Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hampstead
Hampstead
OS grid reference TQ265855
Camden
London borough
Region London
Country England
Postcode district NW3
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
List of places
UK
England
London
Contents
1History
o 1.1Toponymy
o 1.2To 1900
o 1.320th century
2Geography
3Politics
o 3.1Hampstead Liberalism
o 3.2Brexit referendum
4Places of interest
o 4.1Sites
o 4.2Churches and synagogues
o 4.3Museums
o 4.4Theatres and cinemas
o 4.5Art Galleries
o 4.6Public houses
o 4.7Restaurants
o 4.8Shopping
o 4.9Schools
o 4.10Film locations
5Demography
6Transport
o 6.1Rail and Tube
o 6.2Bus
o 6.3Cycling
o 6.4Road
o 6.5Nearest places
7Notable residents
o 7.1Blue plaques
8Cultural references
9Local newspapers
10See also
11References and notes
12External links
o 12.1Images
History[edit]
Toponymy[edit]
The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon words ham and stede, which means, and is
a cognate of, the Modern English "homestead".
To 1900[edit]
Roadworks on Heath Street in Hampstead around 1865, in Ford Madox Brown's painting Work
A current day view of the location used for the Madox Brown painting on The Mount, just off Heath St
Geography[edit]
A map showing the wards of Hampstead Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1916.
Politics[edit]
The former Hampstead Town Hall
Places of interest[edit]
Sites[edit]
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 the sources of the River Fleet. The bridge
pictured is known locally as 'The Red Arches' or 'The Viaduct', built in fruitless
anticipation of residential building on the Heath in the 19th century.
Local activities include major open-air concerts on summer Saturday evenings on
the slopes below Kenwood House, the FT Weekend Festival,[11] 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 employer in Hampstead is the Royal Free Hospital, 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 architecture, such as the Isokon building in Lawn
Road, a Grade I listed experiment in collective housing, once home to Agatha
Christie, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Walter Gropius. It was recently restored
by Notting Hill Housing Trust.
Churches and synagogues[edit]
Christ Church – Hampstead Square, NW3 1AB[12]
Heath Street Baptist Church, Heath Street, NW3
1DN[13]
St. Andrew's United Reformed Church, Frognal
Lane, NW3 7DY[14]
St John-at-Hampstead – Church Row, NW3
6UU[15]
St John's Downshire Hill – Downshire Hill, NW3
1NU[16]
St Luke's – Kidderpore Avenue, NW3 7SU[17][18]
St Mary's Church (Roman Catholic)– 4 Holly
Place, NW3 6QU[19][20]
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel – Pilgrim's Place,
NW3 1NG
Village Shul, synagogue, located at 27 New End,
Hampstead.[21]
St Stephen's Rosslyn Hill (Church of England) was built in 1869 by Samuel Sanders
Teulon on the Pond Street side of Hampstead Green. Deconsecrated in 1978 and
stripped of much of its assets it was boarded up and subsequently invaded by
squatters. In 1998 it was leased to the St Stephen's Restoration and Preservation
Trust which, after 11 years of fundraising and grants returned it to the community as
a centre for education, weddings, public meetings and social celebrations together
with occasional classical music concerts. Winning an English Heritage award for the
restoration of buildings at risk, the website www.ststephenstrust.co.uk has further
information.
Museums[edit]
Fenton House – Hampstead Grove, Hampstead,
London, NW3 6SP[22]
Freud Museum – 20 Maresfield Gardens,
Hampstead, London, NW3 5SX[23]
Burgh House & Hampstead Museum – New End
Square, Hampstead, London, NW3 1LT[24]
Keats House Museum – Keats Grove,
Hampstead, London, NW3 2RR[25]
Kenwood House – Hampstead Lane,
Hampstead, London, NW3 7JR[26]
Theatres and cinemas[edit]
Everyman Cinema, Hampstead – 5 Holly Bush
Vale, Hampstead, London, NW3 6TX[27]
Hampstead Theatre – Eton Avenue, Swiss
Cottage, London, NW3 3EU[28]
Pentameters Theatre – 28 Heath Street,
Hampstead, London, NW3 6TE[29]
Art Galleries[edit]
Hampstead was once home to many art galleries but few are now left. The Catto
Gallery has been in Hampstead since 1986 and has represented artists like Ian
Berry, Philip Jackson, Chuck Elliott, Walasse Ting, and Sergei Chepik over the
years.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]
East Heath
Hampstead's rural feel lends itself for use in film, a notable example being The
Killing of Sister George (1968) starring Beryl Reid and Susannah York. The opening
sequence has Reid's character June wandering through the streets and alleyways of
Hampstead, west of Heath Street, around The Mount Square. The Marquis of
Granby pub, in which June drinks at the opening of the film, was actually The Holly
Bush,[39] at 22 Holly Mount. Another example is The Collector (1965),
starring Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar, where the kidnap sequence is set in
Mount Vernon.[53]
Some scenes from An American Werewolf in London (1981) are shot on Hampstead
Heath, Well Walk and Haverstock Hill.
More recently Kenwood House is the set of the "film-within-the-film" scene of Notting
Hill (1999).[54] Outdoor scenes in The Wedding Date (2005), starring Debra Messing,
feature Parliament Hill Fields on the Heath, overlooking west London. Parliament Hill
also features in Notes on a Scandal (2006) together with the nearby areas of Gospel
Oak and Camden Town. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) features the old
Hampstead Town Hall on Haverstock Hill. The film Scenes of a Sexual
Nature (2006) was filmed entirely on Hampstead Heath, covering various
picturesque locations such as the 'Floating Gardens' and Kenwood House.
A musical specifically focusing on the area, Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1968), tells
the story of a young man's cycle journey around Hampstead. After crashing into a
billboard poster, he falls in love with the fashion model depicted on it. In February
2016, principal photography for Robert Zemeckis' war film Allied starring Brad Pitt
and Marion Cotillard, began with the family home located on the corners of
Christchurch Hill and Willow Road in Hampstead.
Demography[edit]
The 2011 census showed that the population of Hampstead Town ward was 80%
white (54% British, 24% Other, 2% Irish). The largest non-white group, Other Asian,
claimed 4%. The religious data of the area showed that 35% was Christian, 27%
irreligious and 10% Jewish.[55] The whole town had a population of 48,858 in 2011
and includes the wards of Frognal, Hampstead Town, Belsize and Swiss Cottage. [56]
Transport[edit]
Belsize Park
Finchley Road
Finchley Road & Frognal
Hampstead
Hampstead Heath
Swiss Cottage
All stations are in London fare zone 2, except Hampstead, which is in both zones 2
and 3.[57] Hampstead station serves the north western part of the wider district, near
Hampstead's traditional centre. All the other three stations in the area are located to
the south.
In the 1860s, the Metropolitan and St John's Wood Railway was authorised to build a
branch line from Swiss Cottage to Hampstead with its terminus to be located at the
junction of Flask Walk, Well Walk and Willow Road. Financial difficulties meant that
the project was cancelled in 1870.[58]
Bus[edit]
There is a major bus terminus near Hampstead Heath station (near the Royal Free
Hospital), served by London Buses routes 24 and 168. Routes 46, 268, C11,
and N5 also serve the Royal Free Hospital.[59]
Hampstead tube station and High Street are served by routes 46, 268, 603, and N5.
Route 210 runs along the northernmost rim of Hampstead, stopping at Jack Straw's
Castle.[59]
Finchley Road is served by routes 13, 113, 187, 268, C11, and N113.[60]
Cycling[edit]
Cycling infrastructure in Hampstead is poor. In early 2016, Transport for
London (TfL) consulted with the public on a new "Cycle Superhighway" (CS11)
between Swiss Cottage and the West End, which provide an unbroken,
predominantly traffic-free cycle route from Hampstead to Central London. The
scheme was cancelled following court action from the City of Westminster in 2018.[61]
There are bus lanes along the A41/Finchley Road that cyclists are allowed to use.
A shared-use path runs from Parliament Hill to Jack Straw's Castle/Highgate through
the centre of Hampstead Heath.[62]
Road[edit]
The A41/Finchley Road passes north–south through Hampstead. The road links the
area directly to Marylebone and Oxford Street to the south. The route runs
northbound to Golders Green, Brent Cross, the M1 motorway, and Watford.
The A502/Hampstead High Street runs from Camden Town in the south, through
Hampstead, to Golders Green and Hendon in the north-west.
Nearest places[edit]
The Royal Free Hospital and A&E is in Hampstead.
show
Places adjacent to Hampstead
Notable residents[edit]
Main article: List of people from Hampstead
Sigmund Freud's final residence, now dedicated to his life and work as the Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield
Gardens, Hampstead.
Hampstead has long been known as a residence of the intelligentsia, including
writers, composers, ballerinas and intellectuals, actors, artists and architects – many
of whom created a bohemian community in the late 19th century. After 1917, and
again 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 the Russian Revolution and
Nazi Europe.
Blue plaques[edit]
There are at least 60 English Heritage blue plaques in Hampstead commemorating
the many diverse personalities that have lived there. [63]
Cultural references[edit]
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please
help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
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Local newspapers[edit]
The local newspapers, as of 2014, were the Hampstead and Highgate Express[65]—
known locally as the "Ham and High"—and the free Camden New Journal. The area
is also home to the left-wing Labour magazine Tribune and the satirical
magazine Hampstead Village Voice.
See also[edit]
London portal
External links[edit]
Wikivoyage has a travel
guide for Hampstead.
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Areas of London
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Authority control
Categories:
Hampstead
Areas of London
Districts of the London Borough of Camden
Places formerly in Middlesex
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