Hampstead Heath.
The modern Hampstead
Heath is normally considered to be the entire open
space of c. 800 a., (fn. 62) most of it added to the original
heath bordering Hampstead town, the administration of which passed from the L.C.C. to the G.L.C. (fn. 63)
It stretches from Highgate Road across northwestern St. Pancras and the northern part of Hampstead, and at two points reaches well beyond the
Hendon boundary. Less than half of the area lies
within Hampstead, as is recognized by the restricted
use of the name Hampstead Heath on many maps. (fn. 64)
The origins of the lands added on the east side of the
heath, Parliament Hill, Parliament Hill Fields, and
Kenwood, belong to the history of St. Pancras; those
of the north-westerly additions, the Golders Hill
estate and Hampstead Heath Extension, to that of
Hendon. (fn. 65)
The first part of the heath to be taken into public
ownership, the kernel of the existing open space, was
itself smaller than the waste of the medieval manor
of Hampstead. Much of Hampstead town was built
on encroachments or inclosures from the heath,
which lay to its north and east. In 1703 c. 27 a., supporting more than 50 houses, were noted as having
been taken, leaving c. 313 a. as 'remains of the heath
unimproved'. The deductions noted took no account
of many established copyholds which probably represented inroads made much earlier. By the time that
encroachments ceased on its purchase by the M.B.W.
in 1871, the heath had been further reduced (fn. 66) to c.
220 a. (fn. 67) The town had spread north of New End and
west of Heath Street in the early 18th century. (fn. 68)
Other losses had been to outlying settlements described above, notably Hatch's Bottom (later the
Vale of Health) and Littleworth (later Heath Brow),
or to private residences such as the Firs near the
Spaniards inn and Heath Lodge in North End Road
(later Way). (fn. 69) Most of the later grants were very
small: 219, covering 37½ a., were made between 1799
and 1870. (fn. 70) The practice of permitting inclosures in
return for annual payments to the lord without the
homage's consent was a grievance in 1806. (fn. 71)
The heath in 1871, although divided by nothing
more than roads or tracks consisted of sections with
well established local names. (fn. 72) East Heath lay east
and north-east of the town, around the Vale of
Health, and south-east of Spaniard's Road. It formed
an irregular strip, being separated from the St.
Pancras boundary by c. 60 a. of manorial freehold
known as East Park and by part of Lord Mansfield's
Elms estate. North or Sandy Heath filled most of the
triangle between Spaniard's and North End roads,
and West Heath most of that between North End
Road and West Heath Road; together they covered
c. 150 a. The vague description of Upper, as opposed
to Lower, Heath was sometimes given to the high
ground of Sandy and East heaths and possibly of
West Heath. (fn. 73)
The physical appearance of the heath was owed
chiefly to the fact that its summit was a sandy ridge,
running from Highgate to Hampstead, resting on a
belt of sandy clay, which protruded at the edges and
was underlain by water-resistant London Clay.
Rainwater penetrated the sand only to be forced out
by the clay, creating a landscape much of which was
easily dried out but which had many springs and,
partly as a result of man-made excavations, swampy
hollows. (fn. 74)
Although there had been a Mesolithic settlement
and some Neolithic cultivation of West Heath, the
medieval heath was left mainly as rough moorland,
in contrast to the demesne farmland south and west
of Hampstead town. Divided from St. Pancras by
Whitebirch wood, which the lord cleared in the 17th
century for farmland which became East Park, the
heath was of value to the commoners for their grazing, gathering, and digging rights. (fn. 75) It was first recorded as 'a certain heath' in 1312, when it supplied
brushwood normally worth 2s. a year, (fn. 76) and was
called Hampstead Heath in 1543, when its springs
were to supply London, (fn. 77) and in 1545, when hunting
and hawking were forbidden over a wide area in
order to preserve game for the king. (fn. 78) It was also
known as Hampstead Heath to the herbalist John
Gerard (1545-1612), who in 1597 described plants
which he had found there, some native to marshes
and others to 'dry mountains which are hungry and
barren'. (fn. 79) Such a varied habitat within easy reach of
London attracted many later plant hunters: Gerard's
editor Thomas Johnson (d. 1644) described an expedition made in 1629 (fn. 80) and the Apothecaries' Company in 1734 was said to have seldom failed to come
for its spring 'herbarizing feast'. (fn. 81)
Changes were effected over the centuries by tree
felling and later by planting, which included John
Turner's firs near the Spaniard's inn from the
1730s (fn. 82) and controversial municipal attempts at
improvement from the late 19th century. (fn. 83) Other
changes, which came to appear natural, resulted
from exploitation of the water resources and of the
soil.
For all its springs, the heath until the end of the
17th century had no large ponds. Nothing was done
under the Act of 1543 for London's water until the
lord mayoralty of Sir John Hart, 1589-90, whom
Gerard accompanied to view the springs and who
'attempted' some unspecified works. (fn. 84) Hampstead
ponds began as a string of reservoirs of the Hampstead Water Co., which was established to supply
London in 1692. They were made by damming
Hampstead brook, one of the sources of the Fleet,
just as Highgate ponds were made from a more
easterly source in St. Pancras. There were two ponds
on Lower Heath by 1703 (fn. 85) and in 1745, (fn. 86) three by
1786, and four by 1810. (fn. 87) The New River Co.'s
rights in the smallest and southernmost one, whose
drainage was sought by the residents of South Hill
Park, were acquired in 1892 by the L.C.C., which
filled it in, to provide a grassy approach to the heath
from the nearby railway station. (fn. 88) The Vale of
Health pond was dammed when the supply system
was extended in 1777. (fn. 89) Leg of Mutton pond on
West Heath was probably dammed as part of a plan,
reported in 1816, to employ the poor; the nearby
Sandy Road was sometimes known as Hankins's
folly, after further relief work was carried out under
Thomas Hankins, surveyor of the highways 1823-
4. (fn. 90) The pond was marked simply as a reservoir in
1891, although already known by its modern name. (fn. 91)
Viaduct pond, crossed by a viaduct begun in 1844
and finished in 1847, was on Sir Thomas Maryon
Wilson's freehold and created as part of his abortive
preparations to build there. (fn. 92) Whitestone pond was
originally a small dew pond, called the horse pond
and later after a milestone; in 1875 it was enlarged
and lined by the vestry and by 1890 artificially supplied with water. Some small ponds on the edge of
the heath near the town disappeared after the building of the covered reservoir near Whitestone pond
in 1856. (fn. 93) Branch Hill pond was filled in c. 1889. (fn. 94)
Fine sand, not found farther east at Highgate, was
estimated in 1813 to cover Hampstead Heath to an
average depth of 10 ft. (fn. 95) Digging and quarrying were
carried on from the Middle Ages: a pilgrim's flask
was found in the bed of a sandpit at Holly Hill, (fn. 96) in
1597 a gravel pit lay near the beacon, (fn. 97) and in 1680
there was a sandpit at Branch Hill. (fn. 98)
The lord sold large quantities of sand and gravel
to the Islington turnpike trustees in the early 18th
century. (fn. 99) One Anderson had leave to dig loam and
sand on the heath in 1787 (fn. 1) but the conditions in the
lease were not kept: the steward threatened prosecution in 1806 and the copyholders who had prompted
him to do so recorded that pits begun by the late
Alexander Anderson had not been filled up and that
David Anderson ought to make smooth and sow a
slope near 'the second pond'. They pointed out that
payments to the lord for digging would be small in
comparison with a fall in the value of the copyholds,
since the pits were dangerous and 'the whole face of
the heath is become so mutilated that the prospect
of beauty is nearly destroyed'. (fn. 2)
Not all depredations could be blamed on the lord.
There were presentations for unauthorized digging
in 1773 (fn. 3) and a suit for trespass was brought by Sir
Thomas Wilson in 1781 against Lady Riddell, who
claimed a tenant's immemorial right to dig for the
improvement of a copyhold. Further actions in 1801
and 1802 led to a judgement in 1806 that the taking
of turves, while it might be a custom, would be unreasonable if it tended towards the destruction of
the common. (fn. 4) The sand was of a quality to be used
by both builders and iron founders. Digging continued, bringing the lord payments on 20 cart loads
a day c. 1811 and on 7 or 8 loads in 1813. (fn. 5) Its effects
at Branch Hill pond on the edge of West Heath were
depicted by Constable in 1821. On Sandy Heath
they were so marked that Spaniard's Road was described as a lofty causeway in 1823, although the
heath still rose in places on either side, as it no longer
did in 1856. (fn. 6) Old workings were not necessarily eyesores: the mixture of vegetation with patches of
bright red and yellow sand was admired in 1823, (fn. 7)
picnickers enjoyed the ridges and hollows, (fn. 8) Dickens
thought that a few made an improvement, (fn. 9) and later
they were often seen as picturesque. (fn. 10)
The most thorough excavations, an episode in the
struggle to preserve Hampstead Heath, followed the
sale by Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson of ¼ a. of sand
and ballast in strips along Spaniard's Road to the
Midland Railway Co. in 1866-7. The company,
which could not obtain materials from farther afield
until it had completed its tunnels, paid a stiff price
and in places delved 25 ft. deep. (fn. 11) Exploitation ceased
when the heath became public property, until in
1939 large pits were dug near the Vale of Health and
on Sandy Heath for the filling of sandbags. The new
pits were filled with rubble at the end of the war and
their sites thereafter marked only by a different
flora. (fn. 12)
The heath was of value not only for its natural resources but from its mere situation, as a commanding height near London. It was the site of a beacon,
erected as part of an early warning system by 1576, (fn. 13)
and later was used both for military manoeuvres and
firing practice. (fn. 14) The county elections were held
there from 1681 to 1701 (fn. 15) and in 1836. (fn. 16) It was also
associated with highwaymen, from the late 17th until
the early 19th century, and long remembered for
having been chosen for the exemplary display of the
body of Francis Jackson, who was hanged in 1674. (fn. 17)
The gibbet probably stood at the top of the hill leading down to North End, although the 'gibbet elms'
depicted in the 19th century were farther down the
slope. (fn. 18)
A healthy situation and fine outlook were appreciated earlier than the heath's own scenery. In 1709
one of the assets of the newly fashionable spa was 'a
fine heath to ride out and take the air on' (fn. 19) and in
the 1720s Defoe praised the air, although too rarefied, and prospects in fine weather. (fn. 20) In 1734 the
ground's rapid drying out made it a pleasant place
for walks (fn. 21) and later the views were often illustrated (fn. 22)
and praised. (fn. 23) The heath's interest, however, was
still seen to lie in its composition and resources
rather than its scenic beauty by Hampstead's first
historian, J. J. Park, in 1813. (fn. 24)
The heath and, by association, much of its neighbourhood, appeared in a more romantic light from
the early 19th century. Some of the appreciative
language, as in the protests against digging in 1806, (fn. 25)
expressed little more than the copyholders' concern
for agreeable surroundings and assured property
values. The more romantic view was soon pioneered
by Leigh Hunt, who arrived in 1812 and wrote the
first of his five sonnets To Hampstead, invoking its
'sweet upland', while in prison in 1813. The heath
itself was a major, although not the only, local source
of Hunt's inspiration. (fn. 26) Shortly after his release he
settled in 1816 at the Vale of Health, where Shelley,
who particularly admired the sunsets, Keats, and
Byron were among his visitors. (fn. 27)
The poets were soon followed by painters, notably
Constable, who probably knew Hampstead from c.
1812 (fn. 28) and stayed first near Whitestone pond in
1819, John Linnell from 1822, and William Collins
from 1823. (fn. 29) A newspaper attack on the plan of 1816
for poor relief, as the work of 'tasteless improvers',
celebrated the heath's artistic appeal; it praised not
only the panorama but the 'bold inequalities' of the
foreground, claiming that, like Shakespeare and
Newton, it was the property of Europe. (fn. 30) Constable,
whose first, serene, views were probably done before
1819, came to occupy a succession of second homes
in Hampstead. (fn. 31) He soon found his main inspiration
in the heath's openness to the elements: he studied
the sky, whose moods the land merely reflected, and
in 1829 included a sandpit on East Heath among four
mezzotints of his works engraved by David Lucas,
an experiment which led to the reproduction of other
views in 1830-1 and later. (fn. 32) The heath thus became,
in literary and artistic circles, a recognized beauty
spot. Its attractions can only have been enhanced by
the growing contrast between its breezy heights and
the grime of London, as recalled in 1835 by Wordsworth. (fn. 33)
More important, for the future of the heath, was
its popularity with day trippers. As early as 1829,
when battle was first joined to prevent building, a
writer from Gray's Inn stressed the need for all
classes to escape from noise and dirt to one of the
few remaining 'lungs of the metropolis'. His hope
that a public asset might be preserved, if only for
the sake of private rights, found support in the House
of Commons and in a well known cartoon by George
Cruikshank, showing the advance of bricks and mortar. (fn. 34) The general good was again emphasized in
1844: Lord Chief Justice Denman, supporting the
local property holders, declared that thousands of
Londoners daily enjoyed the heath during the fine
months. (fn. 35) The claim was perhaps exaggerated.
Eighteenth-century races had presumably attracted
outsiders but many early sporting contests concerned
only local or visiting teams, while parties, as opposed
to individual walkers, may have been drawn more by
the inns and pleasure gardens than by the heath it
self. (fn. 36) Donkey riders, numerous from the 1820s or
earlier, were often shown as middle-class in the
1850s. (fn. 37) There were also, however, crowds of humbler visitors and even all-night revellers. (fn. 38) Together
with riders and picnickers, they had attracted cartoonists before the Hampstead Junction railway
made the heath accessible to thousands of poorer
families who lived beyond walking distance. (fn. 39)
The opening of Hampstead Heath station in
1860 (fn. 40) assured the heath's future as a playground for
London's East Enders. There followed yet more
published accounts and illustrations of popular pastimes, (fn. 41) including copies of Watkin Williams's song
'Hampstead is the Place to Ruralise' c. 1863. (fn. 42) An
informal fair presumably had already benefited from
the closure in the 1850s of Bartholomew, Camberwell, and Greenwich fairs; (fn. 43) it was held near the
Vale of Health, where the first hotel was built in
1863 in order to profit from the crowds brought by
the railway. (fn. 44) The trend was encouraged by Sir
Thomas Maryon Wilson, who, in his campaign
against the gentry, licensed an ice-cream vendor to
build a wooden refreshment room at the foot of
Downshire Hill in 1861 and assigned a large site for
a fair ground in 1865. (fn. 45) The writer William Howitt
complained in 1869 that Sunday evening revellers
swarming homeward down Haverstock Hill could be
heard from his house in Highgate. (fn. 46) Such popularity was perhaps decisive in the parliamentary
battle to prevent building. (fn. 47)
Acquisition as a public open space was followed
closely by the Bank Holidays Act, 1871, which
created three holidays in months when it was possible to enjoy the heath. Enormous crowds gathered,
as on Whit Monday 1872, when the fair covered the
whole of East Heath to Spaniard's Road, from which
height carriage visitors could look down on the
working class at play. (fn. 48) Damage, particularly fires
among the furze, and rowdiness were often a problem in the 1870s, when there might be 30,000 visitors at the August holiday and 50,000 on a fine Whit
Monday. (fn. 49) Violence was also a problem at the bonfires and processions held from before 1850 on Guy
Fawkes day, until in 1880 a committee was set up to
regulate them. (fn. 50) Numbers reached 100,000 in the
1880s, although that estimate for 1880 included
trippers to Parliament Hill Fields, which were not
yet part of the heath. (fn. 51) The crowds were thickest in
the south-east corner near the station, where in 1892
nine people died in a rush to escape from the rain.
'Appy' Ampstead became a nationally known phrase
in the 1890s, when celebrated in a song by Albert
Chevalier and in the cartoons of Phil May. (fn. 52) The
heath was the L.C.C.'s most popular open space in
1899 (fn. 53) and bank holiday pleasures at other London
parks were mere 'modifications' of those at Hampstead in 1901. (fn. 54)
The scene had grown more respectable by 1910,
when there were fewer assaults and thefts at what
had become gigantic children's parties'. Attendance
records were broken on Easter Monday, always the
heath's busiest day, with an estimated 200,000; on
the following August holiday, 50,000 came by railway alone. (fn. 55) In 1920 Queen Alexandra drove slowly
by, to view Easter Monday's 'traditional festivities
and licence', and promenaders still thronged
Spaniard's Road on a fine Sunday. (fn. 56) The survival of
the fair ensured the heath's continuing popularity
during and after the Second World War. (fn. 57)
The public acquisition of the heath in 1871 ended
more than forty years of uncertainty. (fn. 58) Sir Thomas
Maryon Wilson, restricted by his father's will to
granting leases of no more than 21 years on his
Hampstead property, sought wider powers through
successive estate Bills, all of which were defeated.
His proposals alarmed substantial local residents,
who successfully presented them to a wider public
as threats to an increasingly popular heath. The
battles in the press and parliament left Sir Thomas,
a stubborn and irascible man, with a long lasting
reputation as a would-be despoiler. Only in the
1970s, in the most detailed account, was it pointed
out that Sir Thomas was singularly unfortunate in
meeting such powerful opposition. His story showed
the rights of property, at a time when they were
normally paramount, being overridden in the name
of the public interest. It also showed how motives
could be disguised by confusing the issues of the
copyholders' rights, the lord's freehold, and public
enjoyment of the heath.
Sir Thomas's first estate Bill was withdrawn from
the House of Commons in 1829, after local opposition and a campaign in the press on the need to preserve open space. In reality his desire to obtain the
power to grant 99-year building leases on all his
Hampstead lands did not arise from plans for the
heath as it then existed, where the copyholders could
insist on their rights of pasturage, but for his 60 a. of
exclusive freehold which were later known as East
Heath Park or East Park. Building there, along the
St. Pancras boundary, would have hemmed in the
heath and threatened the views of many Hampstead
gentry and of Lord Mansfield from Kenwood. Lord
Mansfield therefore joined the opposition and in
1830 helped to defeat a second, modified, Bill in the
House of Lords. It was probably the House's first
division on an estate Bill, all the more notable for
taking place in an unreformed parliament. Despite
Sir Thomas's disavowals of plans for the heath itself,
a third estate Bill had to be withdrawn in 1843 and a
fourth, to permit the sale of all his Hampstead property, was defeated in 1844. A fifth Bill was defeated
in 1853 and a sixth, concerned only with land along
Finchley Road, in 1854. When a seventh Bill was
overtaken by the Leases and Sales of Settled Estates
Act of 1856, making it easier to change strict settlements, an unprecedented clause was inserted to
debar Sir Thomas, as a previous applicant, from
taking advantage of the new law. (fn. 59) Further debates
followed in 1857, 1859, and 1860, as lawyers' attempts to remove the clause were frustrated by
metropolitan M.P.s, whose constituents were making increasing use of the heath.
When the struggle began there was small likelihood of reaching a fair and logical solution by buying
the heath with public funds. In 1853, however, the
vestry, ahead of its time, resolved that it was in the
interests of both the parish and the metropolis that
the government should buy the heath 'with such
portions of the adjoining ground as are essential to
its beauty'. (fn. 60) The proposal was made after public
discussion of a plan by C. R. Cockerell to lay out a
park on the enlarged heath, which would have come
to resemble Regent's Park. (fn. 61) Public purchase was
urged on both the M.B.W. and the government in
1856 by the reformed vestry, which in 1857 promoted an unsuccessful Bill. The climate changed in
the 1860s, as threats to other open spaces led to the
conferment of new powers on the M.B.W. by the
Metropolitan Commons Act, 1866. (fn. 62) The Act was a
result of pressure by the Commons Preservation
Society under George Shaw-Lefevre, which included
Gurney Hoare, Philip Le Breton, and other Hampstead campaigners among its members. In Hampstead the danger was acute. Sir Thomas's only
obtrusive building had been of the viaduct begun in
1844, (fn. 63) which was to bring a road to East Park and
which came to be misrepresented as a design against
the heath, (fn. 64) although both the viaduct and the intended 28 villas were on his exclusive freehold. (fn. 65) In
1861, however, he threatened to commercialize the
heath, a process which he began by building on the
summit and selling the sand along Spaniard's Road.
East Park was also despoiled, by brickfields. (fn. 66) He
went on to reject compromise offers not to oppose
building on his land along Finchley Road in return
for the abandoning of plans for East Park. In consequence a Hampstead Heath Protection Fund was
established under Gurney Hoare, to defray the expenses of a suit which was started against Sir Thomas
in Chancery in 1866 and was ended only by his
death in 1869. The ability of his brother and heir
Sir John to break the restrictive settlement, which
renewed the danger, and the inflamed state of public
feeling then compelled the M.B.W. to buy the heath
for a stiff but not extortionate price.
The Hampstead Heath Act, 1871, authorized the
M.B.W.'s purchase of nearly all that survived from
the original common, (fn. 67) (East, North-West or Sandy,
and West heaths), which was ceremonially taken
over early in 1872. (fn. 68) A few small additions were soon
made, including Judges' Walk, (fn. 69) and in 1879 its
estimated 240 a. made Hampstead Heath the largest
of the M.B.W.'s open spaces after Blackheath. (fn. 70) The
Act did not allay all the fears of those who had resisted building, since the right to lay roads across
the heath had been reserved in the sale, which did
not include East Park or other adjacent lands. It
would still have been possibly to hem in East Heath
with buildings, as shown by the construction of
South Hill Park between the lower ponds and Parliament Hill Fields. Fortunately for preservationists,
the Maryon Wilsons concentrated their resources on
the area around Fitzjohn's Avenue. (fn. 71) Meanwhile the
Act had secured an inviolable core of open space for
public recreation and set a precedent by sanctioning
its purchase with public funds.
The story of the heath after 1871 was one of its
expansion and of the changes which were brought
about by public ownership. Expansion was largely
in response to the spread of housing north and west
of the heath, where open country survived in the
1880s, and its full value became apparent only as the
ring of building was completed in the 20th century. (fn. 72)
The first move towards extending the heath came
in 1884 with the establishment of a local society's
open spaces committee, with C. E. Maurice as secretary. (fn. 73) Its aim was to acquire East Park, where building was likely to be most obtrusive, and c. 200 a.
from the neighbouring southern part of Lord Mansfield's Kenwood estate. The committee, stressing
social and sanitary needs, soon won support from
such reformers as Lady Burdett-Coutts and Octavia
Hill. A Hampstead Heath Extension committee was
then formed, with the duke of Westminster as chairman; it was ready to pay the market price and,
through Shaw-Lefevre, reached agreement with the
landowners. The Hampstead Heath Enlargement
Act, 1886, amended in 1888, (fn. 74) allowed the application of public and charitable funds, after Hampstead
vestry, which supported the extension committee, (fn. 75)
had voted a contribution, followed by St. Pancras.
The M.B.W. adopted the Act shortly before its own
extinction in 1889, leaving a monument as important as the Thames Embankment in the form of a
heath doubled in size by the addition of East Park,
Parliament Hill and Fields, and part of Lord
Mansfield's Elms estate.
The next addition was that of the 36-a. Golders
Hill estate, at North End but in Hendon parish (fn. 76) and
adjoining West Heath. Funds were sought in 1897
for the purchase of 20 a. and in 1898 for the whole
estate, although it was saved from speculators only
when the local historian Thomas Barratt bid beyond
the guaranteed total. Barratt conveyed his contract to
the guaranteeing committee, which, strengthened
by the duke of Westminster and Shaw-Lefevre,
recouped its expenses after a public appeal; the
L.C.C. promised £12,000 and Hampstead vestry
£10,000. (fn. 77) The property was conveyed in 1898 to
trustees appointed by the committee and in 1899 to
the L.C.C., (fn. 78) whose parks committee drew attention
to the damage which might have been done if building had been allowed to press too close, as at
Clapham common. (fn. 79)
Similar arguments, and a similar mixture of public
and private contributions, secured the addition of c.
80 a. in Hendon, adjoining Sandy Heath. (fn. 80) The
campaign to buy the land, which was part of Eton
college's Wyldes farm, was stimulated by plans for
a tube railway under the heath, with a station at
North End and the consequent prospect of building.
Hampstead Heath Extension council was formed in
1903 by Henrietta Barnett, with Shaw-Lefevre as
president, and public contributions were permitted
by an Act of 1905. (fn. 81) Although support from the
L.C.C. and Hampstead borough council was inadequate, Hampstead bearing a much smaller proportion of the cost than in 1898, the 80 a. were bought
in 1907. They came to be known as the Heath
Extension, while the rest of Wyldes farm was taken
for Hampstead Garden Suburb. (fn. 82)
The last major additions, on the east side of the
heath, resulted from the break-up of Lord Mansfield's estate, first projected in 1914. The Kenwood
Preservation Council in 1922 raised money to buy
100 a., of which 9 a. east of Millfield Lane were resold to the owners of Caen Wood Towers and Beechwood subject to a ban on building. Ken wood itself
and the lakes south of the mansion, 32 a., were also
bought, vested in the L.C.C., and in 1925 opened
by George V. Kenwood House and 75 a. around it
were saved from the builders by the earl of Iveagh
(d. 1927), who settled them on himself for life. He
installed art treasures and left the mansion in trust
as a picture gallery, which was opened in 1928. The
grounds were left to the L.C.C., as part of the
heath. (fn. 83) Kenwood House was taken over by the
L.C.C. in 1949. (fn. 84)
In 1925 the Paddock, 1¾ a. at North End, was
bought from Lord Leverhulme's executors with subscriptions. (fn. 85) Further small but important additions
followed the Second World War as a result of bombing, demolitions, or changes of use. They included
the sites of Fern Lodge and Heathlands north of
Jack Straw's Castle in 1948 and 1951, the gardens of
Pitt House, 3 a. when the Elms became a hospital,
the Hill gardens of Heath Lodge, and in 1967 the
tollhouse at the Spaniards. (fn. 86) The many changes
helped to account for slight variations in the figures
given for the acreage. In 1937 the heath, including
the Extension and Golders Hill Park, was estimated
by the L.C.C. at 287.5 a., Parliament Hill at 270.5 a.,
and Kenwood at 195.2 a., a total of 753.2 a. (fn. 87) In 1951
the heath was said to be 290.5 a. and the other two
areas were unchanged. In 1971 the G.L.C.'s estimated total was 802 a. (fn. 88)
The appearance of the heath continued to cause
concern after the possibility of direct private exploitation had been eliminated. One controversy was
about the moorland character of the old heath, in
which it differed from most of London's open spaces
and from the additions made after 1871, which were
either farmland or parkland. Another was about the
threat from traffic across the heath and from inappropriate buildings overlooking it. Neither question
was finally laid to rest.
Some landscaping was needed, if only to repair the
harm done by digging, which had made much of the
ground 'one collection of dangerous and unsightly
pits'. The Times, regretting the M.B.W.'s six-month
delay in producing any measures of ornamentation
or regulation, looked forward to a tasteful conversion
into 'one of the most exquisite parks in the world'. (fn. 89)
Philip Le Breton, however, as chairman of the parks
committee, favoured the restoration of natural
beauty, which also met his colleagues' desire to
economize. (fn. 90) By 1875, with the scars of excavation
largely grown over, the M.B.W. won praise for a
judicious neglect which had not made the heath
'prim or park-like'. (fn. 91)
The success of resistance to the plans of public
authorities may have owed much to the prominence
of many of the heath's local defenders. The L.C.C.,
warned by Octavia Hill in 1890 against attempted
improvements, adopted schemes for tree planting,
in 1894, and tidying up, both of which brought petitions signed by distinguished protesters. (fn. 92) Critics
were told that the need to provide shelter for visitors
must affect views from some houses but were assured
that it was desired to preserve the rusticity of West
Heath and that gorse cutting was pruning. (fn. 93) The
Hampstead Heath Protection society was formed in
1897, with the aim of co-operating with the L.C.C.;
further planting was prevented, although thinning
was not conceded until 1918. (fn. 94) An action group was
formed in 1978 to stir up what had become the
Heath and Old Hampstead Protection society, after
the G.L.C. in its turn had been accused of wanting
to turn the wilder parts into a typical park. (fn. 95)
The threat from new roads and obtrusive buildings was lessened by the acquisition of East Park in
1889, which made it possible for access roads reserved in the Act of 1871 to be left as no more than
tracks. The L.C.C. at first hoped to make wider
ways, with cinders from the dismantled East Park
brickfields, but retreated after protests by Octavia
Hill and others. (fn. 96) Sandy Road, skirting West Heath
and bisecting Sandy Heath from West End Lane to
the Spaniards, was closed to motor traffic in 1924
and thereafter formed two bridle paths. (fn. 97) The main
roads across the old heath, Spaniard's and North End
roads, were kept free of public transport services
until 1922. (fn. 98) A proposal to demolish the tollhouse
opposite the Spaniards in 1961 was successfully
resisted, partly on the grounds that it would lead
to more and faster traffic. (fn. 99)
Tall or incongruous buildings overlooking the
heath had caused alarm since William Howitt's attack on the 'Tower of Babel' bulk of the castellated
hotel in the Vale of Health. (fn. 1) The flats called the
Pryors, in East Heath Road, were similarly criticized
in 1903. Projected seven-storeyed flats at Bellmoor
were limited by the L.C.C., to make them fourstoreyed, in 1929, but there was a possibility of new
blocks at the Old Court House and Heath Brow,
near Jack Straw's Castle, in 1938. The L.C.C.'s
London development plan of 1951 would have permitted bigger buildings around the heath, only to be
disallowed by the government, and redevelopment
on the bombed site at Heath Brow was averted by its
purchase for a car park. (fn. 2) The acquisition of such
plots as the Hill gardens brought further protection.
Vigilance was still needed in 1984, however, when
fears sprang mainly from plans for houses in the
grounds of Witanhurst, on the Highgate side of the
heath. (fn. 3)
In the 1960s Hampstead Heath's 'romantic abrupt
scenery, a bit like the hilly parts of Shropshire', was
thought to give maximum effect in the smallest
area. (fn. 4) It continued to be praised in the 1980s for its
variety and in particular for its wildness. (fn. 5) Its future
management was uncertain, after the abolition of the
G.L.C. in 1986. Proposals for a division between
Camden, Barnet, and Haringey L.B.s were unwelcome to local residents and to the Heath and Old
Hampstead society, as was management by the City
of London to Camden and by Camden to the government. Other possibilities were for the London Residuary Body, temporarily in charge, to be succeeded
by a joint committee from three local authorities, or
by a new authority, or a local trust. (fn. 6)