London Photo Gallery - Hampstead Part 1

Hampstead became famous because of its medicinal springs and became a spa town in the 18th century, eventually attracting Londoners who wanted to escape the city's pollution and crowds. Views are also quite nice as it's on a higher elevation overlooking the city, which is just 4 miles away.

From Hampstead Heath Overground station, it's a short walk up Parliament Hill to the Heath for a panoramic view of London.

Hampstead Heath is a huge park of some 800 acres that has been a city escape for over 200 years. This area's springs had supplied water to London and Henry VIII banned hunting to preserve the animals for himself. Voices for development have appeared in the early 19th century already, with private property rights overridden for the sake of public interest. By 1866, the government laid out new preservation powers, and in 1871, legislation was enacted to keep the heath as a public open space.

Plenty of posh homes, some with walled fencing, line neighbouring side streets, some of which are on steeper slopes. Some have elaborately-plated front gardens, a sign that the owners really care about their beautiful homes.

2 Willow Road is now a National Trust property. It is architect Erno Goldfinger's family home with a modernist design that caused a lot of controversy from its initial rejection by council in 1936 leading up to its completion in 1939, which was interpreted by some as being out of character. Back in the 1930s, many artists, writers, and thinkers moved here thanks to lower costs.

A line of houses line one side of Christchurch Hill with the Heath on the other side.

The Wells Tavern is located in a listed building on Well Walk dating from 1849.

Well Walk is a leafier street with more beautiful homes.

At the end of Well Walk, I turned left along the edge of the Heath and then wandered through Cannon Lane, which seems a back alley for some of the larger houses.

This prison lock-up was built into Cannon Hall's wall around 1730. This was before the police force was formed some 100 years later.

Cannon Lane is fairly short and empties into Well Road.

Burgh House was built in 1704 as a private residence until 1937. It was left empty until 1946 when it became a community centre, but things didn't improve and local residents formed a charity to save it.

I then continued west towards Heath Street along Flask Walk.

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