A Guide to the Village on the Hill Where Intellectuals, Actors, and Very Expensive Dogs Converge
Hampstead: Technically London, Spiritually Above It
Hampstead is the north London neighbourhood that sits on a hill high enough to look down on central London both literally and, its residents would argue, metaphorically. It has been associated with literary and intellectual life since the eighteenth century, when Keats lived here, Constable painted here, and the heath above the village provided sufficient fresh air and elevation to make it the destination of choice for Londoners seeking relief from the city below. The relief now costs approximately three million pounds for a semi-detached house and the fresh air is shared with a considerable number of people walking dogs of implausible expense and breeding. The heath remains extraordinary. The village remains beautiful. The house prices remain a useful measure of how much London charges for a good view.
Hampstead Heath: Four Hundred Acres of the Correct Antidote
Hampstead Heath is eight hundred acres of ancient common land — woodland, meadow, ponds, hills — sitting on the northern edge of the neighbourhood and functioning as London’s most democratic green space: free, open around the clock, and containing multitudes in the Whitman sense. The mixed bathing pond, the men’s pond, and the women’s pond are natural swimming spots that have been used for open-air bathing since the Victorian era and are open year-round to members and seasonal ticket holders. The water is cold. The regulars are evangelical about the cold. First-timers emerge from the cold with an expression that transitions from horror to conversion in approximately thirty seconds. This is the correct outcome. Hampstead Heath manages the ponds and publishes access information. Parliament Hill at the southern end of the heath offers the panoramic London view. Arrive at dawn in summer and you will see the city laid out below in light that makes the decision to live in London feel entirely justified.
Kenwood House: The Free Country House in the City
Kenwood House sits at the northern edge of Hampstead Heath and is a neoclassical mansion remodelled by Robert Adam in 1764 that was left to the nation in 1927 along with its collection of Old Master paintings that includes a Rembrandt self-portrait, a Vermeer, and a Gainsborough of such quality that the house alone would justify a significant entrance fee. Admission is free. The grounds are free. The cafe serves reasonable food in a setting of implausible beauty. Kenwood House runs outdoor concerts in the grounds in summer — the Kenwood Picnic Concerts — that are among the more specifically London experiences available and require advance booking. Everything else, including the Rembrandt and the Vermeer, is available daily for nothing.
The Village: Authentically Unchanged
Hampstead Village below the heath retains a character that most London neighbourhoods with this level of house prices have lost: independent shops, an independent cinema (the Everyman on Holly Bush Vale, which has been showing films since 1933), a high street that has not been fully surrendered to chains, and pubs of genuine quality. The Holly Bush on Holly Mount is a 1796 pub of such consistent excellence that it regularly appears in lists of the best pubs in London and deserves every mention. The Flask on Flask Walk has been serving the neighbourhood since 1700 and continues to do so with the unhurried confidence of a pub that has outlasted every trend it has ever been forced to acknowledge.
The Literary Heritage: Keats and Beyond
Keats House on Keats Grove is the Regency villa where John Keats lived from 1818 to 1820 and wrote Ode to a Nightingale, La Belle Dame sans Merci, and several other poems that remain among the finest in English. The house is maintained as a museum, charges a modest admission, and gives a specific and irreplaceable sense of the conditions — the garden, the light, the proximity to the heath — in which the poems were written. Nearby, the Freud Museum on Maresfield Gardens occupies the house where Sigmund Freud spent the last year of his life after fleeing Vienna in 1938, complete with his original consulting room and the famous couch. The Freud Museum is small, specific, and genuinely extraordinary.
Getting There
Hampstead station (Northern line) exits directly onto Heath Street at the heart of the village. Golders Green (Northern line) provides access to the northern heath via a bus or a long walk. The walk from Belsize Park station (Northern line) through the residential streets to Hampstead takes twenty minutes and is the correct way to understand how north London’s topography changes with altitude.
Final Verdict
Hampstead is one of the best days out in London and almost none of it costs money. The heath is free. Kenwood is free. Parliament Hill is free. The ponds are cold and free. The village is expensive but the walking is free. The Rembrandt is free. Hampstead will cost you a pint at the Holly Bush and whatever you spend at the cafe, and in return it will give you one of the finest urban-rural experiences available in any city in the world. This is a fair exchange.
More: Private Eye | The Daily Mash
SOURCE: http://prat.UK
