Hampstead and Marylebone

by G. E. Mitton

The Wells and Campden Charity, originating in the Gainsborough bequest of the well and six acres of land in Well Walk. In 1642 Lady Campden bequeathed £200 to trustees to purchase land for the poor of the parish, and to this other legacies were added. Freehold land was purchased at Child's Hill, and in 1855 the distribution of the money was reorganized.

The oldest parish benefactor was Thomas Charles, who in 1617 left money to buy bread for the poor of the parish. The bread is still bought and distributed. Various other bequests of small amounts were made from time to time. About 1723 the then Bishop of London, John Robinson, left £169 odd for the poor.

The succeeding bequests were below this in value until 1771, when William Pierce, a surgeon, left the interest on £1,700 in 3 per cents. to endow a Friday evening lecture, to pay the parish clerk and others for attendance, and to buy Bibles and Prayer-Books. John Stock's Charity produces nearly £80 per annum for the clothing and education of poor children. The next in importance was Thomas Rumsey's gift of £900, the interest on which was to buy coals for the poor. The other bequests are too numerous and too small in amount to mention.

The origin of the name of Frognal is not known, though the locality is of some importance, as it contained the old manor-house where the Courts Leet were held. The demesne lands at Frognal occupied from four to five hundred acres of the best land stretching from Child's Hill to Belsize. The old manor-house, which stood at the north-east corner of West End Lane, was a long, low farmhouse building which contained a big hall. Mr. Pool, a lessee, pulled it down and built a brick house on the site, and, later, built a small house on the south side of the lane, where he went to live himself. The Courts followed him, and were held there. There are now on the site of the ancient manor-house two buildings side by side; the one to which the ancient title has descended appears the more modern. The Ferns next door looks older, in spite of Howitt's assertion that the manor-house built by Mr. Pool is the same now bearing the name, and The Ferns occupies the site of the former manor-house. There are numerous substantial and comfortable houses in the vicinity. Frognal Hall, near the west end of the church, was the residence of Isaac Ware, architect, and here Lord Alvanley died.

To the north-west are a row of new buildings, forming a crescent on the hill called Oakhill Park, and to one of these Miss Florence Nightingale is a frequent visitor during the summer months. At the top of Frognal Gardens the Editor of this survey lived. Returning again to West End Lane, we find the hand of the modern builder everywhere apparent. Until recently a mock antique erection in the Gothic style known as Frognal Priory formed a feature in the landscape; this has quite disappeared. It was built by a dealer in curios known as "Memory" Thompson about the end of the eighteenth century, and was full of curiosities. The owner was pleased to have visitors to inspect his property, and it is said that one of his freaks was to leave five-shilling pieces lying about for them to pick up. Lower down the Frognal Road all is modern, and we come into the part formerly known as Shepherd's or Conduit Fields. There was a spring here which used to be the principal source of the Hampstead water-supply. The water was carried in pails by persons who thus earned a livelihood. An old woodcut of this well is still extant; it is represented as a spring with an arch over it. The building of Fitz-John's Avenue, cutting right through the fields, quite destroyed their character, and they are now more or less covered with streets.

Rosslyn House, which stood between Wedderburn and Lyndhurst Roads, deserves a word of mention as one of the latest of the famous old Hampstead houses to be destroyed. It was originally called Shelford House, but changed its name when it became the property of Alexander Wedderburn, first Earl of Rosslyn, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, 1793. It was noted for its magnificent avenue of Spanish chestnuts said to have been planted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Elizabethan relics have been found in the vicinity. The grounds are now cut up and let for building purposes. Woodlands, another fine large house, is also shorn of its glory, roads having been driven through its leafy gardens.

West End Ward embraces that portion of Hampstead which is limited by the Hampstead junction railway on the south and the Finchley Road on the east.

West End still preserves the character of a little hamlet, though surrounded on all sides by new streets. The name arose from its being the western terminus of the demesne lands. The small triangular bit of green at the junction of Fortune Green and Mill Lanes preserves its rural aspect, with two little tumbledown, creeper-covered cottages overlooking it, though it will probably before long suffer from the plague of red brick. To the south there is a line of buildings and shops, with a few—a very few—of older date wedged in between the new ones. West End Hall, a square red-brick house of respectable antiquity, stands back behind a rather dilapidated wooden palisade, but a row of magnificent elms lines the street before it. Beyond it are one or two other houses in their own grounds. Here a fair was formerly held annually on July 26 and two following days.

Mill Lane was formerly Shoot-up-Hill Lane, a name now absorbed by a portion of the northern road into which it runs on the west. The present name is derived from a mill which stood in the Edgware Road, and was burnt in 1861, owing to the friction caused by the high velocity of the sails in a gale of wind. A building called Kilburn Mill still marks the western end of the lane, though it is in a dilapidated condition, with the windows broken. Mill Lane was widened by the Vestry, and now runs between rows of small houses, all of modern date. At the top of Aldred Road is a big brick building, the Field Lane Boys' Industrial School. At the corner of the same road stood an unpretentious little church, built in 1871; it has been pulled down in the last few years. A little further eastward in Mill Lane is a national school looking rather like a chapel, and then we come to the Green again.

There is little in Fortune Green Lane that calls for comment. On the west side it is completely lined with small new houses. The Green at the top still remains open for the geese to hiss and cackle over at their will. The Hampstead cemetery lies on the north. This consists of about 20 acres of land, and two-thirds of it was consecrated by the Bishop of London in 1876, the remainder being left unconsecrated. A smooth drive runs down between close-shaven turf, and is lined by rows of singularly uniform monuments, of which two-thirds are in the form of marble crosses. The chapel, with its two wings for Church of England and Nonconformists, connected by a pointed spire and tower, stands across the central drive as an archway. There is a different kind of fascination in this well-kept, quiet spot from that derived from the irregularity of sloping Highgate or the monstrous tombs and overpowering vaults at Kensal Town. There are many persons buried here whose names are known to those of their own country and time, but none of any world-wide note. Maas the singer is perhaps the most important among them. We have now commented on the principal parts of the ward, except the great eastern and western roads by which it is bounded.