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History
The land where Hampstead now stands is first mentioned in a Royal Charter in AD 986 when it was given by Ethelred the Unrad to the Monks of Westminster. A farm there furnished the monks with healthy produce of all kinds.
In 1349, as the Black Death swept through a crowded and bustling London five miles to the south east, it was natural that the Abbot of Westminster and his monks should flee for safety to their land at Hampstead. Their sojourn is commemorated to this day by the Vale of Health, a lane which curves into the Heath’s south west corner.
Then when the Great Plague struck in 1665, again it was to Hampstead that the Judges and officials of the Law Courts transported themselves, and contrived to conduct business as usual. The judges’ sojourn is commemorated to this day by Judges’ Walk where they based themselves.
The waters of the Heath
Crucial to Hampstead’s development from a little village into a popular place to live were the waters of the Heath. On it three of London’s most important rivers rose – the Westbourne, the Fleet and the Tyburn (all virtually vanished now though commemorated by street names). From the 16th century, Hampstead was the spot chosen by the aristocracy’s washer women because of the purity of the water.
But it was the discovery of certain chelyabite (or ferruginous) springs in the late 1700s hailed by a Dr Gibbons who lauded their medicinal qualities that sparked development.
First, Hampstead Spring Water was being sold in taverns and on the streets of London - at a premium price.
Then the boost this gave to Hampstead’s already high reputation as a salubrious spot triggered its development as a spa, a rival to the great spas of Bath and Tonbridge Wells. A great Pump Room was constructed where you could quaff the medicinal water. Assembly rooms were built where people could meet and dance. A race course was laid out, near where Jack Straw’s Castle stands today, and the Heath echoed to the cheers of race-goers.
Fine houses
With this as the nucleus wealthy people began building houses in earnest, many of which still stand today, especially around the old village centre where the High Street meets Heath Street. The area’s first historian J J Park noted how Hampstead soon became “the permanent residence of a select, amicable, respectable and opulent” group of residents (much like today, you might think!)
In 1876 James Thorne described it as being famous for its “pure air and fine scenery”, noted that it was “a great pleasure resort” and remarked on its “broad winding High Street and other good streets and lanes, lined with large old brick houses within walled enclosures, over which lean ancient trees.”
Rehabilitation
But truth to tell, all was not always well in Hampstead. As the rampant building boom of the 19th century threatened to cover every inch of open space, Hampstead was not immune. Although there was said to be less poor quality speculative building here than in any other area of London, and the centre of it escaped, the area suffered nonetheless. Some of it became characterised, a disappointed visitor wrote, by “narrow and dimly-lit by-ways…and mean and crowded tenements”.
But rescue was at hand. A Town Improvement Scheme, made possible by new legislation, was implemented in the 1880s and this progressively cleared away the worst of the new buildings and the area emerged rehabilitated with the wonderful mixture of broad streets and narrow little lanes, almost medieval in character, that we know and love today.
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 The springs on Hampstead Heath were first discovered in 1698. They rapidly became famous for their medicinal qualities so that a popular spa grew up around them. |
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