PUBLIC SERVICES.
Springs on the heath and
southern slopes of the parish provided a plentiful
water supply and also formed the tributaries of
several London rivers. (fn. 32) Ponds were made by the
springs to gather the water, and wells were sunk to
tap underground streams; in the later 19th century
many large houses still had their own well or pump. (fn. 33)
An Act of 1543 allowed water from the heath to be
used to supply the City, leading later to the formation of the Hampstead Water Co., which, however,
did not supply Hampstead itself. (fn. 34) In 1684 the earl
of Gainsborough received permission to pipe water
from springs in his manor of Hampstead to the City
and suburbs. (fn. 35) The chalybeate spring given by his
widow to the poor of Hampstead in 1698 (fn. 36) was probably thought unsuitable for this purpose because of
its salts. When, however, the mineral waters were
exploited, the vestry retained control over the springhead north-west of the well and in 1700 ordered
water from the springhead to be piped into the town,
apparently to raise money to relieve the poor rate
rather than to meet any scarcity of water. Arrangements were made to lay pipes and contract with
householders. In 1705 John Vincent proposed relaying the pipes on a different route, repairing the
spring, and drawing on other springs; he was to have
a lease of the water, for which he could charge the
householders supplied. In the event the supply benefited only Vincent's brewery behind the King of
Bohemia's Head and a few neighbouring houses,
which were still supplied in 1824. (fn. 37)
Until the advent of piped water, public supplies
for the town consisted principally of a pond or well,
fed by a spring but perhaps not always in the same
place. A pond was mentioned in 1274, (fn. 38) and both
pond and well occurred in surnames and locations
from the late 13th to the 15th century. (fn. 39) The Act of
1543 included protection for the springs, at the foot
of the hill of the heath, which had been enclosed in
brick for the use of the inhabitants. (fn. 40) Possibly it was
the same town pond or well (fn. 41) that in 1680 stood at
the junction of Heath and High streets, (fn. 42) most likely
on the west side, and described as in Hampstead
Street in 1619 and at the foot of Cloth Hill (later
Holly Bush Hill) in 1669. (fn. 43) Tokens issued by Dorothy
Rippin and Richard Bazell in 1669 and 1670, (fn. 44) may
refer to this well. It was mentioned again in 1693 as
the common well, (fn. 45) but in 1706 the town pond and
land around it were granted out as manorial waste
and the pond was filled in at the direction of the
overseers. (fn. 46) It may have been filled in because of
contamination from new building on Cloth Hill and
because the Revd. Samuel Nalton left money in 1706
to provide a water pump on the heath for the poor
and a fountain in the middle of the town. (fn. 47) In 1783
the town pump stood at the north end of the narrow
part of High Street, (fn. 48) near the old pond. Another
parish pond existed at the east end of Flask Walk in
1762, possibly fed by the spring that formed a tributary of the river Fleet which rose nearby. (fn. 49) It may
have been the pond that the vestry ordered to be enlarged in 1787. (fn. 50) The Fleet tributary ran along the
line of Willow Road to the lowest of the Hampstead
ponds and fed watercress beds and wells along its
length. A brick conduit and dipping-place, long out
of use in 1870, stood near the site of Gayton Road. (fn. 51)
Another old well called Skirret's well stood on East
Heath in 1714, close to the site of the house at
Squire's Mount. (fn. 52) Parish wells near Whitestone
pond, at White Bear green, and at the southern end
of High Street were used for watering the roads, but
all were closed by 1872. (fn. 53)
Other districts had similar water supplies through
conduits, pumps, or ponds, fed by springs, or could
draw on tributaries of the Kilburn brook (Westbourne), some of which rose south of the manor
house and parish church, others south of West End
green feeding a stream which ran parallel to Kilburn
High Road. (fn. 54) In 1543 the right was reserved to the
lord to pipe water to the manor-place from springs
west of the Hendon road. (fn. 55) Several wells served the
western half of the parish, although recorded only in
the 19th century. Blackett's well at Childs Hill was
claimed by the vestry to be a public well in 1802. (fn. 56)
Wells at North End and on West Heath near Childs
Hill supplied laundries and in 1872 were still open,
and conduits existed at Branch Hill, Wild Wood
Lodge at North End, by West End House, and near
Redington Road. (fn. 57)
Belsize was supplied by tributaries of the Tyburn,
one rising near Belsize House, which it supplied by
way of a pond, (fn. 58) another in Shepherd's fields, northwest of Rosslyn House, where the public spring was
conduited and known by 1829 as Shepherd's well. (fn. 59)
By 1801 pipes led from that well to a cistern at the
bottom of the Grove, Rosslyn Hill, opposite Pond
Street whose inhabitants were supplied from it. In
1808 the vestry tried to have other pipes removed, as
water was being drawn off to Rosslyn House to the
detriment of the public supply in the Grove, but the
owner of Rosslyn House claimed that the deficiency
was generally due to shortages at the spring. (fn. 60) In the
mid 19th century the well served residents, principally laundresses, up to a mile away, using watercarriers. (fn. 61) By that time, however, piped supplies
were arriving. Pipes from Camden Town were extended to the southernmost part of the parish in the
1830s and 1840s. In 1852 both the vestry and the
board of guardians were seeking a better supply, by
asking the local M.P. to secure the town's inclusion
in a Bill for supplying Hendon and West End, and
by approaching existing water companies. (fn. 62) In 1853
the New River Co. extended pipes from Highgate to
the top of the town, with the vestry consenting in
1854 to a reservoir as long as it was not built on the
site first chosen, by Jack Straw's Castle; it was built
at Hampstead Grove in 1856. (fn. 63) The vestry tried unsuccessfully to get the charges for water modified in
1854, claiming that those borne by larger properties
were discouraging wider use of piped supplies. (fn. 64) In
1866 the West Middlesex Water Co. obtained powers
to serve parts of Hampstead, building reservoirs near
Kidderpore Hall (in 1868) and near Fortune Green.
By 1872 they provided a constant supply to the area
between Kilburn High Road and West End, besides
a small area east of Finchley Road. By 1884 the company supplied all the parish roughly west of Haverstock Hill and Fitzjohn's Avenue, while the New
River served the remainder, though a constant supply
was not available until later. (fn. 65)
Before the drainage system was constructed from
1859 onwards, Hampstead's sewerage was rudimentary, using cesspools which drained into the
soil contaminating water supplies, or into streams
and ditches suitable only for surface water. (fn. 66) As the
town was near the top of a hill, drainage was not seen
as a problem until in the 1840s, after cholera had
heightened awareness, complaints were made about
crowded alleys and courts, which in addition to
receiving sewage were piled with refuse. (fn. 67) Open
ditches around Kilburn and West End were also full
of sewage. (fn. 68) Though Hampstead came within the
jurisdiction of the commissioners of sewers for
Holborn and Finsbury, they dealt chiefly with existing water-courses and had more pressing problems
with the Fleet. In 1852 the vestry appointed a committee to discuss improvements with the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, who had replaced
the district commissioners; a short sewer was built
in 1853-4 from South End Green to the Fleet
before the M.B.W. came into being and built the
metropolitan sewer system. (fn. 69)
Under the Metropolis Local Management Act,
1855, the vestry could raise money for building
sewers; its surveyor in 1857 proposed to drain the
area between North End and Pond Street, 665 a.
requiring c. 7 miles of sewers. By 1872 the whole
parish drained into the M.B.W.'s system, the eastern
part into the high-level 'intercepting' sewer, the Kilburn area into the Ranelagh sewer; 11.5 miles of
sewers had been constructed by the vestry, and
another 11 miles at private expense. (fn. 70)
The vestry also introduced regular collection of
household refuse; in 1854 it was recommended that
a contractor be employed to collect from all householders once a week. The vestry later employed its
own collectors and built a dust destructor on land
which it bought in Scrubs Lane, near Willesden
Junction (Hammersmith), where all the refuse was
burnt. (fn. 71)
The parish constable was assisted by a watch of 12
men when apprehending a felon in 1673, (fn. 72) and the
constable or headboroughs were to warn 6 men to
watch with them in 1704 until further notice, possibly for the winter months. (fn. 73) In 1707 the constables
complained that they had never had the shelter of a
suitable watchhouse, and the justices ordered one to
be built. (fn. 74) Expenses were paid in 1708 for surveying
the watchhouse and in 1710 a room under the same
roof as the watchhouse and cage was let to a poulterer
until needed by the parish. (fn. 75) In 1748 the watchhouse
was reported to be an obstruction to passengers and
in disrepair, and a new one was to be built nearby. (fn. 76)
Whether or not it was rebuilt, its site was again considered very inconvenient in 1764, (fn. 77) when it stood in
the roadway in Heath Street near its junction with
High Street. (fn. 78) By 1795 the watchhouse had been
moved to the bottom of Flask Walk, (fn. 79) presumably
the west end of the green, where it stood with its two
dungeons in 1839 shortly before being demolished. (fn. 80)
The watch could not prevent highway robberies
on the London road, where in 1720 armed patrols
protected visitors to the Belsize House pleasure gardens. (fn. 81) By 1774 the number of robberies in and
around Hampstead warranted a local Act for watching and lighting the town: commissioners were empowered to raise a rate and appoint foot and horse
patrols, armed if necessary. (fn. 82) An association, established in 1789 to reward those who caught offenders
against the property of the subscribers, was revived
in 1805. (fn. 83) By 1828 the parish had regular day
and night patrols and paid a superintendent, 17
watchmen, and 8 patrols; 17 watchboxes were
provided. (fn. 84)
The establishment of the metropolitan police force
brought residents a large bill for building the police
stations and other expenses. An unsuccessful deputation told Sir Robert Peel that the force was both
oppressively expensive and unnecessary because of
the local Act and because the village was off the main
thoroughfares. (fn. 85) Hampstead became part of S division and a police station was opened at no. 9 Holly
Place, (fn. 86) moving in 1834 to the corner of Holly Hill
and Heath Street. (fn. 87) It was replaced c. 1870 by a new
station on Rosslyn Hill next to the Soldiers' Daughters' Home, (fn. 88) which in turn was replaced in 1913 by
a new station and magistrates' court at the corner of
Rosslyn Hill and Downshire Hill, (fn. 89) still in use in
1986. A station for West Hampstead and Kilburn
was opened at no. 90 West End Lane in 1883, (fn. 90) being
replaced in 1972 by one at no. 21 Fortune Green
Road. (fn. 91)
The Local Act of 1774 allowed commissioners to
levy a lighting rate for the town, which was not to
exceed 1s. in the £ on property in lighted districts
and 6d. elsewhere. (fn. 92) The oil lamps used were quite
sparsely positioned, many larger houses still provided their own lights, (fn. 93) and the Act did not extend
to Kilburn, which was unlit until 1849. (fn. 94) In 1823 the
Imperial Gas Light & Coke Co. received permission
to lay pipes; gas lamps were provided, beginning in
High and Heath streets. (fn. 95) In 1853 Hampstead had
405 lamps, with a further 54 for the 2 miles of roads
in the Kilburn area. (fn. 96) In 1872 Imperial Gas supplied
935 lamps and the Western Gas Light Co. 126
lamps. (fn. 97) The spread of building made it difficult to
supply enough lamps, even in the 1880s; by that
time there were nearly 2,000 lamps, supplied by the
Gas Light & Coke Co. (fn. 98)
Private companies obtained Board of Trade orders
for bringing electricity to the parish in 1883 and
again in 1892, (fn. 99) but nothing was achieved owing to
vestry opposition. The vestry, persuaded that it
would be profitable to build and run its own electricity undertaking, opened a power station in Stone
Yard, Lithos Road, in 1894, in order to supply both
private consumers and the public street lamps.
Though the scheme was very successful, particularly
with private users, so much capital was needed for
new generators in 1897 and for more cables that the
parish rates received little benefit. (fn. 1) Street lamps
were converted to electricity from 1909, starting
with Adelaide and Upper Avenue roads. (fn. 2) The undertaking remained in the borough's control until
nationalization. The power station was replaced with
a new building opened in 1975. (fn. 3)
Two fire engines were provided by public subscription, but were in disrepair by 1753 because
there was nowhere suitable to keep them. The parish
officers agreed to take charge of the engines, which
were to be lodged in Mr. Sibthorp's coach house,
and the overseers of the poor paid for repairs by the
maker, Mr. Broadbent, who had an agreement to
maintain the engines for ten years. The equipment
included copper branch pipes, 20 ft. of suction pipes,
160 ft. of forcing pipes, and 44 leather buckets. (fn. 4) The
engine pond in Flask Walk, cleansed in 1757, may
have been for the use of the fire engines. (fn. 5) By 1837
the cost of constant repairs exceeded the value of the
two machines and doubts were raised about the
legality of poor-rate money being spent on them. The
vestry therefore asked the church trustees appointed
under the 1827 Local Act to buy one new engine,
house it, and defray expenses, as the Act empowered
them to do (for the protection of the parish church);
the old engines were to be sold and the proceeds
given to the trustees. (fn. 6) The engine dated 1810 that
was stored at Cannon Hall in 1898 (fn. 7) may have been
the one bought by the trustees; it was kept in a shed
in Church Row. (fn. 8) The trustees raised £200 initially
and a further £200 in 1850, (fn. 9) but in 1856 the vestry
took over responsibility for the engine. (fn. 10) In 1863,
just prior to the formation of the London Fire
Brigade by the M.B.W., the parish engine was in
good repair and had one specially appointed keeper. (fn. 11)
The Kilburn area was served by the Kilburn, Willesden, and St. John's Wood volunteer fire brigade,
established after a fire at Shoot Up Hill in 1863,
with its headquarters at Bridge Street, Kilburn. (fn. 12)
The M.B.W. opened a temporary fire station in a
rented house in Belsize Avenue in 1869, and the permanent St. John's Wood station in 1870 near the
corner of Adelaide and Finchley roads, its observation tower overlooking most of the parish. (fn. 13) Hampstead fire station, designed by George Vulliamy, was
opened in 1874 at the corner of Holly Hill and Heath
Street on the site of the former police station. (fn. 14) The
two stations, both in A district, (fn. 15) covered the whole
parish until 1901, when West Hampstead fire station,
no. 325 West End Lane, was opened. (fn. 16) In 1915 Belsize station, in Lancaster Grove, was opened to replace the very cramped St. John's Wood station. (fn. 17)
Hampstead station was closed in 1923, (fn. 18) and thereafter the parish was served by two stations once more,
West Hampstead covering the north and west parts,
and Belsize the south and east. (fn. 19)
Hampstead subscription library, founded in 1833,
began free lending to working-class readers in 1887,
after its move to Stanfield House, and in 1891 provided them with their own reading room. (fn. 20) In 1892,
after the adoption of the Public Libraries Act, the
vestry set up commissioners to provide libraries for
other districts; they continued to manage the libraries until c. 1896, when the vestry took over their
functions. (fn. 21)
The first public library to be opened was a temporary one at no. 48 Priory Road, Kilburn, in 1894,
which included lending and reference libraries and
reading room. It was superseded in 1902 by a
purpose-built branch library in Cotleigh Road. (fn. 22)
Belsize branch library, Antrim Road, was opened in
1897, with lending and reference sections and a
magazine room, and was adapted as an open-access
library in 1910. Structural defects led to closure in
1936 and the opening of a new building on the same
site in 1937. (fn. 23)
The Central library, at the corner of Finchley and
Arkwright roads, opened in 1897, was designed by
A. S. Tayler as a two-storeyed building in domestic
Tudor style. It contained a reference library, reading
rooms, and lending library (opened in 1899), and the
cost was covered by a gift from Sir Henry Harben.
The reference library housed 8,000 volumes of Professor Henry Morley, bought by the vestry in 1896,
and a local archive collection was begun by the purchase of a survey of 1680 of the heath. The site
allowed room for additions: an extension of 1909 included a children's library, one of the first of its kind
in the London area, with a separate entrance in
Arkwright Road, and a small exhibition and lecture
room; a further extension in 1926 provided a larger
lending library and a lecture hall for 220. After
severe damage in 1940 and 1945 the adjoining
bombed sites were bought for future enlargement,
but in 1964 the library closed. Its departments were
transferred to the new Swiss Cottage library at no.
88 Avenue Road, an oval-planned building designed
by Sir Basil Spence, which in 1986 also housed
Camden L.B.'s local history collection and archives
covering Hampstead and St. Pancras, besides its
reference collection on philosophy and psychology.
The old building subsequently became Camden
Arts centre, administered by the Arkwright Arts
trust with municipal support. (fn. 24)
West End, later West Hampstead, branch library
was opened in 1901 at the corner of Westbere and
Sarre roads, a single-storeyed building with lending,
reference, and magazine rooms. The building was
destroyed in 1940, and replaced by temporary services in the basement of the Methodist church in
Mill Lane and by 1950 in adapted bank premises in
Cholmeley Gardens. In 1954 a new library was built
as part of a small housing development at the corner
of Dennington Park Road and West End Lane. (fn. 25)
Heath branch library opened as Worsley Road
branch in 1907 in the former school building. In
1931 a new library was opened in the grounds of
Keats House to serve also as a museum for the Keats
collection formed by Sir Charles Dilke and given to
the borough in 1911. Keats House had been in the
care of the borough from 1924, after it had been
bought by public subscription, and the library was
designed to blend with the style and scale of the
house. In 1948 the partition between the lending
library and reading room was removed and in 1986
part of the Keats memorial library was in Keats
House. (fn. 26)
A sick relief club and self-supporting dispensary,
formed by the Revd. T. Ainger and other leading
parishioners, began in 1846 with 53 members. Benefited members, who had to be earning less than 25s.
a week and not be receiving poor relief, paid a small
weekly sum, while unbenefited members paid large
contributions; the club was run by a committee of
both groups. By the end of 1846 membership had
increased to 332; it was 957 by 1851, when the name
was changed to Hampstead Provident Dispensary.
The dispensary used rooms in the New End workhouse, for which it paid £20 a year. In 1850 a site at
New End was bought with money from the collection taken in 1849 in all Hampstead churches and
chapels in thanksgiving for escape from cholera.
After a further appeal in 1852, a three-storeyed
building was opened on the site in 1853. In addition
to the dispensary, it housed the soup kitchen which
had been started c. 1844 at the workhouse to sell
soup to the poor during two winter months. By the
1870s the dispensary also provided dental treatment.
A branch for West Hampstead was opened at no. 33
Mill Lane before 1888. After the National Insurance
Act, 1911, the dispensary gradually lost its importance and in 1948 it closed; the building, standing in
1986, was sold in 1950. (fn. 27)
Hampstead Health Institute was founded by
Thomas Hancock Nunn in 1913 as a memorial to
Edward VII, in a building at the corner of Kingsgate
and Dynham roads, West Hampstead. St. George's
hall, adjoining it, was built 1929-30. Nunn wanted
to unite various social services in one centre, then a
novel concept: the main object was prevention of
disease through hygiene education, but by 1929 the
institute also had pre-natal clinics, and dental, oral,
ophthalmic, and infant welfare centres, in addition
to a social club, becoming the first local community
centre. After the N.H.S. introduced similar centres,
the building became Kingsgate community centre,
run by Camden council. (fn. 28)
The Metropolitan Asylums Board bought c. 8 a.
of the Bartrams estate in 1868 as the site for the
North-western smallpox and fever hospital (also
known briefly as Hampstead hospital). (fn. 29) Because of
a sudden epidemic of relapsing fever, temporary
wooden and corrugated iron huts with 90 beds were
opened early in 1870, as England's first state hospital.
The hospital closed when the fever had subsided,
but reopened at the end of 1870 for an outbreak of
smallpox. The addition of a temporary building from
the grounds of the London fever hospital, Islington,
increased the number of beds to 450. Siting a hospital for infectious diseases in Hampstead aroused
great opposition, especially from Haverstock Hill
residents led by Sir Rowland Hill (d. 1879), whose
property, Bartram House, adjoined the hospital. A
select committee of the House of Commons supported the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1875 but
legal battles were settled out of court only in 1883,
when the board agreed to buy Bartram House and
3 a. from Sir Rowland's son and move the hospital
entrance from Haverstock Hill to Fleet Road. Bartram House was used as a nurses' home and committee rooms before being exchanged in 1901 for land
belonging to Hampstead General hospital (below).
A report in 1882 and a petition to parliament in
1884-5 finally caused the hospital to stop taking
smallpox cases from 1885 and to become a fever
hospital only. (fn. 30)
Work to turn the temporary buildings into a permanent hospital was started in 1876 (fn. 31) but was soon
halted by the legal proceedings. In 1884 a surveyor
suggested that the dilapidated buildings, six fever
and two smallpox pavilions linked by a long corridor
built c. 1878, with several ancillary buildings, almost
all of wood, might be replaced. The acquisition of
Sir Rowland's property, which included a field
stretching to the houses on the southern edge of
South End Green, permitted rebuilding in stages on
a larger scale. (fn. 32) Five wards were built on the vacant
land c. 1887, the original huts being replaced by 11
pavilions c. 1888 and 4 more later. (fn. 33) An administration and reception block was built 1893-5. (fn. 34) Some
houses in Lawn Road near the junction with Fleet
Road were bought in 1894 and made way for a new
ambulance station, opened in 1897. (fn. 35) Additional
buildings for isolation wards were built in 1913. (fn. 36)
An eight-bed clinic for the treatment of cancer by
radium was in use from 1928 until the hospital was
transferred to the L.C.C. in 1930; at that date the
hospital had 410 beds. (fn. 37) In 1948 it became the northwestern branch of the Royal Free teaching hospital
group, with c. 275 beds. (fn. 38) Infectious cases were
transferred to Coppetts Wood hospital, Hornsey. (fn. 39)
Plans to replace the Royal Free hospital, Gray's
Inn Road (St. Pancras), with a new building on the
site of the North-western fever hospital began in
1954 but only in 1968 did work begin on the building, which would replace the Royal Free group's
many scattered units. The new teaching hospital, on
a 15-a. site, was designed by Alexander Gray, and
the main structure was a cruciform tower of 18
storeys. It was opened in 1974 with 871 beds and became fully operational in 1975. Additional work, including the demolition of Hampstead General, was
completed c. 1978. (fn. 40)
Hampstead General hospital was founded in 1882
by Dr. W. Heath Strange as Hampstead Home Hospital and Nursing Institute in a house in Parliament
Hill Road, taking paying patients only. In 1885,
however, when funds were being raised, it was said
to have treated 174 patients, mostly poor, and was
designed for those who could not obtain care at home
but did not want to go into a public hospital. Qualified doctors attended their own patients in the hospital. Adjoining houses were added and by 1888 it
occupied nos. 2, 3, and 4 Parliament Hill Road;
charges ranged from 7s. to 5 guineas a week. In 1894
the hospital had 29 beds, in 11 wards of which 8
were free; four fifths of those treated were outpatients. (fn. 41) Hampstead Jubilee fund, 1897, financed
two beds for which Hampstead residents had
priority. (fn. 42) It was felt that the district needed a
general hospital, and in 1901 the site facing Hampstead Green was obtained and appeals were made. (fn. 43)
The hospital exchanged with the fever hospital part
of its land for Bartram House, which was demolished
in 1902, and a new building, designed by Keith
Downes Young, with 50 beds was opened on the site
in 1905. (fn. 44) In 1907 it had 60 beds, of which 35 were
in use, and treated 446 in-patients and 2,393 outpatients. (fn. 45) The same year another voluntary hospital,
North West London, nos. 18-24 Kentish Town
Road (St. Pancras), agreed to amalgamate with
Hampstead General, keeping the Kentish Town
building for out-patients. A new out-patients' department was opened at Bayham Street, Camden
Town, in 1912. (fn. 46) Changes in administration and
staffing brought complaints from the Hampstead
division of the B.M.A., whose members' role in
attending patients was replaced by consultants in the
enlarged hospital. Local doctors, who had already
protested at the transformation of the cottage hospital into a large general one, felt that a great metropolitan hospital had been created in an area where
most of the population could pay for medical attendance rather than attend a hospital. (fn. 47) Extensions were
made in 1929 with a new operating theatre, dispensary, and casualty department, and in 1936 with
X-ray, massage, and pathology departments. (fn. 48) In
1945 the hospital had 86 general beds, 31 special
beds, 21 pay beds, and 2 operating theatres, and
registered 90,000 out-patient visits; there had been a
waiting list of 200 in 1938. Amalgamation with
Hampstead Children's and the North-western fever
was suggested, to provide more beds for maternity
and chronic sick and allow New End to be closed. (fn. 49)
The plans were carried out by including Hampstead
General in the Royal Free group in 1948 and the
later removal to Hampstead of the Royal Free, which
then replaced Hampstead General. Accordingly
Hampstead General was demolished in 1975 and the
site used for a car park and a small garden dedicated
to Heath Strange. (fn. 50)
The workhouse and infirmary at New End became
a military hospital during the First World War, and
received such facilities as an X-ray unit and operating theatre. It was returned to the Hampstead
guardians after the war and was thenceforth called
New End hospital. In 1929 it was taken over by the
L.C.C. and in 1938 was a general municipal hospital
with 260 beds, including 26 for children and 19
maternity, and out-patients' and casualty departments. The premises were old and on a restricted
site, but the maternity beds in particular were much
needed. Management was taken over by the N.W.
regional hospital board in 1948, and the X-ray and
physiotherapy departments were enlarged. Thyroid
surgery was developed from 1932, attracting foreign
observers, and by 1955 the world's most modern
radio-active iodine isotope unit had been developed
in the basement. By 1958 it was under the Archway
group hospital management committee, with 221
beds for acute cases. In 1968 the hospital was transferred to the Royal Free teaching hospital group.
When the new Royal Free opened in Pond Street in
1974, New End, where a new geriatric unit had been
opened in 1972, was left as a geriatric hospital, with
143 beds in 1978 and 127 in 1985. The desire to close
it when facilities at Pond Street should be available,
first expressed in 1945, was reiterated with the opening of the Royal Free, and in 1986 plans were being
completed, amid much opposition. (fn. 51)
The North London (later Mount Vernon) Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest was
founded in 1860 in Fitzroy Square (St. Pancras), but
moved to an old house at Mount Vernon, Hampstead, in 1864, keeping an out-patients' clinic at no.
41 Fitzroy Square. Apart from two private beds, the
hospital took only patients who could not pay for
treatment. From 1898 it received grants from the
later King Edward's Fund. A building, designed by
T. Roger Smith in 17th-century French Renaissance
style, was built at Mount Vernon; the western block
with 34 beds was started in 1880 and the central
block was opened in 1893, making a total of 80 beds,
but only 60 were in use in 1898 owing to lack of
funds. A temporary extension was built in 1900 and
the eastern block was completed in 1903, making a
total of 140 beds. Mount Vernon House was leased
as a nurses' home. In 1904 a new Mount Vernon
hospital was opened at Northwood, where by 1913 it
was decided to concentrate its work. The Hampstead
building was taken over by the Medical Research
Council. (fn. 52)
Hampstead Children's hospital, Northcourt, no.
30 College Crescent, was founded in 1875 as the
Hospital and Home for Incurable Children, and
was probably the hospital at no. 2 Maida Vale
(Marylebone) in 1892. The children were aged up to
16 years. It was incorporated in 1902 and by 1907
had moved to Northcourt. The number of beds was
raised in 1910 from 45 to 56. From 1920, by which
time some curable cases were taken, the name was
changed to Northcourt hospital for sick children.
The number of beds was reduced again to 45 by
1938. During the Second World War the hospital
was temporarily closed but in 1948 it became part of
the Royal Free group and the children were treated
elsewhere; the building itself became the Royal
Free's preliminary training school. (fn. 53)
St. Columba's hospital or home of peace was
founded in 1885 as the Friedenheim hospital, after a
meeting at the home of a Dr. Schofield, and largely
at the expense of Frances Mary Davidson who became the honorary superintendent. It was intended
for poor people in the last stages of acute disease and
not chronic incurables, although their care did result
in some unexpected recoveries. By 1904 a committee
had been formed to run the home in place of Miss
Davidson. King Edward's Fund agreed to make
grants to the home from 1904 as its work relieved
other hospitals. It opened first at no. 133 Mildmay
Road, Islington, moving in 1892 to Sunnyside, no. 8
Upper Avenue Road (later no. 98 Avenue Road),
Swiss Cottage. In 1915 the name was changed to St.
Columba's. The home had 50 beds, but only c. 30
were in use in 1938 and 1953. In 1948 the home came
under the Paddington group hospital management
committee. It moved to the Elms, Spaniard's Road,
1957, where it had 35 beds, (fn. 54) but closed in 1981. (fn. 55)
Queen Mary's maternity home was founded by the
queen to use the residue of funds from Queen Mary's
Needlework Guild. The home, for the wives of
servicemen, opened in 1919 in temporary premises
at Cedar Lawn, North End Road, provided by Lord
Leverhulme, who also gave the site for the permanent building at Upper Heath, formerly the Upper
Flask inn. The home, with 16 beds, opened in 1922,
and patients were charged according to their means.
The queen made frequent visits, giving gifts to the
staff and her own crochet-work for the cots. She also
gave part of the cost of an additional ward and isolation section erected in 1929, bringing the number of
beds to 25, and further extensions c. 1937 brought
the number to 34 in 1938. In 1946, with demand increasing, the London hospital took over the home at
the suggestion of the queen, and under the National
Health Service Queen Mary's remained part of the
London hospital group, with 38 beds. In 1972 the
home was taken over by the Royal Free, which
closed the maternity unit c. 1975. (fn. 56) In 1986 the
building was used as a staff home and community
health offices.
Marie Curie hospital, for women cancer patients
and, exceptionally, staffed by women, was founded
in 1929 at no. 2 Fitzjohn's Avenue, with 30 beds.
After destruction in the Second World War, the hospital moved to no. 66 Fitzjohn's Avenue, formerly
an annexe of Westminster hospital, where it had 50
beds. It closed in 1967 because the accommodation
was unsuited to new developments in radiotherapy,
and the work was transferred to Mount Vernon hospital, Northwood. The building was demolished in
1969. (fn. 57)
The Hill, a 60-room mansion with 8 a. near North
End, was left by Lord Inverforth in 1956 to Manor
House hospital, Golders Hill, and as Inverforth
House became the women's section of the hospital,
with c. 100 beds, and a home for 60-70 nursing staff. (fn. 58)
The Tavistock clinic moved in 1967 to a purposebuilt five-storeyed building at the corner of Belsize
Lane and Fitzjohn's Avenue, gathering together departments from Devonshire and Beaumont streets
(Marylebone) and elsewhere. The building also
housed the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations
and the Child Guidance Training Centre, and provided training in psychology and psychiatry. The
Young People's Consultation Centre moved there
from King's College Road, Swiss Cottage, where it
had opened in 1962. (fn. 59)
Hampstead burial board, recently set up at the
instigation of the medical officer of health, bought
20 a. at Fortune Green in 1874 to form Hampstead
cemetery; c. 11 a. were consecrated in 1876, the remainder was left for non-Anglicans, and a chapel for
each portion, designed by Charles Bell in Gothic
style, straddled the division. A mortuary was also
built there. Another 5 a. were added in 1901 and part
was consecrated in 1906. The burial board was reincorporated into the vestry in 1896. (fn. 60) In 1889 Chesnut
[sic] House, New End, was bought as the site for a
mortuary for the town, the single-storeyed building
being built in 1890. It remained in use until c. 1968
and later became New End theatre. (fn. 61)
The first baths and washhouses for the public
were built by the Wells and Campden charity: 14
private baths, a laundry, and a drying-room were
opened in Palmerston Road, Kilburn, in 1887, and
9 baths, a laundry, and drying-room in Flask Walk
in 1888. (fn. 62) Though said to be very much appreciated
by the poor, they incurred such financial loss that in
1906 the charity threatened to close them. After
much argument over the price and a public inquiry,
the council leased the baths in 1908 at a nominal
rent. (fn. 63) The washhouses continued in use until the
1970s: Palmerston Road baths were closed in 1976
and demolished as part of the rebuilding of the area,
and Flask Walk baths were closed in 1978 and converted into private housing. (fn. 64)
The vestry opened its own baths in Finchley
Road, opposite the North Star, in 1888 in a building
designed by A. W. S. Cooper and Henry Spalding.
There were two swimming baths for men, one for
women, and 24 private baths; washhouses were not
required in that neighbourhood. Success led to the
opening of a second bath for women in 1891. (fn. 65) New
baths, a gymnasium, and squash and badminton
courts were built in 1963-4 with the library at
Avenue Road, Swiss Cottage, designed by Sir Basil
Spence. The Finchley Road building was used thereafter as a warehouse until destroyed by fire in 1972. (fn. 66)
Hampstead had 281 a. of open space in 1906,
covering 12.4 per cent of the borough. The greatest
part was formed by the heath and its extensions, lying on the north and east sides of the borough. The
M.B.W. acquired 240 a. of the heath in 1871, most
of it in Hampstead, and Golders Hill in 1898, of
which 4 a. lay in Hampstead. (fn. 67) Inside the southern
boundary of the parish lay 34 a. of Primrose Hill, (fn. 68)
acquired by the Crown in 1842. (fn. 69) The borough
council owned the remaining 3.5 a. of open space:
0.5 a. formed a playground in Lawn Road, opened
in 1887, and the rest lay in the western part of the
borough, which was badly provided for. West End
Green, 0.75 a., was acquired in 1885, and Fortune
Green, 2.25 a., was opened to the public in 1897,
both preserved as a result of local agitation. (fn. 70) Plans
from 1883 to provide Kilburn with a park resulted in
the creation of Queen's park (Willesden), (fn. 71) which
was too far away to benefit West Hampstead, where
the sale of Kilburn Grange in 1910 was thought to be
the last opportunity to acquire a substantial open
space. After much negotiation, the L.C.C. bought
8.5 a., reserving 7 a. for a park, which it maintained;
it paid just over a third of the purchase price, Hampstead contributed nearly another third, and the rest
came from Willesden U.D.C., Middlesex C.C., and
local contributions. (fn. 72) Hampstead Green was also
preserved as open space: in 1899 a lady bought the
green, then a paddock with fine trees belonging to
two adjoining houses, to give the vestry the chance
to take it over at little or no cost. In 1969 it was
handed over to the Royal Free hospital and in 1986
very little remained. (fn. 73)
In 1929 public open space totalled 337 a., 14.9
per cent of the borough, and private playing fields
covered another 36 a.; the percentage of open space
was well above the average for London of 9.7. (fn. 74) Even
so, Hampstead had only 3.7 a., compared with a
recommended 4 a., for each 1,000 of population. (fn. 75)
Despite the acquisition of small pieces of land in
garden squares and disused churchyards, most of
Hampstead remained poorly provided for, the heath
benefiting only the eastern part.