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THE FASCINATION OF LONDON
HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE
* * * * *
_IN THIS SERIES._
Cloth, price 1s. 6d. net; leather, price 2s. net, each.
THE STRAND DISTRICT.
By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
WESTMINSTER.
By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.
CHELSEA.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.
KENSINGTON.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.
HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.
* * * * *
[Illustration: CHURCH ROW, HAMPSTEAD.]
The Fascination of London
HAMPSTEAD
AND
MARYLEBONE
BY
G. E. MITTON
EDITED BY
SIR WALTER BESANT
LONDON
ADAM & CHARLES BLACK
1902
_Published August, 1902_
_Reprinted February, 1903_
PREFATORY NOTE
A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should
preserve her history, her historical and literary associations, her
mighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all that
Londoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from the
past--this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when he
died.
As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anything
else I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted
before. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I
find something fresh in it every day."
He had seen one at least of his dreams realized in the People's Palace,
but he was not destined to see this mighty work on London take form. He
died when it was still incomplete. His scheme included several volumes
on the history of London as a whole. These he finished up to the end of
the eighteenth century, and they form a record of the great city
practically unique, and exceptionally interesting, compiled by one who
had the qualities both of novelist and historian, and who knew how to
make the dry bones live. The volume on the eighteenth century, which Sir
Walter called a "very big chapter indeed, and particularly interesting,"
will shortly be issued by Messrs. A. and C. Black, who had undertaken
the publication of the Survey.
Sir Walter's idea was that the next two volumes should be a regular and
systematic perambulation of London by different persons, so that the
history of each parish should be complete in itself. This was a very
original feature in the great scheme, and one in which he took the
keenest interest. Enough has been done of this section to warrant its
issue in the form originally intended, but in the meantime it is
proposed to select some of the most interesting of the districts and
publish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike to the local
inhabitant and the student of London, because much of the interest and
the history of London lie in these street associations. For this purpose
Chelsea, Westminster, the Strand, and Hampstead have been selected for
publication first, and have been revised and brought up to date.
The difficulty of finding a general title for the series was very great,
for the title desired was one that would express concisely the undying
charm of London--that is to say, the continuity of her past history
with the present times. In streets and stones, in names and palaces, her
history is written for those who can read it, and the object of the
series is to bring forward these associations, and to make them plain.
The solution of the difficulty was found in the words of the man who
loved London and planned the great scheme. The work "fascinated" him,
and it was because of these associations that it did so. These links
between past and present in themselves largely constitute The
Fascination of London.
G. E. M.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFATORY NOTE vii
HAMPSTEAD 1
MARYLEBONE 56
INDEX 106
_Map of Hampstead facing page 1._
_Map of Marylebone facing page 104._
[Illustration: HAMPSTEAD DISTRICT.
Published by A. & C. Black, London.
By permission of the Hampstead Corporation.]
HAMPSTEAD
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.
HISTORY
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 L55,045. The ground thus acquired comprised 220
acres. In 1889-90 Parliament Hill Fields and the Brickfields were
purchased for L302,000, 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 vitae 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 Abbe 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 L50 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 L14,000. 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 L200 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 L169
odd for the poor.
The succeeding bequests were below this in value until 1771, when
William Pierce, a surgeon, left the interest on L1,700 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 L80 per annum for the clothing and education of
poor children. The next in importance was Thomas Rumsey's gift of L900,
the interest on which was to buy coals for the poor. The other bequests
are too numerous and too small in amount to mention.