Information about Hampstead

Hampstead
Hampstead (Greater London)
OS grid reference	TQ265855
London borough	Camden
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW3
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Hampstead and Highgate
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden
European Parliament	London
List of places: UK • England UK • London

Coordinates: Hampstead is a suburb of London in the London Borough of Camden, located four miles (6.4 km) north-west of Charing Cross. It is known for its intellectual, artistic, musical and literary associations and for the large and hilly parkland Hampstead Heath. It is also home to some of the most expensive housing in the London area, or indeed anywhere in the world, with houses regularly listed for sale at over fifteen million pounds sterling (about US$30 million in 2007). The village of Hampstead has more millionaires within its boundaries than any other area of Britain.^[1]

History

Although early records of Hampstead can be found in a grant by King Ethelred the Unready to the monastery of St. Peter’s at Westminster (AD 986) and it is referred to in the Domesday Book (1086), the history of Hampstead is generally traced back to the 17th century.

Trustees of the Well started advertising the medicinal qualities of the chalybeate waters (water impregnated with iron) in 1700. Although Hampstead Wells was initially most successful and fashionable, its popularity declined in the 1800s due to competition with other fashionable London spas. The spa was demolished in 1882, although a water fountain was left behind.

Hampstead started to expand following the opening of the North London Railway in the 1860s (now the North London Line with passenger services operated by Silverlink), and expanded further after the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway opened in 1907 (now part of London Underground's Northern Line) and provided fast travel to central London.

Much luxurious housing was created during the 1870s and 1880s, in the area that is now the political ward of Fitzjohns & Frognal. Much of this housing remains to this day.

During the 20th Century, a number of notable buildings were created. These include:

• Hampstead tube station (1907), incidentally the deepest station on the entire Underground network;
• Isokon building (1932)
• Hillfield court (1932)
• 2 Willow Road (1938)
• Hampstead Theatre (1962)
• Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre (1964)
• Swiss Cottage Central Library (1964)
• Royal Free Hospital (1974)

Of these, the Hampstead Theatre relocated in 2003 (increasing capacity from 140 to 325 seats) and the leisure centre was closed for rebuilding in 2003.

Cultural attractions in the area include the Freud Museum, Keats' House, Kenwood House, Fenton House, The Isokon Building, and the Camden Arts Centre. The large Victorian Hampstead Library and Town Hall was recently converted and extended as a creative industries centre.

Though now considered an integral part of London, Hampstead has retained much of its village atmosphere and charm, with Hampstead High Street playing a vital role in the day to day life of a Hampsteadian.

Politics

Hampstead became part of the County of London in 1889 and in 1899 the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead was formed. The borough town hall, on Rosslyn Hill, because it was also the location of the Registry Office, can be seen in newsreel footage of many celebrity civil marriages. In 1965 the metropolitan borough was abolished and is former area merged with that of the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn and the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras to form the modern-day London Borough of Camden.

Hampstead is part of the Hampstead and Highgate constituency and since 1992 the member of parliament has been the former actress Glenda Jackson of the Labour Party.

The area has a significant tradition of educated liberal humanism, sometimes referred to (occasionally disparagingly) as "Hampstead Liberalism".

The area is also home to the left-wing Labour magazine, Tribune.

Notable current and former residents

Hampstead has long been known as a residence of the intelligentsia, including writers, composers, and intellectuals, actors, artists and architects — many of whom created a bohemian community in the late 19th century. In the 1930s it became base to a community of avant garde artists and writers and was host to a number of émigrés and exiles from Nazi Europe.

Famous past inhabitants have included:

• Sir Kingsley Amis— novelist and poet^[2]
• Martin Amis—writer; son of Kingsley
• Sir A. J. Ayer — philosopher, philanderer
• Michael Ayrton – artist, sculptor, painter
• Nigel Balchin – writer, psychologist
• Sir Arnold Bax — impressionist composer ^[3]
• Cecil Beaton — society man, fashion photographer, style icon^[4]
• John S. Beckett — musician, composer and conductor
• Sybille Bedford — writer, essayist ^[5]
• Sir Isaiah Berlin — philosopher, historian of ideas, man of letters^[6]
• William Blake — poet, painter, writer, mystic^[7]
• Dirk Bogarde — actor ^[8]
• Helena Bonham-Carter— actress ^[9]
• Arthur Boyd — Australian painter and sculptor^[10]
• Marcel Breuer — modernist Hungarian architect and refugee
• Sir Richard Burton — explorer^[11]
• Richard Burton—Hollywood actor^[12]
• Lord Byron — poet^[13]
• Elias Canetti — nobel prize winning novelist^[14]
• John le Carré — author^[15]
• Dame Agatha Christie — author^[16]
• Lord Clark— art-historian
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge— romantic poet and philosopher^[17]
• John Constable — artist ^[18]
• Peter Cook — writer and comedian^[19]
• Milein Cosman — artist
• Charles Dickens — author^[20]
• Jacqueline du Pré — cellist^[21]
• Daphne du Maurier^[22]
• Sir Edward Elgar — composer^[23]
• T. S. Eliot — poet
• Sir William Empson— poet and renowned man of letters^[24]
• Marianne Faithfull^[25]
• Ian Fleming — author, inventor of James Bond^[26]
• John Fowles — novelist, lived on the Church Row for many years^[27]
• Anna Freud^[28]
• Lucian Freud — artist
• Sigmund Freud — psychoanalyst and philosopher^[29]
• Stephen Fry — writer, actor, comedian and filmmaker
• Naum Gabo — artist^[30]
• John Galsworthy—Nobel Prize winning novelist^[31]
• Hugh Gaitskell — renowned leader of the Labour Party (1955-63)^[32]
• Ernő Goldfinger — architect^[33]
• Sir Ernst Gombrich — art historian, man of letters ^[34]
• Walter Gropius — architect and designer^[35]
• Thom Gunn — poet^[36]
• Audrey Hepburn — actress
• Barbara Hepworth^[37]
• Elizabeth Jane Howard— novelist and actress ^[38]
• Sir Andrew Huxley — nobel laureate ^[39]
• Aldous Huxley — novelist, spiritualist
• Leigh Hunt — romantic poet^[40]
• Samuel Johnson— poet, aphorist, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, wit - typically known as 'Dr Johnson' ^[41]
• John Keats — poet^[42]
• Hans Keller — musician and writer^[43]
• Lillie Langtry^[44]
• Doris Lessing nobel prize winning novelist^[45]
• D. H. Lawrence — author^[46]
• Berthold Lubetkin^[47]
• Anna Mahler — sculpturess and daughter of composer Gustav Mahler^[48]
• Ramsay MacDonald— former Prime Minister ^[49]
• Lord Yehudi Menuhin — violinist, conductor, child-prodigy, virtuoso ^[50]
• A. A. Milne — author of "Winnie the Pooh"^[51]
• Sir Jonathan Miller^[52]
• Lee Miller — photographer, fashion model, actress, war correspondent ^[53]
• Piet Mondrian^[54]
• Henry Moore — sculptor^[55]
• Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky — expressionist painter^[56]
• Florence Nightingale — humanitarian^[57]
• George Orwell — author^[58]
• Peter O'Toole —^[59]
• Lady Jane Bailey Paget^[60]
• Anna Pavlova — ballerina^[61]
• Sir Roger Penrose — mathematician, theoretical physicist, philosopher, attended UCS^[62]
• Roland Penrose — artist and curator, surrealist, founder of the ICA^[63]
• J. B. Priestley — author^[64]
• Percy Bysshe Shelley— poet and romantic ^[65]
• Sir Percy Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke — Governor of the Seychelles, 1947–1951^[66]
• Stephen Spender — poet, man of letters, grew up in Frognal Gardens and schooled at UCS^[67]
• Robert Louis Stevenson ^[68]
• Marie Stopes —world-renowned feminist and campaigner for birth-control ^[69]
• Elizabeth Taylor— actress ^[70]
• Eric Thompson — actor, producer, father of Sophie Thompson and Emma Thompson; married to Phyllida Law.
• Evelyn Waugh — author^[71]
• H. G. Wells — author^[72]
• Richard Wollheim — renowned philosopher of art
• William Wordsworth — poet^[73]
• Thierry Henry — soccer player^[74]
• Sir Neil Shields— financier^[75]
• Saul Hudson — musician

Hampstead is currently and has been recently home to:

• Constantine II of Greece— the (now deposed) King of Greece^[76]
• Alfred Brendel— world-famous classical pianist^[77]
• Stephen Kovacevich—world-famous classical pianist, best known for his Brahms sonatas^[78]
• Rachel Weisz^[79]
• Russell Crowe
• Peter O'Toole
• Freddie Highmore
• Boy George
• Michael Foot^[80]
• Stephen Fry
• Hugh Grant
• Hugh Laurie
• George Michael
• Jonathan Ross
• Ricky Gervais
• Stephen Merchant
• Jeremy Irons
• Sienna Miller
• Jamie Oliver
• Jude Law
• Brad Pitt
• Michael Palin
• Tim Roth
• Sting
• Freddie Ljungberg
• Ralph Fiennes
• Aliaksandr Hleb
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Emma Thompson
• Kate Winslet
• Chris Evans
• Russell Brand
• David Walliams
• Jon Culshaw
• Rachel Stevens
• Robin van Persie
• Melanie Chisholm
• Emma Bunton
• Geri Halliwell
• Patrick Viera
• Jake Maskall

Sites

To the north and east of Hampstead, and separating it from Highgate, is London's largest ancient parkland, Hampstead Heath, which includes the well-known and legally-protected view of the London skyline from Parliament Hill. The Heath, a major place for Londoners to walk and "take the air", has three open-air public swimming ponds; one for men, one for women, and one for mixed bathing, which were originally reservoirs for drinking water and part of the River Fleet.

Local activities include major open-air concerts on summer Saturday evenings on the slopes below Kenwood House, book and poetry readings, fun fairs on the lower reaches of the Heath, period harpsichord recitals at Fenton House, Hampstead Scientific Society and Hampstead Photographic Society.

The largest single place of employment in Hampstead is the Royal Free Hospital in Pond Street, but many small businesses based in the area have international significance. George Martin's Air recording studios, in converted church premises in Lyndhurst Road, is a current example, as Jim Henson's Creature Shop was, before it relocated to California.

The area has some remarkable examples of architecture, one being the Isokon building in Lawn Road, a Grade I listed experiment in collective housing, once home to the likes of Agatha Christie, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Walter Gropius. It was recently restored by Notting Hill Housing Trust.

Museums

• Fenton House
• Freud Museum
• Hampstead Museum / Burgh House
• Keats' House
• Kenwood House

Places of Interest

• Everyman Cinema
• Pentameters Theatre

Pubs

Hampstead is well known for its traditional pubs, such as the Holly Bush (which was gas lit until recently), the Spaniard's Inn (where highwayman Dick Turpin took refuge), The Old Bull and Bush and Ye Olde White Bear. Jack Straw's Castle on the edge of the Heath has now been converted into residential flats. Others include:

• Freemasons Arms
• The Duke of Hamilton
• The Magdala, where Ruth Ellis killed her lover.

Restaurants

Hampstead has an eclectic mix of restaurants ranging from French to Thai. Notable and longstanding are The Gaucho Grill, Jin kichi, Tip Top Thai, Al Casbah and Le Cellier du Midi.

Schools

Main article: List of schools in Hampstead

Transport

Nearest places

• Belsize Park
• Chalk Farm
• Childs Hill
• Frognal
• Golders Green
• Highgate
• Primrose Hill
• Regent's Park
• South Hampstead
• St John's Wood
• West Hampstead

Nearest tube stations

• Hampstead tube station
• Belsize Park tube station
• Construction of North End tube station was started but not completed

Nearest railway station

• Hampstead Heath railway station

Nearest hospital

• Royal Free Hospital

References

External links

• London's Literary Village
• The Heath and Hampstead Society
• The Hampstead Scientific Society
• Camden Council
• Hampstead Bazaar (a fashion chain based in Hampstead)

•  • [ e] London Borough of Camden

Districts: Belsize Park • Bloomsbury • Brondesbury • Camden Town • Chalk Farm • Covent Garden • Dartmouth Park • Fitzrovia • Fortune Green • Frognal • Gospel Oak • Hampstead • Highgate • Holborn • Kentish Town • Kilburn • Kings Cross • Primrose Hill • Saffron Hill • St Pancras • South Hampstead • Swiss Cottage • Tufnell Park • West Hampstead Attractions: West End theatre • British Library • British Museum • Camden Arts Centre • Donmar Warehouse • Foundling Museum • Fenton House • Freud Museum • Kenwood House • The Roundhouse • Sir John Soane's Museum Parks and open spaces in Camden Street markets: Camden Market Constituencies: Holborn and St Pancras • Hampstead and Highgate

•  • [ e] Main districts of the London boroughs • List of places in London

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