For some time after the date of this indenture, the project seems to have remained in abeyance, but in the Postman of April 16 and 20, 1700, an advertisement appears, stating that the Hampstead chalybeate waters are ‘so highly approved by the most eminent physicians, that they are by direction of the trustees of the Wells aforesaid, for the convenience of those who yearly drink them in London, carefully bottled up in flasks, and sent to Mr. Phelps, Apothecary, at the Eagle and Child in Fleet Street every morning at the rate of 3d. per flask, and if any persons desire to have them brought to their houses, they will be conveyed to them upon leaving a note at Mr. Phelps’, aforesaid, at 1d. a flask more.’ Here we have the origin of the names given to the two taverns of Upper and Lower Flask, and of the Walk in the vicinity of the latter. It is further stated that ‘the true waters are nowhere else to be procured, unless they are sent for to the Wells, Hampstead.’
An advertisement in the same newspaper (August 27 and 29 of this year) sets forth that:
‘By order of the Trustees of Hampstead Mineral Waters, These are to certify that the Widow Keys is discharged from the Wells, and carries no more of the said waters, the Trustees now only employing Mr. Adams, a potter at Holborn Bars, to deliver out the said mineral waters. If any other person pretends to bring Hampstead waters, they (the purchasers) are desired to try them, so that they be not cheated. Also, the Trustees will let the said waters, with six acres of land, by lease or yearly rent. Such as desire to treat about the same, may meet the Trustees at Craddock’s Coffee-house, Hampstead, every Saturday from 10 to 12 o’clock in the morning untill the 29th of September next.’
This same month and year, in the Court Rolls of Hampstead, it is ordered that ‘the Spring by the purging Well be forthwith brought into the town of Hampstead, at the parish charge, and yt ye money and profit arising thereout be applied to the easing of the poors’ rates hereafter to be made.’
In the early part of 1701, we find the advertisement of the letting of the Wells, and the land attached to them, reappearing in the Postman, with the effect of attracting a lessee; for soon after we read of the Wells dwelling-house and tavern, the latter with a very fair bowling-green attached, without which no gentleman of the period would have been pleasurably provided for. Subsequently, tea and coffee rooms and a dancing-room were added, and the new watering-place is announced as ready to receive company.
May was the pleasant month in which the water-drinking season primitively began, though later on, from June till Michaelmas, was considered the best time for taking them. An old advertisement of the opening of the season reads as follows:
‘These are to acquaint all persons that have occasion to drink Hampstead waters that the Wells will be opened on Monday next, being the 11th of May, with very good music for dancing, and will continue every Monday during the season for water-drinking, and there is complete accommodation for water-drinkers of both sexes with accomodation of a very good bowling-green, and very good stabling and coach-house.’[231]
There is a vagueness in the phrasing of this notice that leaves a doubt whether it is the Wells or the music that will continue every Monday, but from other sources we learn that ‘very good music for dancing went on all day long every Monday during the season.’
Dr. Gibbons, who resided at Hampstead, was the first physician who encouraged the drinking of the waters, setting a practical example himself, and continuing in it till his death (1725). Others of his profession supported the opinion of their excellence, and the sale of them in London, as well as their local use, seems to have largely increased in consequence. Instead of one or two agents, the advertisements set forth that, being approved by the most eminent physicians, the said mineral water continues to be brought fresh from Hampstead Wells every day to Mr. Adams, Glass-seller, near Holborn Bars; to Mr. Cresset’s at the Sugar-loaf at Charing Cross; to Nando’s Coffee-house,[232] near Temple Bar; to Sam’s Coffee-house, near Ludgate; to the Salmon in Stock’s Market; and by Mr. Pratt to the Greyhound in King Street, Bloomsbury; to Howe’s Coffee-house in Cheapside by the Half-moon Tavern, and to the Black Posts, Fleet Street.
At this time there was no lack of small but pleasant lodgings to be had in South End, and on the Lower and Upper Heath, weather-boarded structures for the most part of the cottage species, some of which survived till our own time in the Vale of Health and about Squire’s Mount; one of the ancient customs of the Manor of Hampstead being that the tenants of their own free will might ‘let, sell, take down, or remove any of their tenements without any fine or forfeiture to or for the same to the lord,’ a custom that greatly facilitated the raising of inexpensive removable dwellings.