Further up on the other side is St. Stephen's Church, which differs very much from the ordinary church of the last half-century. It stands well, surrounded by an enclosure of green grass, on a spot formerly called Hampstead Green. The best view is obtained from Lyndhurst Road. Just below it is the entrance to the immense buildings of the North-Western Hospital. The brick wall encloses a house and front-garden at one time belonging to Sir Rowland Hill. This site was acquired by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1868, and was destined to be used for cases of infectious disease, a plan which provoked the greatest agitation in the parish. In 1870 a severe epidemic of small-pox broke out, and some wards were hastily built in addition to those which had already been used for fever patients. As this was followed by an outbreak of small-pox in the parish, the parishioners very naturally wished the hospital to be removed, but without result. In 1876 another outbreak and a further congregation of patients had the same result, and after a long and protracted fight the inhabitants of Hampstead obtained a verdict preventing the Asylums Board from using the hospital for small-pox, though fever cases were not prohibited. In 1882 a Royal Commission inquired into the facts regarding the spread of disease from hospitals, and gave as their decision that thirty or forty patients might safely be treated when a larger number would be injurious to the neighbourhood. The Asylums Board eventually came to terms, agreeing to restrict the hospital cases of small-pox to the number mentioned, to pay the plaintiffs' costs, and an additional £1,000 by way of damages; but they demanded that Sir Rowland's property should be sold to them.
The terms were accepted, and the hospital henceforth was known as the North-Western Hospital. In 1884 another epidemic of small-pox caused them to fill the limited number of beds agreed upon, but as this also was followed by an outbreak of the disease in Hampstead, a fresh appeal was made by the local authorities, and ended in victory, no more small-pox patients being received. The hospital was in full use during the scarlet fever epidemic of 1888.
Close by the entrance to the hospital is an ancient inn, The George. It has been repaired and renovated, but still shows its picturesquely ancient lines. In front of the inn there used to be tea-gardens. A convent of the Sisters of Providence is not far south. Looking up Haverstock Hill from Chalk Farm there is an almost unbroken line of greenery. Moderate-sized houses stand back on either side in their gardens.
The Load of Hay was originally a very old inn, but has been rebuilt recently, and is now a hideous yellow-brick public-house, with date 1863. Just opposite the Load of Hay lived Sir Richard Steele, in a picturesque two-storied cottage, already mentioned. The cottage was later divided into two, and in 1867 was pulled down.
Park Road is a long thoroughfare of no particular interest. At the north end a range of red-brick, wide-windowed buildings attract attention. These are studios, occupied by some of the artists for which Hampstead is famous; among the names perhaps that of W. Q. Orchardson, R.A., is the best known. Beyond are the London Street Tramway Companies stables, and to the north and east we get into a district very poor and slummy for such a fresh, pleasant suburb as Hampstead.
The Fleet Road recalls the Fleet River, which had origin among the hills of Hampstead and flowed down over this course. The hospital wall lines one side of this dreary street. At the upper end, where two or three roads meet, there is a fountain and pump, and this open space is known as the Green and Pond Street. Pond Street seems to have alternately encroached upon and receded from the Green, houses being named in one or the other according to fancy. The street is steep and irregularly built. It was about this site that some of the first houses in Hampstead were built.
On the south-east side of the lane which leads to the hospital Sir Sydney Godolphin Osborne resided. Sir Rowland Hill has been already mentioned. Prince Talleyrand stayed in a house afterwards occupied by Sir Francis Palgrave, and later by Teulon the architect. In the adjoining house was Edward Irving, founder of the sect of that name, and next to him the sculptor Bacon. Collins the artist also lived in Pond Street. In No. 21 there is at present an Industrial Home for Girls.
Adelaide Ward contains very little that is of interest. The streets are all of one pattern, formed of detached or semi-detached villas standing a little back from the road, with small trees growing before them.
The three churches in this part—namely, St. Paul's, Avenue Road; All Souls, Loudoun Road; and St. Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill Road—all date from the last thirty or forty years, and are in the same style, built of brick, and requiring no special notice.
Primrose Hill rises to the height of 216 feet in a conical shape, and commands a magnificent view. The earliest name was Barrow Hill, and the name Primrose Hill was first used in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; it originated, it is said, from the quantity of primroses which grew here. Professor Hales, in an address to the Hampstead Antiquarian and Historical Society, quoted from the "Roxburgh Ballads," printed about 1620: