The History Of Hampstead’s Old Parish Lock-Up

Wandering around the quiet back-lanes of Hampstead is an activity I can highly recommend. You never known what you might stumble across.

Away from the busy Hampstead High Street, on Cannon Lane, you will find not one but two brilliant urban oddities.

The Hampstead Parish Lock-Up

Firstly, built into a brick wall you will find the old Hampstead parish lock-up. It was constructed in 1730 and contained a single dark cell for holding prisoners. 

The brick wall is part of Cannon Hall: a stunning 18th century house, also built in 1730, where the local magistrates once held court. Originally called ‘Rous’s Buildings’, Cannon Hall later became the home of Gerald Du Maurier: the first actor to play Captain Hook (you can read more about him here in another of my Hampstead posts) and his children Angela and Daphne Du Maurier.

In 2015 the house sold for a whopping £28 million.

Prisoners would be held in the lock-up before seeing the magistrates to decide their fate in Cannon Hall. 

Prior to 1829, policing was carried out by mostly volunteer and relatively informal, parish constables and night watchmen.

In 1829 the Metropolitan Police was founded by Sir Robert Peel, to better organise policing across the city. Shortly afterwards police matters in Hampstead were moved to the Watch House on Holly Walk. 

As you can tell from the letter box and door number, today the old parish lock-up is the entrance to a home.

No, it is not just a tiny single cell (although that would still probably be sold as ‘bijou London bolt-hole’ and set you back £1500 a month!), but a luxury 5 bedroom house complete with a four car garage and walled garden.

Click here to see photos of what it looks like inside and the floor plan.

The Cannons Of Cannon Lane

Right outside the parish lock-up is this: a naval cannon turned traffic bollard.

9 can be found along Cannon Lane: 2 at the southern end (19th century) and 7 at the northern (18th century).

They can be identified by the characteristic hole at the top or the truncated trunnions at the bottom, which would have been used to rest them on a carriage. Today they are all thankfully Grade II listed.

The cannons are, unsurprisingly, the source of the names for Cannon Lane and Cannon Hall. Cannons were used fairly regularly as mooring posts or ‘bollards’ in the 18th century but why there is a particular congregation of them here, well away from the docks, is a mystery.

Two other examples of cannon bollards can be found outside St Helen’s Bishopsgate Church and in Bankside by Southwark Bridge.

See the map below to seek out these two brilliant curiosities on Cannon Lane:

Thank you for reading! More of London’s quirky hidden history below: