Villages & Holly
It has to be said that Hampstead is a quite lovely (and expensive to live) place. The houses grand and often huge and gothic looking, the high street offers plenty of independent shops selling all sorts of 'artisan' fare and it seems to be a bit of a blue plaque haven with over 75 being located around the area including: George Orwell (author), Sir Edward Elgar (composer) and Marie Stopes (pioneer of family planning) to name just a few.ย
Hampstead also has some lovely places to visit if you get the chance, Burgh House is free to visit and houses Hampstead Museum providing some history of the 'village'. It also has a lovely little courtyard where you can grab a coffee, tea or lunch and being around the back roads of Hampstead is a wonderful peaceful oasis.
Kenwood House a lovely stately home and lies in Hampstead Heath Park it has a beautiful interior and some wonderful gardens to nose around. There are plenty of places around near and also on Hampstead Heath.
Uphill to Hampstead
So, back in early Spring when it was a wee bit cooler. We hit the Northern Line up to Hampstead station in search of a few free attractions we had yet to discover. Like many of the old underground stations from getting off the tube you have to take a lift up to street level (unless you fancy climbing up the 320 steps!). When you come out of the station it is just a right turn up Holly Hill. Hampstead is quite hilly and it is a bit of a slog, we passed by the sweet looking little pub called 'The Holly Bush', it is a pub that seems to be quite well recommended online (note to self to visit it properly next time). We carried on and upwards.
We went past Fenton House & Gardens which is a National Trust property and not free, but looks good to visit (especially around Summer as I suspect the gardens are quite pretty. Carrying on from this we trotted along Admirals Walk and hit some blue plaques one was for George Du Maurier and the other John Constable.
We carried on to Branch Hill and to our quarry a really beautiful old Grade II listed gatehouse building to Branch Hill Lodge which was built in 1868, it is a gothic revival style structure with brick patterning and an unusual pyramidal slate roof, you can checkย it out below.
Downhill To Pubs & Holly
We retraced our steps back towards the high street and downhill to Pond Street just opposite the Royal Free Hospital to catch the C11 bus which actually takes you all the way to Archway, but we jumped off around Parliament Hill Fields and walked around the corner to a really lovely old pub called 'Duke Of St Albans' which sits right on the corner of Swains Lane. It was quite a welcome stop as we were now a little hungry and thirsty. It is a wonderful boozer in that it offers some independent brewery choices (in fact a whole big board displaying all the myriad of ales, ciders, porters and stouts as well as independent brewed lagers). I had a wonderfully smooth pint of porter and Mrs Akin a fruity sour type beer both really good, we also managed a sharer of some goujons and fries.
After the short rest we headed along Swain's Lane to the next quarry 'Holly Village'. The walk passes Holly Lodge as mentioned in my previous post 'Welcome To The Working Week'. Just on the right hand side on the corner of Swains Lane and Chester Road lies Holly Village. It is partly obscured by...you guessed it Holly trees but when you catch a look at the gatehouse to it, wow! It is quite a Victorian Gothic delight to behold, the village is gated off so you can just sneak a peek into the grounds where lies a set cottages each one has its own distinct features including turrets and gargoyles. Check out the site 'walks on hampstead heath'ย for some more pictures.
It was completed in 1865 by Henry Darbishire, evidently it was owned by one of Britain's most wealthy women Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts who at the tender age of 23 inherited her grandfather's fortune of approximately ยฃ1.8 million. Although the village itself was designed as a commercial undertaking intended for rental evidently with some assistance by Charles Dickens! She was a very generous lady giving large sums of money to schemes for improvement to sanitary conditions in London slums, ragged schools, homes for prostitutes and establishing NSPCC and RSPCA. In a way it is a shame you can't have a closer look, but hey! it is free to marvel at the grand outsides of the buildings and their ornate beauty.
We finished off heading along Chester Road and down Dartmouth Park Hill towards Tufnell Park station for the ride on the Northern Line toward home. All in all a nice and pretty cheap day out!
And Upbeat To The Music
Anyway and onto the music part. So, for this post and keeping in with that whole 'village' thing I was reminded of an album I brought way back in 1983 on vinyl called 'Power, Corruption and Lies' by New Order on the independent Factory Records label. The whole album to me is wonderful I really can't think of any tracks I don't like. So, as mentioned I chose a track from the album called 'The Village' in all its electronic glory which you can catch at the link.
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