Hampstead Heath in winter
Looking east from Parliament Hill Fields, with Highgate Hill in the distance.
Hampstead Heath in winter
Looking east from Parliament Hill Fields, with Highgate Hill in the distance.
Situated mostly on high ground in North London, with excellent views over the city, Hampstead Heath is one of London's best known open spaces. It covers over 300 hectares, if all of the adjoining parkland sites are counted, as it is often is by the public.
The Heath lies mostly between the old town centres of Hampstead and Highgate. It reaches almost to Finchley and Golders Green to the north, and almost to Tufnell Park to the southeast. Much of it is in its original pre-industrial condition, without having been cultivated or significantly improved as parkland.It can be reached from a number of roads, including
Adjoining areas, managed as part of Hampstead Heath, but separated from Hampstead Heath proper by public roads, include Sandy Heath, West Heath and Heathlands, Whitestone Gardens, and Hampstead Heath Extension. All of these are on the northwest side of the main body of the heath.
Kenwood House Grounds, is contiguous with the heath. Though it is under separate management, is freely open during daylight hours, and is considered by most users to be part of the heath.The heath extends from the south of Kenwood House Grounds. On the east it borders Highgate, and to the south-east it includes Parliament Hill. It is hilly terrain, generally descending from high points in the north and west at Hampstead, to low points in the south and east, at Gospel Oak.
Most of it is either natural heathland and woodland, or is managed to resemble this. However, some of it at Parliament Hill Fields is parkland, with athletics tracks, sports fields, and ornamental ground,s at its southern parts.The western part of Hampstead Heath includes the Vale of Health, some of which has been built up.Hampstead Heath is on naturally poor and acid sands, and hence it was not important for agriculture. Like many other such sites, it was saved from development by local residents in the 19th century who wanted to preserve its naturalistic landscape. This tradition has continued, in spite of its increased use for recreation. Hence the core of the heath contains little in the way of formal plantings or made features. It often also lacks what may considered basics amenities elsewhere such as tarmac paths and signs to guide the visitor. By contrast, it includes meadows, woodland, scrub and heathland. It also has some natural habitats, including ancient woodland, bogs, and streams.
There are a number of ponds and lakes on the heath.
On the eastern side of the heath, and adjoining Parliament Hill there are a set of ponds in a valley between Hampstead Heath and Highgate Hill - the 'Highgate Ponds'. The Highgate Ponds include bathing and boating ponds, and other ponds that mainly support wildlife.Other ponds are found further west, including the series of ponds called the Hampstead Ponds, one of which is also a bathing pond.
Parliament Hill Fields has a lido, situated near the other sports facilities.Some of the ponds have long been used for swimming despite being being soil lined ponds, fed by natural water, and not chlorinated, as is generally required by modern standards. In recent years an attempt by the heath's management to close these to bathing on safety and cost grounds met strong opposition, and the closure was eventually abandoned. Swimming in these natural ponds is the only permitted surviving practice of bathing in natural ponds in London. This was originally practised in many park ponds during the 19th century, when household washing facilities were relatively scarce. In most cases, this was banned as public baths and lidos were built in the late 19th and early 20th century.
There are a number of good viewpoints on Hampstead Heath, giving views over much of London. Among these are these points;
There is a lot of attractive natural scenery within the heath, but this changes with the seasons. Much will emerge in a walk across the heath.
The heath was part of the Manor of Hampstead. From 1829, efforts were made to enclose it by the then Lord of the Manor; this needed a bill to be passed in parliament. These proposals met with much opposition, within parliament and outside it. A series of such bills were proposed and defeated through the nineteenth century, till in 1871, the then Lord of the Manor agreed to sell part of it to the Metropolitan Board of Works. Other adjacent areas were added in later decades. The last of the areas to be added was The Hill Garden, in 1960.
Hampstead Heath is mostly naturalistic landscape, and is an important wildlife resource. It probably has the greatest wildlife diversity of any of London's larger open spaces. There are several Sites of Special Scientific Interest on the heath. Further information can be found at the visitor centre.
Much of the management of the heath is aimed at maintaining both this wildlife value, and also its naturalistic character. An example is that dead and fallen trees are usually left to rot where they are. In addition, in some areas, dead branches are used to form natural barricades to stop human incursion under trees, or into wooded areas.Despite efforts to maintain its rural character, visitors will find signs of urbanisation in most places, even apart from the deliberately 'improved' parts. For instance, exotic trees, including quite intrusive copper beeches, can be found in several places, though mostly on the fringes and adjoining the surrounding roads.
Hampstead Heath is managed by the City of London, including much of the adjoining parkland, (apart from Kenwood House Grounds). Contact the Parliament Hill office, on 020 7845 4491, or the Heath constabulary on 020 8340 5260.
Visitors walking across the Heath will find no signs or other directional information once they are away from the entrances. The standard advice is to take a map if they are in danger of getting lost. Other visitors will generally be happy to give directions.