Ten Historic Highlights To See On Hampstead Heath

Hampstead Heath is a wonderful place to feel like you have truly escaped the tumult of London. A sandy ridge, looking out over London from the North, Hampstead Heath covers around 800 acres and has a multitude of landscapes including ponds, hills, ancient woodland and open heath. It is a place where you can wander, get lost, see wildlife, swim and more. 

It is also bursting with history, so I have picked out ten of its amazing historical spots. There is a map of their locations here, should you want to seek them out for yourself.

The Origins Of Hampstead Heath

The first real documentary evidence for Hampstead Heath is in 986AD when Ethelred the Unready, the Anglo-Saxon King, granted to the land of ‘Hemstede’ to Westminster Abbey. 

In the medieval period it became a royal ‘forest’ to preserve game for the King, but also common land for grazing sheep and other activities such as collecting firewood and drying laundry. 

The Hampstead Heath ponds, some used today for swimming, were created in the 17th and 18th centuries by damming a tributary of the Fleet River. They were used as reservoirs to provide water to London’s growing population.

In the 17th and 18th centuries Hampstead became a popular health resort for the affluent looking to escape the pollution of central London. It’s popularity with visitors bloomed further with the arrival of the railway in 1860.

1. The Viaduct: The Remnant Of A Vision

From the 1820s, the Heath as a public place became threatened. In 1821 Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson became Lord of the Manor and inherited most of the Heath. Despite his father’s will restricting him from granting long leases on the land, Wilson wanted to build houses across it.

Residents and activists however fought him for decades. They challenged him in the courts, lobbied politicians and in 1866 formed the Hampstead Heath Protection Fund Committee, to raise money to buy the land. Wilson died in 1869 and in 1871 an Act of Parliament was passed, protecting 200 acres of the heath for the public and it was put under the guardianship of the newly formed Metropolitan Board of Works. 

One of Wilson’s plans was a grand estate with 28 villas. The viaduct, or ‘Wilson’s Folly’ with its ornamental pond were the only parts of that plan that were ever realised. They were meant to form part of a driveway into the estate, but it stands there today as an inspiring reminder of how the Heath has been preserved through the sheer force of public will.

2. Parliament Hill 

Parliament Hill can be found towards the Southern end of Hampstead Heath and has fantastic views over London.

It was once known as ‘Traitor’s Hill’. The, almost certainly apocryphal, story is that Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators intended to watch the blowing up of Parliament from the hill in 1605. The other theory, also with very little evidence, is that it had once been used as an execution spot.

Traitor’s Hill became known as Parliament Hill from the later 17th century after it was used as a defensive spot for Parliamentarian troops during the English Civil War. 

3. “Boudicca’s grave”

Not far from Parliament Hill is a an odd tree-topped mound. It is thought to possibly be ‘bell barrow’: a funerary monument dating back to the Early and Middle Bronze age (3300-1500 BCE).

It is nicknamed ‘Boudicca’s grave’ due to a local legend that it is where Queen Boudicca, of the Iceni tribe, was buried after she was defeated by the Romans in 61AD.

Excavations took place in 1894 but nothing was recovered, possibly because the acidity of the soil would have degraded anything that was once there. Some say that it is simply a mound created in the 17th century for a windmill. Historic England however record it as a scheduled monument. 

4. The Stone of Free Speech

The stone of free speech is another oddity you can spot near Parliament Hill. Its origins are murky, but it is thought to mark a spot that was the focus of religious and/or political gatherings in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hampstead Heath’s very own Speaker’s Corner, if you like.

It is apparently today where some modern pagans gather to celebrate the Spring Equinox. 

5. Goodison’s Fountain

At the bottom of Upper Cohen’s field, you will come across this water fountain.

Erected in 1929 in memory of Henry Edmund Goodison of Highgate, honorary treasurer of the Ken Wood Preservation council, it is the only surviving, operating spring of the Hampstead ‘chalybeate’, iron-rich water. It was this water that led to the village of Hampstead becoming a place for the upper classes to visit and stay as a spa escape from the 17th century onwards. 

6. Kenwood House 

Right at the top of the Heath you will find Kenwood House and its grounds, today managed by English Heritage.

The first house was most likely built here in the early 17th century. It was purchased in 1754 by William Murray, later Earl of Mansfield and Lord Chief Justice. He commissioned the famous architect of the day Robert Adam to remodel the house into a neo-classical villa. Today it is free to visit and has some stunning interiors and gardens. I have written a full blog post on its history here. 

7. The Fake Bridge

Towards the Southern end of the sweeping grounds of Kenwood House you will find the ‘Sham Bridge’.

It dates from 1781 and is a totally fake, two-dimensional bridge. It was erected on the ‘Thousand Pound Pond’ simply to look attractive when looking down the hill from Kenwood House. Humphrey Repton redesigned the grounds in the 1790s and suggested it be removed, but his suggestion was not taken. 

8. Wyldes Cottage

Sandy Heath can be found West of the main heath and is, I think, one of its most atmospheric areas. It has an undulating landscape formed mostly by quarrying and sand pits that were dug in the 19th and 20th centuries. 

On the Western edge of Sandy Heath you will find Wyldes Cottage or ‘Old Wyldes’.

It is a Grade II listed old farmhouse that dates back to the 17th century. Not only is it a rare historic survivor, a reminder of the area’s rural beginnings, it also has an impressive list of past residents. From 1824 the artist John Linnell lived there for four years and was regularly visited by his friend William Blake. Charles Dickens also moved in briefly in 1837 after the death of his sister-in-law Mary Hogarth. 

In 1884 it was the home of Charlotte Wilson, an early member of the socialist Fabian Society and hosted many great thinkers here including George Bernard Shaw, Annie Besant and Ford Madox Brown. In the 1930s the farmhouse was lived in by architect and town planner Sir Raymond Unwin. He lived here whilst his design for the new nearby Hampstead Garden Suburb was laid out and he hosted other well-known names including architect Edwin Lutyens and South African leader Jans Smuts. 

9. The Vale of Health

The Vale of Health is an intriguing little corner of the Heath. Up until the second half of the 18th century it was a malarious and unhealthy swamp. In the early 18th century there was a single house here owned by a harness-maker called Samuel Hatch, so it was known as ‘Hatchett’s Bottom’ or ‘Hatch’s Bottom’

But in 1777 the Hampstead Water Company  ordered for it to be drained in order to create a new reservoir. To try and improve the area’s reputation and encourage developers to build here, they tried a bit of marketing spin and changed the name from ‘Hatchett’s Bottom’ to the more appealing, but rather on the nose, ‘Vale of Health’. In the early 1800s there were around 18 houses in the area and it grew even more after the Hampstead Junction Railway arrived in 1860. 

A hotel was subsequently built at the top of the hill and it hosted fairs for visitors from central London. Today you can see a number of blue plaques, telling you that it was once home to artist Leigh Hunt, writer DH Lawrence and Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.

10. The Hill Garden and Pergola

The Hill Garden and Pergola is a truly magical spot. This was once the private garden of The Hill manor house, now Inverforth House, acquired by Lord Leverhulme in 1904. He is best known for setting up the Lever Brothers business, which later merged to become Unilever. The Hill Garden and Pergola were constructed by Leverhulme to host lavish summer garden parties.

The London County Council acquired the house and gardens in the 1960s after it had fallen into disrepair. Today, you can wander around the terraces and gardens and get a sense of its past grandeur. 

I have written a full blog post on its history and it is also one my top ten hidden gardens.

Thank you so much for reading, you can peruse more blog posts below…