The Black Queen Coffee-house situated on Shacklewell Green had attached to it a bowling green and tea-gardens planted with fruit trees, yews, limes, and poplars. It is said to have been resorted to by “genteel company,” but little is known of it, except that in 1793 (when in possession of a Mr. Moore) the lease was advertised to be sold by auction (13th September, 1793).
[The Daily Advertiser for 3 September, 1793.]
IV
HAMPSTEAD GROUP
HAMPSTEAD WELLS
The outlet of the once famous spring of Hampstead is at the present time to be found on the north side of Well Walk, and the water now trickles out slowly into a basin, which forms part of a modern fountain. The earliest mention of the spring occurs in the time of Charles II. when one Dorothy Rippin appears to have made some profit by the sale of the water, as she issued a halfpenny token which has on its obverse the words, Dorothy Rippin at the Well in Hamsted, and a representation of a well and bucket.[185] The well was in 1698 on the estate of Susanna Noel and her son Baptist, third Earl of Gainsborough, and was given by them conjointly on 20th December of that year, together with six acres of land, for the benefit of the Hampstead poor. A tablet on the present fountain records this gift.
The first to draw attention to the medicinal value of the water, was a well-known physician, Dr. Gibbons,[186] who in the early part of the eighteenth century described it as being as fully efficacious as any chalybeate water in England.
In April 1700 the water was advertised as being of the same nature and virtue as that at Tunbridge Wells, and was sold by Phelps, an apothecary, at the Eagle and Child in Fleet Street, for threepence a flask. It was also obtainable from the lessee of the Wells at the Black Posts, King Street, near the Guildhall; at Sam’s Coffee House, Ludgate Hill, and at several other places in the City.
From this time there grew up around the spring various places of entertainment—a tavern[187] and coffee room, a bowling green and raffling shops, and, as will be presently seen, a chapel.
The chief building was the Great Room situated on the south side of Well Walk, about one hundred yards from the East Heath. It was a large house lit with long windows, and within its walls took place concerts and dances for the amusement of the Wells visitors up to 1733. The first recorded entertainment was given therein 1701 (18 August), when there was a “consort” of both vocal and instrumental music by the “best masters.” The performance began at ten o’clock in the morning, and dancing took place in the afternoon. The tickets for the dancing cost sixpence, and one shilling was charged for the concert. In September of the same year, another concert was given at eleven o’clock, at which one Jemmy Bowen sang and two men performed on the violin. There was dancing in the afternoon as usual. These performances were continued every Monday during the season. “Very good music for dancing all day long” was announced for 12 May, 1707, and on 22 July, 1710, a girl of nine, a pupil of Mr. Tenoe, sang several operatic songs, and this performance began at five for the “conveniency of gentlemen’s returning.” The admission was two shillings and sixpence.
