View From A Hill

Once again we decided to hit Hampstead and again (maybe it has its own micro climate) but the weather was beautiful, the sun shining and wonderfully warm for Spring.

Heading uphill along Heath Street where the road forks at the roundabout, to the right is Spaniards Road and to the left is North End Way, we took the latter and not far lies a track into the woods right near Inverforth Close, we followed it along and down to our right a long wall, when we reached the end of the wall we headed right and hit Hampstead Hill Pergola and Gardens, they were the dream of Lord Leverhulme who in 1904 had purchased a large town house on the hill and wanted an extravagant 'garden' and hired Thomas Mawson to weave some magic! You can read more and catch some photos at the website 'The Smell Of Roses'.  I have to say (perhaps the sunshine) but its look and style almost felt as if we had been transported to somewhere in the Mediterranean. Some photos below which don't do it full justice to be honest, the views from up high were quite something. 

I can only imagine in Summer it must be quite glorious, we did notice that some of the pergola joists were being repaired in readiness.

We headed back to where the road forks and walked along Spaniards Road cutting through some of the Heath rather than the main road, towards the end of the road there is an old Toll House and over the road lies the beautiful old grade II listed pub called 'The Spaniard's Inn', the pub was built in 1585 by two Spanish brothers and is evidently one of the most haunted pubs in London (aren't they all!🙄). We dropped inside for a drink and it really is a lovely old pub with a big garden area and cute little snugs to sit in, must be proper cosy in the winter. You can catch some photos of it at the above link.

From here we decided to jump a bus heading towards Archway as it would have been a long walk along the Heath's perimeter, we passed by the massive Kenwood House and into Highgate where we hopped off for a nose around. We have been here before and it is featured in my previous post Architecture & Morality ✝. Again the views from the high street are pretty impressive, you can catch plenty of London's skyline in the distance

We headed downhill through Waterlow Park past the massive church not far from Highgate Cemetery and into Archway for a mooch around. Not really now having much of a plan we headed down Holloway Road and my what a long road it is! We still found a couple of other gems in buildings such as the Odeon Luxe Holloway and an old art deco cinema called The Coronet (now a pub).

Legs and feet were truly hot and achy by now so we jumped the bus which took us back towards Moorgate for the journey homewards. All in all a lovely day out in the sunshine with plenty of walking and some lovely views, which brings me back to the music element of this post. 

So I guess for the music what better than The Chameleons, 'View From A Hill' released in 1983 on the independent Statik Records label.

The track is the last one taken from their debut album 'Script Of The Bridge' which was released in 1983, they released three other albums before breaking up suddenly in 1987 following the death of their manager and some other band tensions, they followed separate paths until their reformation in 2000. As a band they developed a bit of a cult following and perhaps did not achieve as much main stream success as some of the other bands on the Manchester scene.

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

Picture Sources

Discogs.com

𝓐 𝓚ⅰ𝓬𝒌 Ìռძⅰ𝓮 𝓝𝒖ꚍⱿ

Photo by Ben Tovee on Unsplash

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