Hampstead Heath and the Hill Garden

On a chilly 18th January 2025, nine of us met at Stratford Station to catch the newly named Mildmay Line (ex Overground) to Hampstead Heath Station, and Kathy & Brian met us en route.

This was a re-run of last year’s August walk since the rain had put some off then, but the cold evidently wasn’t such a deterrent for EFOGers, though unlike in August, there were no signs of swimmers in the ponds today.

Hampstead Heath Kenwood 250118 artKenwood HouseWe passed to the left of the ponds and followed the paths heading for Vale of Health Pond 2.

Following a path just to the left of VH Pond 2 we headed for Whitestone Pond with Hampstead Observatory virtually next to it. Just beyond the Pond is Jack Straw’s Castle – not named after the Labour MP, but a leader of the 14th C Peasants’ Revolt – it used to be a pub, frequented by Karl Marx, Dickens et al, but alas is now converted to flats.

Beyond the Castle we turned left towards West Heath, then shortly right to arrive at the Hill Garden and Pergola, a lovely oasis in the woods, which we wandered through. In August we’d kept to the Pergola and hadn’t realised we could actually walk through some of the gardens themselves.

Hampstead Heath Parliament Hill 250118 artThe group at Parliament HillWe then headed down to the Old Bull & Bush pub, immortalised in music hall song, which Kathy and others gave a brief rendition of. Turning alongside that we headed towards the main Hampstead Heath, passing Blue plaques for William Blake (poet) and Sir Raymond Unwin (architect and designer of Hampstead Garden Suburb).

Entering the Heath, we headed for Kenwood House and the café. When we had almost finished our food a couple of pigeons started pestering, but then in a Hitchcock like scene several went for the food on a neighbouring table where two people were still eating, and within seconds there were about 20 pigeons on and around the table.

Leaving the café we headed for Parliament Hill and a slightly misty view over London. En route we passed a group encouraging birdwatching and lending binoculars, then a little further on we saw 3 cormorants in a tree overlooking a pond.

Just before arriving back at the station after about a 5 mile walk we did a quick detour into the ‘World Peace Garden’, a small urban wooded garden area backing onto the railway and adorned near the entrance with prayers and poems.

Richard.  19th January 2025