards Viscount Campden. Hickes' daughter and coheir married Lord
Noel, ancestor of the Earls of Gainsborough, and it was held by the
Gainsboroughs until 1707. In that year it was bought by Sir William
Langhorne, who left it to his nephew. It then went to a Mrs. Margaret
Maryon, later to Mrs. Weller, and about 1780 to Sir Thomas Spencer
Wilson, in right of his wife. Her son, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson,
succeeded her, and in this line it has remained since 1818.
Besides the Manor of Hampstead there is included in the borough the
ancient Manor of Belsize, or Belses. Sir Roger de Brabazon in 1317 gave
an estate to Westminster Abbey to found a chantry for himself, Edmund,
Earl of Lancaster, and Blanche his wife. After many changes it was
occupied by Lord Wotton, who had been created a Baron by Charles II. His
half-brother, Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, succeeded him, and the
family held the Belsize estate until 1807. The house was afterwards
turned into a popular place of amusement.
Hampstead as a whole has grown very rapidly. In a map of the beginning
of the nineteenth century there are comparatively few houses; these
nestle in the shape of a spear-head and haft about the High Street. At
West End and Fortune Green are a few more, a few straggle up the
southern end of the Kilburn Road, and Rosslyn House and Belsize House
are detached, out in the open country.
Seymour, writing in 1735, gives a quaint description of Hampstead as
follows: "This Village ... is much more frequented by good company than
can well be expected considering its vicinity to London, but such care
has been taken to discourage the meaner sort from making it a place of
residence that it is now become, after Scarborough and Bath and
Tunbridge, one of the Politest Public Places in England, and to add to
the Entertainment of the Company there is, besides the long room in
which the Company meet publicly on a Monday evening to play at cards,
etc., a new Dancing Room built this year."
Hampstead itself, now a town of 80,000 people, is almost entirely
modern; the old village has been gradually destroyed until there is next
to nothing left. But the Heath remains, the only wild piece of ground
within easy reach of the Londoner. It remains to be seen whether the
authorities will continue to observe the difference between a park and a
heath.
No suburb of London can point to so many distinguished residents as
this, the most favoured and the most favourite. Among them may be
mentioned Sir Henry Vane, Dr. Butler (author of the "Analogy"), Lord
Alvanley, Lord Chatham, Lord Erskine, Crabbe, Dr. Johnson, Joanna
Baillie, Mrs. Barbauld, Constable, Romney, Sir James Mackintosh, Steele,
Gay, Arbuthnot, Akenside, Thomas Day, Leigh Hunt, Keats, William Blake,
John Linnell, Wilkie, Stanfield, Du Maurier, and many others.
Directly you get within the boundaries of Hampstead you are aware that
the borough has an atmosphere of its own—an atmosphere in two senses,
for the great height of part of the borough and its distance from London
combine to give it as wholesome and pure an air as may be found in any
place in England, and an atmosphere in the metaphorical sense—a
peculiar feeling of brightness and lightness which proclaims a favoured
suburb. Hampstead has always been celebrated for its trees, and in spite
of the great annual increase in the number of its houses these have not
been wiped out of existence. Nearly every house possesses one or more,
and some are very fine specimens. The long sinuous backbone of the
borough, beginning as Haverstock Hill, continuing as Rosslyn Hill, and
running through High Street and Heath Street to the Heath, is
tree-shaded almost all its length. The streets on either side show
vistas of irregular red brick, softened and toned down by the greenery
of trees; every road is an avenue. The main artery, indicated above, is
all uphill, not all equally steep, but collar-work throughout its
length; at the top it bifurcates, and the winding of Heath Street
reminds one of a Continental town. The steep little streets or alleys
running down into it are furnished with steps like the Edinburgh wynds.
The way is long, but the toil is forgotten at the summit in the splendid
view from the flagstaff. Here the rolling blue outlines of distant hills
are emphasized by the beautiful foreground of the West Heath. There is
none of what painters call the "middle distance"; everything is near or
far, and the near is extraordinarily beautiful, especially if it be seen
in springtime when the spray of blossom is like the spray of deep water
breaking upon rocks, and the gorse twinkles like the twinkling of
ripples in the golden sunlight. The immediate foreground is bare and
worn, but a little further away the miniature heights and hollows, the
scrubby bush and little winding paths, add that mystery which so greatly
increases delight. The pond by the Flagstaff is frequently very gay;
there are carriages and horses, children with flotillas of white-sailed
craft, and horses splashing knee-deep from end to end of the pond, an
advantage much appreciated in the hot and thirsty summer. Away to the
east stretches of rolling green form a joyous playground for all at
holiday times, but are bare and arid compared with the West Heath.
Below North End on West Heath this character is maintained, and there
are few sights in England more beautiful than the richly clothed broken
ground stretching away from the slopes below Jack Straw's Castle when
the sunlight catches the leaves of the poplars and beeches, making them
shine with shimmery silver light. On all sides are magnificent views of
distant horizons.
The Heath forms one of the greatest attractions of Hampstead, and that
the inhabitants are fully alive to its beauty and importance is shown by
their gallant and successful efforts to preserve it intact, when, from
time to time, it has been threatened. Neither the proposed curtailments
by the Lord of the Manor nor the park-like "improvements" of the London
County Council have been permitted. It is still a wide space of
undulating ground, outlined by masses of foliage rising to the heights
of Highgate, and is an untold boon to the dwellers in the City, who
throng its slopes on Bank Holidays. In 1866 a contest arose between the
Lord of the Manor, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, and the inhabitants of
Hampstead as to the preservation of the Heath. Up to that date for
twenty years a guerilla warfare had been going on in dispute of Sir
Maryon Wilson's right to build upon the Heath, and when he began to
build a house close to the Flagstaff pond the matter came to an issue. A
subscription list was opened called the Hampstead Heath Protection Fund,
and the matter was taken into court. Before the case was ended Sir
Thomas died, and was succeeded by his brother Sir John, who was open to
a compromise. Under an Act of Parliament the Metropolitan Board of Works
acquired the Heath for £55,045. The ground thus acquired comprised 220
acres. In 1889-90 Parliament Hill Fields and the Brickfields were
purchased for £302,000, with money partly raised by the local Vestries,
partly by public subscription, and partly by Metropolitan taxation. The
land thus bought from Lord Mansfield and Sir Spencer Wilson comprised
261 acres, and was dedicated to the public as an open space for ever.
The part of the Heath known as East Heath consists of rolling grassy
slopes outlined with clumps of trees and intersected by roads and
footpaths. The great road known as Spaniards, which cuts across as
straight as an arrow, gives the impression of having been banked up and
levelled at some previous date, but this appearance is due to the
excavations for sand and gravel at its sides which took place while the
ground was still under the rule of the lord of the manor.
The Heath has suffered from highwaymen in common with most lonely spots
in the vicinity of the Metropolis. One, Jackson, in 1673, was hung
behind Jack Straw's Castle for highway murder, but no other very
notorious crimes are attached to this spot as there are to Hounslow or
Blackheath.
The Heath is not altogether destitute of houses; of those detached,
several have had the origin of what Baines terms "Squatters' right," and
have established their title by process of time. There are also several
hamlets: the Vale of Health, the houses about Jack Straw's Castle, North
End, and the group near the Spaniards.
The curious little cluster of buildings called the Vale of Health,
situated in a basin near to one of the Hampstead ponds, has always
attracted considerable attention. Here Leigh Hunt came to live in 1816;
his house was on the site of the Vale of Health Hotel. Thornbury quotes
an old inhabitant, who writes of Leigh Hunt's cottage as having a
"pretty balcony environed with creepers, and a tall arbor vitæ which
almost overtops the roof." There are very few even tolerably old houses
left here; the little streets are of the modern villa order, and the
great square tavern, with its tea-gardens and merry-go-rounds, its
shooting-galleries and penny-in-the-slot machines, has vulgarized the
place. Prince Esterhazy is said to have taken a house in the Vale of
Health in 1840; this has been "long since pulled down." The place is now
dedicated to the sweeping tide of merry-makers which flows over it every
recurring Bank Holiday.
The charming spot called North End still remains rural in appearance:
small cottages with red-tiled roofs and quaint inns survive side by side
with the modern red-brick school-house. The Bull and Bush is said to
have been the country seat of Hogarth, and later, when it became a
tavern, to have been visited by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick, Sterne,
Foote, and other celebrities. The house is very picturesque: the
projecting wing northward is of rusticated woodwork; the leads of the
bayed-windows are covered with flowers in summer. There are still the
old-fashioned tea-gardens attached.
There are many substantial and comfortable residences about North End,
but the Hampstead boundary does not include them all. Wildwoods, or, as
it used to be called, North End House, is the most important within the
boundary. The original fabric of the house is two centuries old, but has
been altered and repaired largely. The spot is named Wildwood Corner in
Domesday Book. Its chief historical interest lies in its occupation by
William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, who shut himself up here from all
communication with his fellow-Ministers in 1767; he was then a miserable
invalid, afflicted with a disorder which in modern times would have been
termed "nerves"; he refused to see anyone, even his own attendant, and
his food was passed to him through a panel of the door. However, he
afterwards returned to public life. In Wildwood Terrace are the Home of
Rest for the Aged Poor, and a Convalescent Cottage Home. Wilkie Collins
was born at North End. Besides this, the names of Linnell, portrait and
landscape painter, Coventry Patmore, Mrs. Craik, Eliza Meteyard, a minor
author, and Sir Fowell Buxton, are more or less intimately associated
with the little hamlet.
A charming path leads over the broken ground from North End to the
Spaniards. The most noticeable object as the pedestrian approaches the
latter is a grove of fine Scotch firs, which at one time formed an
avenue to a substantial, unpretentious house on the north. A Mr.
Turner, a tobacconist of Fleet Street, built the house and planted the
trees in 1734. The road past the house turns to the left or north, and
is bounded on the east side by the wall of the Caenwood property.
Following the road we come upon Erskine House, a stuccoed house with
covered porch, chiefly remarkable for the immense size of its upper
windows, which are out of all proportion to those of the ground-floor.
These command a magnificent prospect, and light a room which, it is
said, was designed as a banqueting-hall in which to entertain George
III. The house was the residence of the great law lord, Thomas Erskine,
and on that account alone is worthy of special mention. A tunnel
connecting it with Lord Mansfield's grounds formerly ran under the road.
Below the house, standing at an angle to the Highgate Road, and looking
down the hill, is the famous old inn called the Spaniards. Here, at
least, the modern builder has not been at work. From the quaint tiled
roof to the irregular windows and white-washed brick walls, all is
simple and charming. A little lean-to shed of rusticated woodwork forms
a bar at the back. This tavern is actually outside the boundary of
Hampstead, but it is so closely connected with the parish that it cannot
be overlooked. It is on the site of a lodge at the entrance to the park
or grounds of the Bishop of London.
From Wroth we learn that about the middle of the eighteenth century or
earlier one Staples laid out a curious pleasure-garden here, with quaint
designs, which attracted much attention. It was the landlord of the
Spaniards Inn who in the time of the Gordon Riots dexterously detained
the rioters from proceeding to Caenwood House until the troops arrived
to protect it. The tea-gardens at the back still survive; in these was
the old bowling-green. Close by was another pleasure-garden, New
Georgia, but this is quite beyond the parish limits.
Returning across the Heath, we come to Jack Straw's Castle, though there
is no evidence to show that the riotous ringleader of 1381 had ever any
connection with the hostelry named after him, but it is quite possible
that the Heath formed a rendezvous for the malcontents of his time. In
early times an earthwork stood on the site, which gave rise to the name
"castle." The real Jack Straw's Castle was at Highgate. It is almost
certain that the Hampstead hostelry was originally a private house; the
wood of the gallows on which one Jackson had been hanged behind the
house, in 1673, for highway murder, was built into the wall. When the
place became an inn it was called Castle Inn, and the first mention of
Jack Straw's Castle is in a book published in 1822 called "The Cabinet
of Curiosities." The present inn was built in the early part of the
eighteenth century, and is a nice-looking stuccoed old house; through
the entry to the yard we get a glimpse of red-tiled, rusticated wooden
outbuildings. On one side are the tea-gardens. Dickens often resorted
here, as is mentioned in Forster's "Life of Dickens," and the inn is
referred to also by Washington Irving in "The Sketch-Book."
There was a race-course behind the hotel on the Heath, but the races
have been suppressed. In a paper contributed to Baines' book on
Hampstead a correspondent says: "The Castle Hotel is associated with the
meetings of the Courts Leet, and in the old days during the Middlesex
Parliamentary elections the house was a famous rendezvous for candidates
and voters." A brick house two centuries old at the corner of Spaniards
Road is Heath House. It was long occupied by the Hoare family, of
banking fame, whose name has been intimately associated with Hampstead.
Visitors of distinction have often been received here, and the names of
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Crabbe were among those of frequent guests.
The Flagstaff marks a very high point on the Heath, 439 feet, which is,
however, surpassed by Jack Straw's Castle at 443 feet.
The Whitestone Pond has been enlarged, and is supplied by New River
water. From this site a view of surprising beauty is seen—broken ground
covered by bracken and gorse, bushes and trees, with the blue outlines
of the distant hills.
South of the Whitestone Pond is the Hampstead water reservoir, and near
it beds of flowers, rhododendron bushes, etc., are neatly laid out.
Almost immediately opposite is a quiet, dark-coloured little brick
house, with area steps descending in front and the entrance on the
north. This (now a private residence) was once the Upper Flask Tavern,
familiar to all the readers of Richardson, for here he makes the unhappy
Clarissa Harlowe fly in his famous novel. The Kit Kat Club used to meet
here during the summer months, and many celebrities of Queen Anne's
reign, including Pope and Steele, are known to have patronized the
tavern. George Steevens, the commentator on Shakespeare, who died in the
beginning of the present century, lived here, and spent much money on
alterations and improvements. Anything less suggestive of a tavern than
this cool, shady, retired spot cannot well be imagined. A very large
red-brick house, modern, with fancy tiles, stands in its own grounds
adjacent, overlooking Holford Road. But it is quite impossible to
enumerate all the charming residences scattered about in this locality.
East Heath Road skirts the edge of the Heath. In itself it contains
nothing remarkable, but closely adjoining are one or two of those
charming old red-brick mansions which make Hampstead what it is.
Heathfield House, Squires Mount, and The Pryors are specimens of these.
On the south side is Cannon Hall, an old Queen Anne mansion. Old cannon,
which have doubtless some connection with the name, stand in the roadway
before it, and close by is Christ Church Vicarage, of the same type,
with red-tiled roof.
Christ Church Road is a long tree-shaded thoroughfare descending the
slope of the hill; it was formerly called Green Man Lane, from the
public-house of that name at the foot.
The church stands at a great elevation, and has a high spire, which
forms a landmark far and wide. It was built by Sir Gilbert Scott,
consecrated in 1852, and was the successor of the chapel in Well Walk,
an account of which is given on p. 18. The church was enlarged in 1882.
The streets hereabouts are set at all angles, and the result to a
stranger is a little perplexing.
Hampstead Square is a square only in name; one or two delightful old
brick houses are dotted about, but are chiefly detached, and can hardly
be said to form a square. At New End is the workhouse originally built
in 1845, but extended in 1870 and 1883. It is a solid and commodious
building. Of the remainder of that part of Hampstead known as New End,
it is almost impossible to give any detailed account. It is a curious
medley of steeply tilted narrow streets, little passages, small cottages
set down at any angle, with vine or Virginia creeper growing over them,
and here and there a hideous row of little modern brick houses. The
White Bear at New End is the oldest public-house in the parish, bearing
date 1704. Willow Road lays claim to its name by the fringe of willows
that lines its northern side.
The Flask Tavern in Flask Walk is on the site of one of the oldest
beerhouses in Hampstead; the present structure is a hideous brick
building of modern date. The Walk is reached from High Street under a
covered entry, and the street is at first only wide enough for the
passage of one vehicle. Being on the side of the hill it shows, further
on, a picturesque irregularity with the footway at a different level
from the road. Small rows of limes add a certain quaintness to its
aspect, and it is easy to imagine the four days' fair, beginning on
August 1, which used to be held here annually. The watch-house and
public stocks stood at the upper end of this street when removed from
Heath Street.
It is easy to imagine that the name Flask originated in the shape of the
road, with its narrow neck and expanded end, but perhaps the Walk took
its name from the public-house, in which case the suggested derivation
would fail.
Well Walk is the most celebrated spot in Hampstead, for here flow the
famous chalybeate waters, which rivalled those of Bath and Tunbridge
Wells, and in their best days drew an amazing army of gay people to the
spot. The earliest mention of the spring is in the time of Charles II.,
when a halfpenny token with the words "Dorothy Rippin at the well in
Hampsted" on the obverse was issued. In 1698 Susanna Noel with her son
Baptist, third Earl of Gainsborough, gave the well, encompassed by six
acres of ground, to the poor of Hampstead. It was in the beginning of
the eighteenth century that the waters first became famous. Howitt says
they were carried fresh every day for sale to Holborn Bars, Charing
Cross, and other central spots; but their palmy days did not last very
long, for in 1734 there was an attempt to revive interest in them by a
laudatory pamphlet. However, while they were at the height of their
popularity many persons whose names are well known were attracted by
them. It was at the Long Room, Hampstead, that Fanny Burney (afterwards
Madame D'Arblay) came to stay, and here she made her heroine Evelina
attend balls. Her book gained her such a circle of admirers that it is
said her second work was expected as eagerly as a novel from Scott.
The chief building was the Pump Room, on the south side of the street,
near where the entrance to Gainsborough Gardens now is. The first
recorded entertainment here was on August 18, 1701, when a concert was
given. Concerts and entertainments of various kinds were kept up during
the season. There was a bowling-green near. This house dated from about
the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1733 it was converted into
an episcopal chapel, and was so used until 1849. There was another
chapel called Sion Chapel in the vicinity, though its exact situation is
unknown; here couples could be married for five shillings, provided they
brought with them a license. The license was not always insisted on. The
Pump Room was later used as a guard-room of the West Middlesex
Volunteers, and was pulled down in 1880 to make way for the road above
mentioned. It was then discovered by the intervening wall that the
adjacent house was of still older date, and it is thus proved to be one
of the oldest remaining in Hampstead. It has a graceful spindle porch
and delightful old-world air, though the side adjoining Gainsborough
Gardens has been refaced.
Just opposite is a solid drinking fountain of polished granite, with
inscription to the effect that it is in memory of Susanna Noel's gift,
and here the chalybeate waters may still be tasted. One or two old
houses are on the northern side of the Walk, and one of these, a long,
low, red-brick edifice called Weatherhall House, deserves special
notice. It contained the Long Room where dances and assemblies were
held, and even after the fame of the waters declined it still held its
place. Perhaps this is the room referred to by Seymour as having been
built in 1735. He describes it as "60 feet long and 30 feet wide, well
adorned with chandeliers. The manner of being admitted into it is by a
ticket, of which every gentleman who subscribes a guinea for the season
has one for himself and two more for two ladies; all those who have not
subscribers' tickets pay 2s. 6d. each at the entrance every night. And
Sunday nights in the same room is an assembly where the gentlemen and
ladies who lodge in the town are entertained with tea and coffee at
sixpence per head, but no other amusements are allowed on these nights."
Here Mrs. Johnson came, and Mark Akenside, poet and physician of the
eighteenth century; Dr. Arbuthnot, friend of Swift, a man ranked high
among the wits of his day, and holding the appointment of physician to
Queen Anne; Fanny Burney, and many others. The house is now a private
residence. Standing further back from the road behind a quadrangle is
Burgh House, also old. This was at one time used as a militia barracks,
at which time (1863) the two solid wings adjoining the road were
erected.
Burgh House is now a private residence, and the cells where
insubordinate soldiers were confined are converted into the drying and
mangling rooms of a laundry.
The Wells Tavern is on the site of the Green Man, of ancient date. In
1879 the Vestry proposed to sweep away the groves of the Well Walk and
make it into a modern thoroughfare, a New Wells Street, which drew forth
indignant protest from the parishioners and a pamphlet from Sir Gilbert
Scott.
The renovations, accordingly, were confined to the opening of one or two
new streets on the south side, and the erection of the fountain. But
even this involved the destruction of part of the old Pump Room. On the
site of the Pump Room is a new red-brick house called Wellside, built in
1892, which has an inscription to that effect. Besides the Pump Room,
Well Walk has many associations. The famous painter Constable lived in a
house which was then numbered 6. He took this house as an extra one in
1826, though still retaining the studio and a few rooms in his London
house, near Fitzroy Square; he was then fifty, and was just beginning to
feel the small measure of success which was all that was granted him in
his lifetime. John Keats and his brothers lodged in Well Walk, next to
the Wells Tavern, in 1817-18; and the seat on which Keats loved to sit
under a grove of trees at the most easterly end is still called by his
name. Here Hone found him "sobbing his dying breath into a
handkerchief."
East Heath and South End Roads are traversed annually by millions of
people, for they lead from the station and the tramway terminus to the
Heath, passing some nicely laid-out ground suggestive of a
watering-place, and a curious octagonal tower connected with the water
companies.
To the north-east are the Hampstead ponds, which are supposed to have
been made in Henry VIII.'s reign. They are certainly larger now than
they were in the seventeenth century, and have probably been enlarged
artificially. They are now in possession of the New River Waterworks
Company. The streets on the hill beyond the ponds are all modern.
Gayton Road is composed entirely of modern villas in a continuous
straight line. Many of the streets in the vicinity are in the same
style, and were built over open meadows at a comparatively recent date.
On Downshire Hill is an episcopal chapel with white porch and small
cupola; this is dedicated to St. John.
John Street, like Downshire Hill, has detached residences on either
side. Large brick flats are rising on the ground once covered by Lawn
Bank and Wentworth House. In the former Keats was a welcome visitor from
1818 to 1820, and here he wrote many of his famous poems. Fanny Brawne,
with her mother, occupied the adjacent house.
Rosslyn Hill was formerly called Red Lion Hill, from a public-house
which stood on the site of the present police-station. On the north side
are a Unitarian chapel and schools approached by handsome iron gates.
The chapel is approached from Pilgrim Lane and Kemplay Road, and the
schools from Willoughby Road. There stood near by until within the last
twenty years an old building known as the Chicken House. This is
supposed to have been once a hunting lodge of King James I., though
there is little basis for the tradition. It became later a mean hovel,
the rendezvous for the scum and riffraff of the neighbourhood. It stood
a little back from the road just at the spot where Pilgrim Place now is,
and contained some very curious stained glass in its windows. There was
in one section a portrait of King James I., with an inscription on a
tablet below in French to the effect that the King slept here on August
25, 1619. In another section was a corresponding portrait of the
favourite, Buckingham. Further north there existed another old house
known as Carlisle House. Perhaps this is the one mentioned by Park as a
red-brick Elizabethan house with rubbed quoins, which had been let in
tenements, and was in a ruinous state in 1777.
On the south or western side of Rosslyn Hill there is the police-station
before mentioned, and adjacent an interesting Tudor house, which, though
not old, is well built; this contains the Soldiers' Daughters' Home. Old
Vane House previously stood here, and was the residence of Sir Harry
Vane of the Commonwealth, and later of Bishop Butler, who wrote the
"Analogy." The Home is on the site of the south wing of this building,
and includes no part of it. Belmont House, now a private residence, was
the northern wing. Baines speaks of a date, 1789, and the initials
I.R.W. scored on the leads of the latter, but this gives no clue to the
age of the building. He says: "The antiquity of the house is abundantly
shown by the arrangement of the basements, by the thickness of the main
walls, and by a curious subterranean passage from the brewhouse to the
stable-yard."
The institution of the Soldiers' Daughters' Home was the outcome of the
patriotic feeling aroused by the Crimean War. The house was built for
the reception of the girls, who entered into possession in 1867. The
Tudor feeling has been well carried out, from the deep porch which
overlooks the ivy-surrounded courtyard in front to the stone staircases
within. The result is delightful; instead of the hideous dreariness of
an institution, we have a real home. At the back a large extent of grass
playground stretches out westward, and at the end of this there is a
grove of trees. On one side of the grass is a large playroom built in
1880 by means of an opportune legacy, and on the other a covered
cloister which leads to the school, standing detached from the house at
the other end of the playground. An old pier burdened with a mass of ivy
stands up in the centre, the only remnant of this part of old Vane
House. Some years ago a portion of the ground was profitably sold for
the frontage to Fitz John's Avenue.
The girls are received between the ages of six and eleven years, and
remain until sixteen. They are trained in every requisite for domestic
service, and make all their own clothes except hats and boots. As a
badge of the army, they are always dressed in scarlet.
High Street has been greatly changed within recent years, and it is
within the memory of living persons that there were trees on each side.
The opening of the two new roads, Prince Arthur Road and Gayton Road,
affected its appearance. At the corner of Prince Arthur Road is a large
Wesleyan chapel in many coloured bricks. Opposite is the King of
Bohemia, a public-house which dates back to Jacobean times, and contains
some good Jacobean woodwork; also Stanfield House, once the residence of
Clarkson Stanfield the artist, now used as a subscription library. The
Free Library reading-room is under the same roof. The house is of brick
with ivy climbing over it. About the end of old Church Lane cluster a
few old red-brick houses, which preserve a certain flavour of
picturesqueness in the street. Opposite the Wesleyan chapel a few more
peep over more modern additions. The north-east side is almost entirely
modern. The Bird in Hand public-house, where the London omnibuses
complete their journey, inherits the name and site of an old tavern. A
Presbyterian church at the corner of Willoughby Road dates from 1862,
but replaces a much older one removed 1736. In the earlier one Mr.
Barbauld, chiefly known on account of his famous wife, ministered for
many years. After his death Mrs. Barbauld continued to live at Rosslyn
Hill.
Heath Street cuts diagonally across the top of High Street. Below the
junction it is all modern, immense red-brick buildings of similar type,
with large shops on the ground-floors. At the junction is an imposing
fire-station, built by Vulliamy in 1874 on the site of the old
police-station. The street higher up is narrow and irregular, with a
row of elms above the level of the roadway on the west side. A
conspicuous Baptist chapel in white stone with two western spires was
built in 1862, but the origin of the congregation here dates from the
preaching of Whitfield on the Heath in 1739. The watch-house and stocks
were formerly situated at the foot of Heath Street, and later removed to
Flask Walk. About Golden Square there are many little irregular entwined
streets and passages, with here and there a cottage, here and there the
flat sashed windows of a house of a bygone generation, all intricate,
entangled, but very quaint and charming.
The Grove is a long shady avenue, with one or two fine old houses on
either side of the road and a few cottages. At the top is a big boys'
school. On the east in one building are Old and New Grove Houses, and
opposite is Fenton House, which was long known as the Clock House. New
Grove House was the residence of Du Maurier. At the north end is the
Hampstead Waterworks reservoir.
A tree-shaded eminence, crowned with pleasant seats and commanding a
magnificent view of the Heath, leads to Branch Hill. This, marked in
Park's map Prospect Walk, is now called the Judge's Walk. This name is
derived from a tradition that the judges came here and held their courts
under canvas while the plague was raging in 1665. But derivations of
this sort are very easy to make up and entirely unreliable.
Lower and Upper Terraces just behind are full of charming residences. In
the former Constable lived at intervals (No. 2) during 1821, and to the
latter Mrs. Siddons came in the autumn of 1804. In Montague House Sir G.
Scott lived.
Branch Hill runs down into Frognal Rise, and on the west there are one
or two big houses scattered about.
Branch Hill Lodge belonged to Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the Rolls in
1745, who presented it to Lord Chancellor Macclesfield. It was for a
period the residence of the Earl of Rosslyn, and tradition connects Lord
Byron's name with it. It stands in beautiful and extensive grounds.
Further along Branch Hill Road there are many new terraces and one or
two big houses.
Hollybush Hill is in a straight line with High Street, and between it
and Heath Street there are curious little steep passages and alleys,
which resemble those found in some Continental towns. Hollybush Hill is
associated with the name of Romney the artist, who lived here and built
a studio in 1796. He was then sixty-two, the zenith of his career was
past, he suffered from ill-health and was morbid and irritable. The
studio was converted into Assembly Rooms after his death, and is now
incorporated into the Constitutional Club building which adjoins. This
club is social and Conservative. The exterior is of rusticated woodwork,
and a flagstaff stands before it. In the curious little side-street
known as Holly Mount is the front of the Hollybush Tavern, a stuccoed
building with a somewhat fantastic wooden porch or veranda. Three houses
in a row face the open space at the top of Hollybush Hill. The most
easterly possesses a charming old ironwork gate supported by old brick
piers and the inevitable stone balls. This is protected by an outer
modern gate. All three houses stand back behind gardens, so that only
glimpses of them can be seen from the road.
In Bolton House, the most westerly of the three, Joanna Baillie,
dramatic writer, and her sister Agnes lived. Mr. Shaw, writing in the
"Dictionary of National Biography," says: "Geniality and hospitality
were the characteristics of the two sisters during their residence at
Hampstead, and even when one became an octogenarian and the other a
nonagenarian they could enter keenly into the various literary and
scientific controversies of the day." This is next door to the house
known as Windmill Hill, which is also the name given to the locality.
Opposite is Mount Vernon, where the Hospital for Consumption stands, a
pleasant red-brick building which contains accommodation for eighty
in-patients; the out-patient department is in Fitzroy Square. A new
wing was opened by Princess Christian in 1893. On the sloping ground
near the old workhouse used to stand; before it was a workhouse, Colley
Cibber used to meet Booth and Wilkes to arrange his dramatic campaigns
in this building.
Behind the hospital is a Roman Catholic chapel, in which Mary Anderson
was married. This was built in 1816, and the founder was the Abbé Morel.
The front is stuccoed, and in a niche there is a group of Virgin and
Child. Close by a stone slab bears the name "Holly Place, 1816."
St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Orphanage occupies No.'s 1, 2, 3, Holly
Place. To the west are big National schools and playgrounds, and a
curving hill called Hollybush Vale runs into the modern part of Heath
Street. On the west of Heath Street are Oriel Place and Church Lane. At
the corner of the latter is the Sailors' Orphan Girls' Home. This is a
big formal building, with none of the architectural beauty which marks
the sister establishment on Rosslyn Hill. The institution, however,
claims an older date, having been founded in 1829. The present building
was opened in 1869 by the Duke of Edinburgh. The girls are kept from six
to sixteen years of age and trained for domestic service. Their uniform
is the naval colour, dark blue. This road, running past the building
formerly called Greenhill, is now merged into Fitz John's Avenue.
Church Row is almost entirely old, one of the most lovable and quiet
parts of the parish—houses of brick with flat-sashed windows,
projecting porches with carved brackets, here and there red tiles, here
and there a bower of jasmine and ivy. One house covered with rusticated
woodwork projects above the ground-floor in a bay carried up to the
roof.
Dr. Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, and a great theological and
controversial writer in the reigns of William III. and Anne, and Dr.
Arbuthnot were former residents in the Row, and the great Dr. Johnson
stayed at Frognal Park in the vicinity. Mrs. Barbauld (see p. 25) and
Miss Aikin are also to be numbered among the residents. There is an
industrial school for girls, and at the western end of the Row the
parish church (St. John the Evangelist) rears its tower beyond a line of
small lime-trees. The place has, however, recently been disfigured by
high mansions.
The parish of Hampstead was originally included in that of Hendon. The
churchwardens of Hampstead first appeared at the Bishop's visitation in
1598, which therefore marks the beginning of an actual parochial
settlement, though the register commences in 1560, nearly forty years
earlier. Until 1561 it was considered as a donative or free chapel, and
after that date it became a perpetual curacy, subject to the
jurisdiction of the Bishop and the Archdeacon.
The first church or chapel, which stood on the same site as the present
one, must have been a curious little structure, if one may judge from
the illustrations still extant—a low-pitched Gothic building with
wooden belfry. This was dedicated to St. Mary, and the date of its
origin is unknown. In 1745 it was taken down, and services were held in
the chapel in Well Walk for two years, while the new church was being
built. The building itself is of a kind of dingy earth-brick, which, in
spite of the conspicuous date, 1745, at the east end, looks as fresh and
sharp-edged as if it were of yesterday. The body of the church is
mercifully clothed in ivy, but the square tower, with its abnormal
battlements and stone courses and facings, rises up nakedly. The
peculiarity of the church is that the tower is at the east end. The
conical copper spire was added in 1784. An old clock-dial of stone faces
eastward.
To raise funds for the building of the church a plan was formed by which
those who gave £50 were to have first choice of seats, and to have the
additional privilege of handing on such seats to their heirs. This
arrangement continued until 1827. Besides many minor alterations and
improvements, a thorough rearrangement of the interior took place in
1878. Then a chancel was added at the west end, and thus we have beneath
it the open-arched vaults which form its support. The old pews were done
away with, and the interior redecorated. The reredos is of mosaic work.
The font is of Siena marble "with moulded bases and carved Ionic
capitals of white statuary." The general scheme of decoration is of a
free Renaissance colour. The restoration cost £14,000. The ceiling is
very elaborately decorated, and in a side chapel is a large fresco
painting. The choir is ornamented by beautiful inlaid wood, in the same
style as the font cover. There is an excellent bust of Keats, presented
by American admirers in 1894.
The churchyard is a peculiarly peaceful spot, surrounded by trees,
beeches, acacia, and evergreens. There are no abnormal monstrosities
such as are found among the tombstones of our big cemeteries, but plain
altar-tombs, crosses, and upright slabs of stone. The main entrance is
by flagged walks between neatly-trimmed hedges, and from this foreground
even the church looks almost picturesque.
The tomb of John Constable the artist, his wife, and some of his
children, is in a shaded corner in the south-east. Joanna Baillie is
buried here, and Lucy Aikin, also Lord Erskine, and many minor artists.
The churchyard was enlarged in 1738, and in 1811 an additional ground
was formed on the north side of the road. Here, though it is very
peaceful, there is not the same charm as there is about the older
ground. Mrs. Rundle Charles, author of "The Chronicles of the Schonberg
Cotta Family," rests here, with a plain Iona marble cross bearing date
1896, as her memorial.
The more important of the parish charities are:
The Wells and Campden Charity, originating in the Gainsborough bequest
of the well and six acres of land in Well Walk. In 1642 Lady Campden
bequeathed £200 to trustees to purchase land for the poor of the parish,
and to this other legacies were added. Freehold land was purchased at
Child's Hill, and in 1855 the distribution of the money was reorganized.
The oldest parish benefactor was Thomas Charles, who in 1617 left money
to buy bread for the poor of the parish. The bread is still bought and
distributed. Various other bequests of small amounts were made from time
to time. About 1723 the then Bishop of London, John Robinson, left £169
odd for the poor.
The succeeding bequests were below this in value until 1771, when
William Pierce, a surgeon, left the interest on £1,700 in 3 per cents.
to endow a Friday evening lecture, to pay the parish clerk and others
for attendance, and to buy Bibles and Prayer-Books. John Stock's
Charity produces nearly £80 per annum for the clothing and education of
poor children. The next in importance was Thomas Rumsey's gift of £900,
the interest on which was to buy coals for the poor. The other bequests
are too numerous and too small in amount to mention.
The origin of the name of Frognal is not known, though the locality is
of some importance, as it contained the old manor-house where the Courts
Leet were held. The demesne lands at Frognal occupied from four to five
hundred acres of the best land stretching from Child's Hill to Belsize.
The old manor-house, which stood at the north-east corner of West End
Lane, was a long, low farmhouse building which contained a big hall. Mr.
Pool, a lessee, pulled it down and built a brick house on the site, and,
later, built a small house on the south side of the lane, where he went
to live himself. The Courts followed him, and were held there. There are
now on the site of the ancient manor-house two buildings side by side;
the one to which the ancient title has descended appears the more
modern. The Ferns next door looks older, in spite of Howitt's assertion
that the manor-house built by Mr. Pool is the same now bearing the name,
and The Ferns occupies the site of the former manor-house. There are
numerous substantial and comfortable houses in the vicinity. Frognal
Hall, near the west end of the church, was the residence of Isaac Ware,
architect, and here Lord Alvanley died.
To the north-west are a row of new buildings, forming a crescent on the
hill called Oakhill Park, and to one of these Miss Florence Nightingale
is a frequent visitor during the summer months. At the top of Frognal
Gardens the Editor of this survey lived. Returning again to West End
Lane, we find the hand of the modern builder everywhere apparent. Until
recently a mock antique erection in the Gothic style known as Frognal
Priory formed a feature in the landscape; this has quite disappeared. It
was built by a dealer in curios known as "Memory" Thompson about the end
of the eighteenth century, and was full of curiosities. The owner was
pleased to have visitors to inspect his property, and it is said that
one of his freaks was to leave five-shilling pieces lying about for them
to pick up. Lower down the Frognal Road all is modern, and we come into
the part formerly known as Shepherd's or Conduit Fields. There was a
spring here which used to be the principal source of the Hampstead
water-supply. The water was carried in pails by persons who thus earned
a livelihood. An old woodcut of this well is still extant; it is
represented as a spring with an arch over it. The building of
Fitz-John's Avenue, cutting right through the fields, quite destroyed
their character, and they are now more or less covered with streets.
Rosslyn House, which stood between Wedderburn and Lyndhurst Roads,
deserves a word of mention as one of the latest of the famous old
Hampstead houses to be destroyed. It was originally called Shelford
House, but changed its name when it became the property of Alexander
Wedderburn, first Earl of Rosslyn, Lord High Chancellor of Great
Britain, 1793. It was noted for its magnificent avenue of Spanish
chestnuts said to have been planted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Elizabethan relics have been found in the vicinity. The grounds are now
cut up and let for building purposes. Woodlands, another fine large
house, is also shorn of its glory, roads having been driven through its
leafy gardens.
West End Ward embraces that portion of Hampstead which is limited by the
Hampstead junction railway on the south and the Finchley Road on the
east.
West End still preserves the character of a little hamlet, though
surrounded on all sides by new streets. The name arose from its being
the western terminus of the demesne lands. The small triangular bit of
green at the junction of Fortune Green and Mill Lanes preserves its
rural aspect, with two little tumbledown, creeper-covered cottages
overlooking it, though it will probably before long suffer from the
plague of red brick. To the south there is a line of buildings and
shops, with a few—a very few—of older date wedged in between the new
ones. West End Hall, a square red-brick house of respectable antiquity,
stands back behind a rather dilapidated wooden palisade, but a row of
magnificent elms lines the street before it. Beyond it are one or two
other houses in their own grounds. Here a fair was formerly held
annually on July 26 and two following days.
Mill Lane was formerly Shoot-up-Hill Lane, a name now absorbed by a
portion of the northern road into which it runs on the west. The present
name is derived from a mill which stood in the Edgware Road, and was
burnt in 1861, owing to the friction caused by the high velocity of the
sails in a gale of wind. A building called Kilburn Mill still marks the
western end of the lane, though it is in a dilapidated condition, with
the windows broken. Mill Lane was widened by the Vestry, and now runs
between rows of small houses, all of modern date. At the top of Aldred
Road is a big brick building, the Field Lane Boys' Industrial School. At
the corner of the same road stood an unpretentious little church, built
in 1871; it has been pulled down in the last few years. A little further
eastward in Mill Lane is a national school looking rather like a
chapel, and then we come to the Green again.
There is little in Fortune Green Lane that calls for comment. On the
west side it is completely lined with small new houses. The Green at the
top still remains open for the geese to hiss and cackle over at their
will. The Hampstead cemetery lies on the north. This consists of about
20 acres of land, and two-thirds of it was consecrated by the Bishop of
London in 1876, the remainder being left unconsecrated. A smooth drive
runs down between close-shaven turf, and is lined by rows of singularly
uniform monuments, of which two-thirds are in the form of marble
crosses. The chapel, with its two wings for Church of England and
Nonconformists, connected by a pointed spire and tower, stands across
the central drive as an archway. There is a different kind of
fascination in this well-kept, quiet spot from that derived from the
irregularity of sloping Highgate or the monstrous tombs and overpowering
vaults at Kensal Town. There are many persons buried here whose names
are known to those of their own country and time, but none of any
world-wide note. Maas the singer is perhaps the most important among
them. We have now commented on the principal parts of the ward, except
the great eastern and western roads by which it is bounded.
Finchley Road bounds the borough on the west. Beginning at Swiss
Cottage, we recall the fact that Hood died in a house near the present
railway-station which is now pulled down. The first building that
strikes the eye is New College, for Nonconformists, a big stone edifice
standing on a green lawn behind a row of small trees. On the opposite
side, further northward, building operations are taking place on a large
scale. On the west side again is Trinity Church, date 1872, a small
church of ragstone with red-tiled roof. We travel much further on before
arriving at any other feature of interest, passing Finchley Road Station
and the shops gathered in the vicinity, also the Hampstead Public
Library, a big building at the corner of Arkwright Road. Hampstead was
comparatively slow in adopting the Public Library Act. The site for its
library was acquired from Sir Maryon Wilson, and the stone was laid by
Sir Henry Harben, who had given £5,000 for the erection of the building.
Five branch libraries are established in connection, and the main one is
chiefly for reference. This was opened in 1897. Further on, we pass on
the east numerous rows of red-brick houses, and on the west the fields
and meadow-lands still open.
Then we come to a huge red brick building with terra-cotta facings; this
was founded in 1866, and is intended both as a college and seminary. It
belongs to the Congregationalists, and their chapel attached is of the
same materials, and was founded in 1894. Another well-known institution
is Westfield College for ladies, which stands in Kidderpore Avenue on
the rising ground to the west of Finchley Road. The front of the house,
in which the entrance is, is an old building called Kidderpore Hall, and
to this the large modern wing inhabited by the students was added in
1890. The work is for the London Degrees in Arts and Sciences. There are
forty-five students, and each one has two rooms, a larger allowance than
is made at Girton. Through the fields, beyond the cemetery, a winding
footpath takes us over the railway into the Edgware Road.
The part of the road which goes by the name of Shuttup Hill or
Shoot-up-Hill deserves some comment. The Knights Templars anciently held
an estate here of which the origin is obscure. At the Dissolution King
Henry seized it, and handed it over to the Hospitallers of St. John of
Jerusalem. But their turn was to come also. In 1540 the King despoiled
them, and gave Shoot-up-Hill to Sir Roger Cholmeley. At a later date we
find that this and the estate at Kilburn were vested in the same holder,
Sir Arthur Atye and Judith his wife.
There is very little to remark on in this hill. A few of the houses on
the west are not aggressively modern, but those on the east are all
startlingly new. St. Cuthbert's Church, built in 1887, stands at the
end of St. Cuthbert's Road.
Howitt derives the name of Kilburn from Kule-bourne or Coal-brook. The
earliest mention of this locality is when one Godwyn, a hermit, retired
here in the reign of Henry I., and "built a cell near a little rivulet,
called in different records Cuneburne, Keelebourne, Coldbourne, and
Kilbourne, on a site surrounded with wood." This stream is the same
which passed southward to the Serpentine, and empties itself into the
Thames at Chelsea, called in its lower course the Westbourne.
Between 1128 and 1134 Godwyn granted his hermitage to the conventual
church of St. Peter, Westminster. The Abbot, with the consent of the
convent, gave it to three pious maidens, Emma, Gunhilda, and Cristina,
who are said to have been maids of honour to Queen Matilda. They were to
live here, and Godwyn was to be master warden, and on his death they
were to choose some staid and senior person to fill his place. It is to
be gathered that the maidens were bound to celibacy, though no
particular monastic rule seems to have been enjoined. In the ensuing
years there were jealousies between the Bishop of London and the Abbot
of Westminster, who both claimed jurisdiction over the Priory. The Pope,
in 1224, who arbitrated, gave the award in the Abbot's favour, but the
Bishop appealed to the Bishops of Rochester and Prior of Dunstable,
and, as they were on his side, he calmly assumed authority. The Priory
was enriched by various grants and privileges, and its devotees
increased in number. At the dissolution of the monasteries the King gave
it to the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem in exchange for some lands he
wanted. But in 1540 he wrested it from him, and regranted it to Robert,
Earl of Sussex. As has been mentioned above, Kilburn eventually came
into the same holding as Shoot-up-Hill.
A sketch of the Priory as it remained in 1772 is still extant, and shows
a little barn-like building with exterior buttresses and gable-ends.
Needless to say that no trace of it now remains, though its memory is
perpetuated in the names of Priory, Abbots, and Abbey Roads.
When the foundations for the London and North-Western Railway were dug
in 1850 various relics were found—tessellated tiles, human bones, and a
bunch of old-fashioned keys, etc.—which pointed to the fact that the
Priory had stood on that site. This spot is still pointed out not far
from Kilburn Station, close by the place where Priory Road goes over the
railway. It is a most uninteresting spot at present, with dull
respectable middle-class shops leading up to it.
A legend of Kilburn given in Timbs' "Romance of London" may be alluded
to here. It states that at "a place called St. John's Wood, near
Kilburn," there was a stone stained dark-red with the blood of Sir
Gervase de Mertoun, who was slain by his brother, who had become
enamoured of his wife. Gervase, with his dying breath, exclaimed: "This
stone shall be my deathbed!" The brother Stephen suffered remorse for
his crime, and ordered a handsome mausoleum to be erected to his
victim's memory, which was to be built of stone taken from the quarry
where the murder was committed. As the eye of the murderer rested on a
certain stone, blood was seen to issue from it. This completed the
murderer's horror and remorse; he confessed his fault and died shortly
after, leaving his property to Kilburn Priory.
Kilburn Wells became famous about the middle of the eighteenth century,
and soon rivalled those of Hampstead as a place of entertainment. Even
so late as 1818 they were a favourite resort for Londoners.
The High Road at Kilburn, continuing in a straight line into Maida Vale
and the Edgware Road, is the old Watling Street of the Romans.
As a street it possesses little interest. Lines of modern red-brick
buildings with shops on the ground-floor form the main part of it, and
further south the shops are smaller, the buildings more irregular.
In the remainder of the ward pleasant rows of moderate-sized houses with
small trees growing before them form the majority of the streets.
In Priory Road is St. Mary's Church, a fine stone edifice in the Gothic
style, dating from 1857. Behind this are open fields, rapidly being
encroached upon by the builder.
In Quex Road there is a large Wesleyan chapel with a big portico, close
by a Roman Catholic church with high-pitched roof, which instantly
recalls the Carmelite Church at Kensington; the architect was the same,
Pugin. It was built in 1878, and inside is lofty and light, with
polished gray granite pillars supporting the roof.
A slight account of the Manor of Belsize has been given above (see p.
2). The manor-house stood about the site of the present church, St.
Peter's, and Rocque's map of 1745 shows it in the middle of very
extensive grounds surrounded by fields. In the beginning of the
eighteenth century the house was a place of public entertainment. In
some newspaper cuttings from the Daily Post, date 1720, we read that
the "ancient and noble house" had been fitted up for the entertainment
of ladies and gentlemen during the whole summer season, and was to be
opened with "uncommon Solemnity of Dancing and Music." Among the
entertainments mentioned are the Park, Bowling Green, and Fish Ponds.
The latter were stored with the "best of Carp and other Fish," and the
company might amuse themselves by angling or catching them with nets,
when they should be "dressed to perfection." We hear also that the Park
was well stocked with deer, and in August, 1721, a notice was issued.
"Besides the usual Diversions, there is to be a wild Fox Hunted To
Morrow, the 1st inst., to begin at four a clock." One hundred coaches
could stand in the square of the house, if we may trust the advertiser,
and "Twelve men will continue to guard the Road every night till the
last of the Company are gone." There was a satirical poem called
"Belsize House," published in 1722, showing that the house had earned a
bad reputation. Belsize Avenue, Park Gardens, and Buckland Crescent are
all built over the property. There is a tradition that the house was the
private residence of the Right Hon. Sir Spencer Perceval, when it ceased
to be a place of amusement in 1745. In 1841 the place was demolished,
and the site transformed as we now see it.
Belsize Lane is very old, being marked between hedges in Rocque's 1745
map, and shown as leading to the grounds of the manor-house. Baines says
that about 1839 "Belsize Lane was long, narrow, and lonesome; midway in
it was a very small farm, and near thereto the owner of Belsize House
erected a turnpike gate to demonstrate his rights of possession."
The lane at present boasts a few shops and modern red-brick houses, but
it is greatly bounded by high garden walls, and the gardens reaching
from the backs of the houses in Belsize Avenue.
Belsize Avenue is a park-like road, from which on the south side stretch
the meadows of Belsize Park. Large elm-trees of great age throw shade
across the road, and seats afford rest to those climbing the ascent to
Haverstock Hill. Up to 1835 a five-barred gate closed the east-end and
made the road private.
In Belsize Square stands the Church of St. Peter, with a square
pinnacled tower. This was consecrated in 1859, and the chancel added
some seventeen years later. It is in the decorated style of Gothic, and
has a row of picturesque gable-ends lining the north-east side.
Belsize and Buckland Crescents and Belsize Park Gardens are all in the
same pleasant villa-like style, with trees and bushes growing beside the
roadway, but their chief claim to interest lies in their association
with the old manor-house.
The southern part of this ward is still more modern than the above, the
greater part having been built over since 1851. Eton Avenue is lined by
prettily-built, moderate-sized houses of bright red brick alternating
with open spaces yet unbuilt on.
The north-eastern corner of the ward, including Eton Road, Provost Road,
Oppidans Road, College Road, and Fellows Road, is made up of medium
houses, many covered with rough stucco, and with a profusion of
flowering trees and bushes in the small gardens. This section of the
parish might well be part of some fashionable and fresh watering-place.
At No. 6, Eton Road lived Robertson, author of "Caste" and other plays.
St. Saviour's Church, built of ragstone, is at the corner of Eton and
Provost Roads; it is in Early English style, consecrated 1856.
Fellows Road runs into Steele Road, near the end of which, on Haverstock
Hill, is the Sir Richard Steele public-house. These names commemorate a
real fact. Sir Richard Steele had a cottage on Haverstock Hill, of which
prints are still extant. They show a funny little square, barn-like
building with pent house-roof, set in the middle of fields and
surrounded by trees. With a vividness of detail that does more credit to
his imagination than his eye the artist has depicted St. Paul's
Cathedral in the not very far distance!
England's Lane in 1839 was bounded on the south side by palings and a
wall, and on the north side by low palings and a ditch full of water.
Three houses there were in it, Chalcots, North Hall, and Wychcomb. In a
view of the lane in 1864 we see a leafy country road with fine timber
growing over it. The lane at present is chiefly lined by shops, though
there are a few private houses.
In the Upper Avenue Road stands a large brick building with stuccoed
facings; it is the institution of the Society for Teaching the Blind,
founded in 1838. In 1840 certain industrial occupations were added to
the tuition in reading, which had been the primary object of the
foundation. After moving to several localities in succession, in 1847
the present site was obtained. In 1864 the building was enlarged, and
external workshops have since been added. The institution is entirely
supported by voluntary contributions, though a few paying pupils are
admitted. The pupils are taught any industrial trade which may support
them in after-life, such as piano-tuning, knitting, chair-caning,
basket-making, as well as the usual branches of a useful education. They
are admitted at any age under eight, and leave at twenty-one if men, and
twenty-four if women. There are day-scholars in attendance as well as
those resident in the house.
In Winchester Road are a few shops and St. Paul's parochial schools.
Where Eton Avenue and Adamson Road join there is the Hampstead
conservatoire of music, a large brick building.
Professor Hales suggests that the word Haverstock in Haverstock Hill may
come from "aver," the Low Latin averia meaning cattle. He says that,
as in Rocque's map Pond is Pound Street, perhaps a cattle pound stood
here. The hill is at present a toilsome ascent, but most picturesque;
masses of shady trees in the grounds of Woodlands and Hillfield hang
over the seats placed for wayfarers, and on the east side, in spring,
bushes of flowering lilac or laburnum soften the picturesque red tiles
and bricks of the well-built modern houses. Here and there a small row
of shops forms a straight line, but between them the villa houses are
dotted about at any angle.
Of public buildings or institutions on the hill there are not many. The
Borough Hall, a red-brick building in the Italian style, stands at the
corner of Belsize Avenue. It was built in 1876, and first used for the
Cambridge Local Examination for Women.
Further up on the other side is St. Stephen's Church, which differs very
much from the ordinary church of the last half-century. It stands well,
surrounded by an enclosure of green grass, on a spot formerly called
Hampstead Green. The best view is obtained from Lyndhurst Road. Just
below it is the entrance to the immense buildings of the North-Western
Hospital. The brick wall encloses a house and front-garden at one time
belonging to Sir Rowland Hill. This site was acquired by the
Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1868, and was destined to be used for
cases of infectious disease, a plan which provoked the greatest
agitation in the parish. In 1870 a severe epidemic of small-pox broke
out, and some wards were hastily built in addition to those which had
already been used for fever patients. As this was followed by an
outbreak of small-pox in the parish, the parishioners very naturally
wished the hospital to be removed, but without result. In 1876 another
outbreak and a further congregation of patients had the same result, and
after a long and protracted fight the inhabitants of Hampstead obtained
a verdict preventing the Asylums Board from using the hospital for
small-pox, though fever cases were not prohibited. In 1882 a Royal
Commission inquired into the facts regarding the spread of disease from
hospitals, and gave as their decision that thirty or forty patients
might safely be treated when a larger number would be injurious to the
neighbourhood. The Asylums Board eventually came to terms, agreeing to
restrict the hospital cases of small-pox to the number mentioned, to pay
the plaintiffs' costs, and an additional £1,000 by way of damages; but
they demanded that Sir Rowland's property should be sold to them.
The terms were accepted, and the hospital henceforth was known as the
North-Western Hospital. In 1884 another epidemic of small-pox caused
them to fill the limited number of beds agreed upon, but as this also
was followed by an outbreak of the disease in Hampstead, a fresh appeal
was made by the local authorities, and ended in victory, no more
small-pox patients being received. The hospital was in full use during
the scarlet fever epidemic of 1888.
Close by the entrance to the hospital is an ancient inn, The George. It
has been repaired and renovated, but still shows its picturesquely
ancient lines. In front of the inn there used to be tea-gardens. A
convent of the Sisters of Providence is not far south. Looking up
Haverstock Hill from Chalk Farm there is an almost unbroken line of
greenery. Moderate-sized houses stand back on either side in their
gardens.
The Load of Hay was originally a very old inn, but has been rebuilt
recently, and is now a hideous yellow-brick public-house, with date
1863. Just opposite the Load of Hay lived Sir Richard Steele, in a
picturesque two-storied cottage, already mentioned. The cottage was
later divided into two, and in 1867 was pulled down.
Park Road is a long thoroughfare of no particular interest. At the north
end a range of red-brick, wide-windowed buildings attract attention.
These are studios, occupied by some of the artists for which Hampstead
is famous; among the names perhaps that of W. Q. Orchardson, R.A., is
the best known. Beyond are the London Street Tramway Companies stables,
and to the north and east we get into a district very poor and slummy
for such a fresh, pleasant suburb as Hampstead.
The Fleet Road recalls the Fleet River, which had origin among the hills
of Hampstead and flowed down over this course. The hospital wall lines
one side of this dreary street. At the upper end, where two or three
roads meet, there is a fountain and pump, and this open space is known
as the Green and Pond Street. Pond Street seems to have alternately
encroached upon and receded from the Green, houses being named in one or
the other according to fancy. The street is steep and irregularly built.
It was about this site that some of the first houses in Hampstead were
built.
On the south-east side of the lane which leads to the hospital Sir
Sydney Godolphin Osborne resided. Sir Rowland Hill has been already
mentioned. Prince Talleyrand stayed in a house afterwards occupied by
Sir Francis Palgrave, and later by Teulon the architect. In the
adjoining house was Edward Irving, founder of the sect of that name, and
next to him the sculptor Bacon. Collins the artist also lived in Pond
Street. In No. 21 there is at present an Industrial Home for Girls.
Adelaide Ward contains very little that is of interest. The streets are
all of one pattern, formed of detached or semi-detached villas standing
a little back from the road, with small trees growing before them.
The three churches in this part—namely, St. Paul's, Avenue Road; All
Souls, Loudoun Road; and St. Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill Road—all
date from the last thirty or forty years, and are in the same style,
built of brick, and requiring no special notice.
Primrose Hill rises to the height of 216 feet in a conical shape, and
commands a magnificent view. The earliest name was Barrow Hill, and the
name Primrose Hill was first used in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; it
originated, it is said, from the quantity of primroses which grew here.
Professor Hales, in an address to the Hampstead Antiquarian and
Historical Society, quoted from the "Roxburgh Ballads," printed about
1620:
"When Philomel begins to sing,
The grass grows green and flowers spring,
Methinks it is a pleasant thing
To walk on Primrose Hill."
It was in a ditch on Primrose Hill that the body of Sir Edmondbury
Godfrey, who was mysteriously murdered, was found in 1678. Soon after
Queen Victoria's accession the hill was obtained by the Crown as a
public space for the people for ever, the provost and fellows of Eton
surrendering their rights in consideration of an exchange of land.
The derivation of the odd name of Chalk Farm was not from any chalk
found in the vicinity, but is a corruption of Chalcots, a country house
or farm which stood on the south side of England's Lane. Contemporary
prints show us a large white house with balconies and pleasure-grounds,
for the house was at one time one of the minor tea-gardens in which the
North of London seemed particularly rich.
Chalk Farm was a favourite spot for duels in the earlier half of the
nineteenth century. The Adelaide Tavern dates from 1839, and facing the
spot there was previously a toll-house with turnpike gate.
We have now traversed the length and breadth of Hampstead, finding there
much that is picturesque, some few things ancient and many modern; and
above all we have experienced some of the charm and freshness of this
favoured spot. It is not difficult to see why Hampstead has been so
frequently selected as a home by artists—and not by artists alone, but
by literary men of all classes. Its natural advantages and its many
associations have exercised, and continue to exercise, a fascination
which draws men potently, in spite of some drawbacks, not the least of
which is its inaccessibility.
CHURCH ROW, HAMPSTEAD.
