Tag Archives: hampstead

A GARDEN IN HAMPSTEAD WITH A FASCINATING  HISTORY AND WONDERFUL PLANTS

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GAINSBOROUGH GARDENS IS a cul-de-sac that leads southeast from Hampstead’s Well Walk, not far from one of the former homes of the artist John Constable. Houses are arranged around an attractive sloping oval garden, which was once part of the grounds of Hampstead’s once famous, now defunct, spa water centre and resort – the lost since demolished Long Room, which I have described this in my book “Beneath a Wide Sky: Hampstead and its Environs” as follows:

“These extensive premises were demolished in 1882 to make way for an estate of residential buildings. The former Pump Room and Assembly Room occupied a plot that is bounded by Well Walk, East Heath Road, and Gainsborough Gardens. Present day Gainsborough Gardens runs around an oval open space, which is shown as a pond in the gardens of the former Pump Rooms on an 1866 map. The pond was later filled in.

At the corner of Gainsborough Gardens and Well Walk, there is a tall building with attractive neo gothic windows. This was built in about 1704. Next to this house, but separated from it by Gainsborough Gardens, stands Wellside, a house built in 1892 on the site of the Pump Room.”

Yesterday, the 10th of April 2024, we visited Gainsborough Gardens with a friend of ours who introduced us to the friendly and highly informative couple, Adrian and Lynn, who look after the common garden within the oval. They had been the gardeners employed by the renowned pianist Katharina Wolpe (1931-2013), who had taken a great interest in the planting and planning of the oval garden. She had lived in Wellside, the house mentioned above. The gardeners told us that when she died, according to her wishes, she had bequeathed the plants in her garden to them, and they have since planted many of them in the oval garden.

Another famous person resided in Gainsborough Gardens. We were informed. That the author John le Carré (1931-2020) had lived in a house on the southwest part of the oval. As yet, there is no commemorative plaque for either him or Katharina Wolpe. According to Wikipedia, other notable residents of the Gardens included:

“ The family of songwriter Gary Osborne … The women’s suffrage campaigner Elizabeth Knight … The historian Bernard M. Allen … The Labour MP Arthur Greenwood … The former Governor of Northern Nigeria, George Sinclair Browne … Archibald Chisholm, the oil executive and former editor of the Financial Times … CE Maurice, who helped preserve Parliament Hill Fields and limit the expansion of construction onto nearby Hampstead Heath.”

Gainsborough Gardens, despite being a private ‘road’, is freely open to the public, and its centrally located garden is a delight to see.

[My book about Hampstead is available as a paperback and Kindle from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BENEATH-WIDE-SKY-HAMPSTEAD-ENVIRONS/dp/B09R2WRK92 ]

Taking the scenic route from St Pauls cathedral to Paddington

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ONE AFTERNOON IN April (2024), out of curiosity we travelled by bus number 46 from Smithfield to Paddington station instead of taking the much faster Underground train route. As we proceeded along the whole route of the number 46 bus, we realised that it links several places of interest to both Londoners and visitors to the city.

The 46 starts within easy walking distance of the BARBICAN CENTRE, SMITHFIELD MARKET, ST BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT, and THE LONDON MUSEUM. Also, its first stop outside ST BARTHOLOMEWS HOSPITAL is not far from ST PAULS CATHEDRAL.

When the bus gets moving, you will soon pass the ornate Victorian HOLBORN VIADUCT and HATTON GARDEN – famed for its diamond merchants. Next, you will see the Victorian gothic PRUDENTIAL BUILDING and before turning on to Grays Inn Road, you will see a row of half-timbered houses – some of the only PRE-FIRE OF LONDON survivors. Much of the west side of Greys Inn Road is lined with the buildings of GREYS INN – one of London’s four historic Inns of Court.

KINGS CROSS STATION and the magnificent Victorian gothic ST PANCRAS STATION are the next things to look out for. You could leave the bus here to explore the new developments around Kings Cross including COAL DROP YARD and KINGS PLACE hall and events centre. If you remain on the bus, you will head north past the ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE to the not over attractive KENTISH TOWN. At CAMDEN ROAD STATION, you will not be far from the REGENTS CANAL and the popular CAMDEN MARKET.

Heading northwards, the 46 reaches Fleet Road in south Hampstead, which is a short walk from the famous Modernist ISOKON BUILDING in Lawn Road. You could disembark at South End Green and visit Mirko to enjoy refreshments in his small MATCHBOX CAFÉ. HAMPSTEAD HEATH is a few minutes’ walk away. If you remain on the bus, you will pass the ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL and next to it, the Victorian gothic ST STEPHENS CHURCH designed by SS Teulon.

The bus then heads up Rosslyn Hill into the heart of historic HAMPSTEAD, where there is plenty for the visitor to explore. Then, the 46 descends the steep Fitzjohns Avenue to Swiss Cottage. Just before it reaches there, look out for the statue of SIGMUND FREUD at the southern end of the Tavistock Institute. The house where Freud lived, now THE FREUD MUSEUM, is close by.

After passing St Johns Wood Station with its several scraggly palm trees, the bus winds its way through streets near Maida Vale until it reaches Warwick Avenue Underground station. Descend here to walk to the REGENTS CANAL near to where it enters the scenic LITTLE VENICE.

Soon, after passing beneath the elevated WESTWAY, the 46 heads for its last stop, which is on a bridge from which you can get a good view of the wonderful glass and ironwork roof of PADDINGTON STATION – a masterpiece of Victorian engineering.  From Paddington, there are a few bus routes that will allow you to continue your London sightseeing.

Taking the plunge in a cold bath at Kenwood in north London

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I HAVE VISITED Kenwood House and its grounds innumerable times since my childhood, but it was only today (the 21st of March 2024) that I have been able to enter a part of it that has always been locked up whenever I have been there before. I am referring to a small building known as “The Bath House”. It is close to the courtyard where there are tables and chairs for visitors to use while enjoying refreshments.

A short staircase leads down to the door of the Bath House, which was probably already in existence when the Mansfields bought Kenwood and its grand house in 1754. The interior of the small edifice contains a circular pool. The wall around the marble-lined pool has several alcoves, and the concave ceiling is a plastered circular dome. What can be seen today is that is a faithful reconstruction of what had been there originally.

The pool used to be filled with cold water from one of the many iron-rich chalybeate springs in the area. In the 18th century, the chalybeate springs in nearby Hampstead were almost as famous and as much visited as those in Royal Tunbridge Wells (in Kent). The inhabitants of Kenwood House used to plunge themselves into the cold water because it was considered to be beneficial for health reasons in the 18th century.

It was only the select few who had the luxury of taking the plunge in such an elegant pool as can be seen in Kenwood. The other locals living in Hampstead had to make do with bathing in the many ponds that can still be seen dotted around Hampstead Heath. Within Kenwood House today, we saw a painting by John Constable (1776-1837) that depicts one of these ponds being used by bathers. For many years, the artist lived in Hampstead.

Small though it is, it was exciting to see within the Bath House at long last. For many decades, I have wondered what was within it, and now my curiosity has been satisfied.

WHERE ONCE THERE WAS A PUB IN HAMPSTEAD THERE IS NOW A SUPERMARKET

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HAMPSTEAD IS RICH in historical curiosities. One of them is an unexceptional little road that has an interesting story.

Just south of Tesco’s supermarket (the former Express Dairy) on Hampstead’s Heath Street there is a narrow cul-de-sac called Yorkshire Grey Place. It enters Heath Street across the road from The Horseshoe pub and Oriel Place. I have often wondered about this short, uninviting blind-ended lane and its history. Just under 50 yards in length, it runs west from Heath Street.

At long last, I began looking on the Internet for some history (if any) of this bleak little roadway lined on both sides with high buildings. It gets its name from a pub that used to exist near it – The Yorkshire Grey. The pub was already in existence by 1723, but was demolished in the 1880s (https://londonwiki.co.uk/Middlesex/Hampstead/YorkshireGrey.shtml) – in 1886, according to FE Baines in his “Records of Hampstead” (publ. 1890). An online history of Hampstead (www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp15-33) provided the following information about the pub and its surroundings:

“North of Church Row the Yorkshire Grey had been built by 1723 and cottages called Evans Row probably faced it c. 1730. In 1757 the inn and 14 houses occupied by a brickmaker, clockmaker, carpenter, apothecary, and others were ‘late freehold’ but in 1762 they were described as copyhold (one alehouse, two houses, and 11 cottages).”

This area was one of the slums of Hampstead – it was devoid of water supply and drainage.

During the planning and construction of Fitzjohns Avenue, which began in 1875 and was only completed by about 1887, there was some discussion about whether it should end on the High Street or give direct access to the road up to Hampstead Heath. Prior to the late 1880s, the recently built Avenue stopped south of Hampstead village. Its route from there into the centre of Hampstead village was subject to some controversy. This was described in “Hampstead, Building a Borough 1650-1964” by FML Thomson, as follows:

“… The shopkeepers in the High Street feared loss of trade if any traffic was diverted to a new route, and held out for a scheme which would debouch Fitzjohn’s Avenue into High Street at the King William IV ; while the gentry wanted the direct route to Heath Street and the Heath, arguing that this gave a bit of slum clearance of Bradley’s Buildings, Yorkshire Grey Yard, and Bakers’ Row as a bonus. The dissension continued when the scheme was revived with a number of public meetings in 1881, dominated by the gentry element which was increasingly exasperated at having its carriages bottled up in Fitzjohn’s Avenue without any proper exit.”

As it turned out, the “gentry element” had their way, and the slum clearance that affected Yorkshire Grey Yard was carried out – the pub disappeared as a result. In relation to this, the online history of Hampstead, already quoted revealed:

“In 1883 the Metropolitan Street Improvement Act authorized redevelopment of the whole area at the joint expense of the local authority and M.B.W. In 1888 High Street was widened, Fitzjohn’s Avenue (then Greenhill Road) was extended to meet Heath Street, and soon afterwards Crockett’s Court, Bradley’s Buildings, and other slums, including Oriel House and other tenemented houses, were replaced by Oriel Place, shops, and tenement blocks.”

The pub has long gone, but I managed to find two pictures depicting it. One is a painting showing the place in about 1863 (https://artuk.org/discover/artists/lester-harry). It was the work of Harry Lester. The other is a black and white photograph in the book by FE Baines, which was published a year after the pub was demolished. A detailed map surveyed in 1868 showed that the pub was quite a large building with a substantial yard next to its east facing façade. To its west, the yard opened on Little Church Row (now part of Heath Street). This and a blind-ending road called Yorkshire Grey Yard are shown on the map. Immediately south of the pub, there was another cul-de-sac running from east to west – it was unnamed. I believe that this is what is now called Yorkshire Grey Place.

The map drawn in 1868 shows the layout of the area around today’s branch of Tescos before Fitzjohn’s Avenue was conceived. Another map drawn in 1915 shows how the topography of the area changed following the completion of the Avenue. The Yorkshire Grey pub existed before the nearby, still existing, Horseshoe pub was established – it appears on the 1915 map. Originally named ‘The Three Horseshoes’, it moved from Hampstead High Street to its present address in 1890. Had the Yorkshire Grey pub survived, it would have been about 110 feet away from the Horseshoe.

Once again, wondering what is in a name – in this case Yorkshire Grey Place – has opened my eyes to an interesting bit of the history of Hampstead. Finally, it is interesting to note that the Victorian building that houses Tesco’s was built in 1889 – three years after the Yorkshire Grey pub was demolished to make way for buildings along the northern continuation of Fitzjohns Avenue. So, next time you are queuing to pay in Hampstead’s Tesco, remember that you are standing on land where once the patrons of the Yorkshire Grey once trod.

You can read much more about Hampstead and its surroundings in my book, which is available from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/BENEATH-WIDE-SKY-HAMPSTEAD-ENVIRONS/dp/B09R2WRK92/

An oil painting hanging on a wall in a café in Hampstead

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EVERY TIME I VISIT Hampstead, I feel pleasant twinges of nostalgia not only because I was brought up in the area but also because of my associations with the place after childhood. One place, which still exists, and has done so since it first opened in 1963, is Louis Patisserie on Heath Street. Originally, its shop sign bore the words “Louis Hungarian Patisserie” because it had been established by a Hungarian called Louis Permayer.

Sometime in 1970 or maybe the following year, I took a young lady, who is now my wife, to Hampstead on our ‘first date’. We had a genteel afternoon rendezvous at Louis. My wife remembers that she had coffee, and that it had been served with a separate bowl containing freshly whipped cream. Back in those days and for many years afterwards, Louis, with its wood-panelled walls, seemed to me to have a ‘touch of class’ as well as being evocative of Central Europe. The cakes and other baked items they used to sell were all good quality versions of what you might expect to find in a ‘Konditorei’ in Vienna or a ‘Cukrászda’ in Budapest.

Today (the 26th of February 2024), it was windy and extremely cold when we got off the bus in Hampstead. For old time’s sake, we entered Louis to warm up with hot beverages. Louis has long since changed hands, but the wood-panelling and several other original features still remain. However neither the hot beverages nor the patisserie items were of the same high quality as they used to be long ago. There are now other places in Hampstead where both the coffee and the food are superior to what is available at Louis, but none of these places bring back happy memories.

High on the end wall of the sitting area within Louis, there is a large, framed painting of a pond with buildings along one side of it. These are reflected in the water. In the foreground, three figures are depicted fishing with rods. The picture is painted with muted colours, or, possibly, the colours have faded since it was completed. Despite having visited Louis on numerous occasions, I had never looked at the painting properly until today. At the lower left corner of the painting, there is the artist’s name and a date:

“DC Towner 1972”

The artist was the painter and ceramics expert Donald Chisholm Towner (1903-1985). For many years, he was a resident of Hampstead, as this biography ( www.barnebys.co.uk/auctions/lot/donald-chisholm-towner-SrpyTddupt ) explains:

“… Towner was born at Eastbourne and studied at Eastbourne and Brighton schools of art and at the Royal College of Art under William Rothenstein 1923-1927. He moved to Hampstead in 1927 where he lived until his death and produced many paintings of the area and residents. D.C. Towner showed at the RA, Burgh House, NEAC etc.”

William Rothenstein (1872-1945), mentioned above, lived in Hampstead between 1902 and 1912, but by the time he taught Towner he was living elsewhere. It is unlikely that Towner lived in Hampstead because of Rothenstein. It was more likely that he chose the area because it was already favoured by many other artists.

Although DC Towner is not one of the greatest of the artists who lived and worked in Hampstead, his family name has related to the arts in another way – possibly better known than for his paintings. When his father, Alderman John Chisholm Towner of Eastbourne, died in 1920, he left 22 paintings and £6000 for the establishment of a public art gallery. Rehoused in a new gallery opened in 2009, the Towner Gallery still exists in Eastbourne. We visited it in its beautifully designed new home in 2019.

As the picture in Louis was painted in 1972, we would not have seen it on our ‘first date’. I do not know when it was purchased or acquired by the owner of the café. Who knows, but maybe the artist used to enjoy ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ in the place where I took my future wife out one afternoon long ago.

PS: If you wish to see another of Towner’s paintings in Hampstead, you should visit the Lady Chapel of St John’s Parish Church in Church Row. In it, you can see Towner’s depiction of Church Row, where he lived, and his self-portrait – he used a mirror image of his own face for the Christ in this painting. The picture in the church was created to commemorate the artist’s mother, Grace Towner (1862-1949), who lived in Church Row and was buried nearby in St John’s cemetery.

Some interesting places around Hampstead

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I LIKE THE WORD “environs”. I believe that I first encountered it as the title of an American road map of Philadelphia, which I acquired when I was living in Chicago, Illinois, in 1963. In those days, I was an avid collector of maps, and I had a relative who lived in Chicago and worked for the Sinclair Oil Corporation. It was he who gifted me a collection of Sinclair’s company road maps and some others, which included the one mentioned already.

The word ‘environs’ is according to an etymological website (www.etymonline.com):

“… late 14c. (implied in environing), “to surround, encircle, encompass,” from Old French environer “to surround, enclose, encircle,” from environ “round about,” from en- “in” (see en- (1)) + viron “a circle, circuit,” also used as an adverb, from virer “to turn” …”

So, it was an appropriate word to use in my book “BENEATH A WIDE SKY: HAMPSTEAD AND ITS ENVIRONS”, which I published in 2022. The ‘Wide Sky’ refers to the firmament above Hampstead, which fascinated, and was often painted by, the artist John Constable. The ‘environs’ include several places around Hampstead, which are described in the book, and listed below.

My book includes West Hampstead and North End, which although some distance away from the heart of Hampstead, have always been considered part of Hampstead. Its many residents have included a former British Prime Minister -William Pitt, the Elder – and a famous architectural historian – Nikolaus Pevsner. Golders Hill Park, once the grounds of a stately home, lies partly in the borough of Camden, and partly in Barnet. So, much of it is an environ of Hampstead.

Hampstead used to be separated by countryside from Swiss Cottage. I have written about this place, which is where I went to school between 1960 and 1965. Close to my old school, there is a drama school and a separate, highly acclaimed theatre. Although not as old as Hampstead, Swiss Cottage is not devoid of interest. For example, Sigmund Freud lived the last years of his life in the area. And near his former home, there is the Tavistock Institute, which has attracted some controversy in recent years. And the architecturally interesting Swiss Cottage Library, built in the early 1960s, is well worth a visit.

Primrose Hill (see photo above) also deserved a chapter in my book. It was visited by the artist/poet William Blake. The windows of the house where the philosopher Friedrich Engels for several years lived looked over towards the Hill. It was here that Karl Marx visited his friend Engels often. Nearby, later, the poet Sylvia Plath also resided for a while.

I have written quite a long chapter about Highgate, which is where I went to school between 1965 and 1970. Like Hampstead, the old village is rich in historic buildings and has had many now famous residents. This chapter also includes amongst many other places of note Highgate Cemetery, Kenwood, and its close neighbour the Spaniards Inn. Lesser-known places including a former school for Jewish boys and a block of flats designed by the Modernist Lubetkin are also described in this section of my book.

As you are probably beginning to realise, my book about Hampstead, which focusses mainly on the place, does include a great deal about areas that surround the old village. Apart from being factual, my book includes personal reminiscences of all the places described in it. What you will find when you read it is that you are in the hands of a guide who has known the area well for over six decades.

To obtain a copy of the book (or its Kindle version), head for an Amazon website such as:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BENEATH-WIDE-SKY-HAMPSTEAD-ENVIRONS/dp/B09R2WRK92/

Having lunch with my father at the White House

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AFTER MY MOTHER DIED in 1980, I began practising dentistry in Kent. Almost every weekend, I used to spend Saturday nights at my father’s house in Hampstead Garden Suburb. We used to have Sunday lunch together in one of his several favourite restaurants in Golders Green and Hampstead. Many of these restaurants no longer exist.

There were a few Chinese restaurants, which my father liked, in the Golders Green area. One of them was in Temple Fortune near the branch of Waitrose, which has been in existence since I was a child in the 1960s. The Chinese restaurant, which served a wonderful hors d’oeuvre that included a scallop in its shell, has long since closed.

In Golders Green Road, there were two more Chinese restaurants, both now gone. In one of them, my father was always greeted by the friendly manager (or, maybe he was the owner) with the words:

“Hallo Professor. How are you, professor?”

The food was well-prepared and tasty in both of them, just as it was in the Temple Fortune eatery.

Almost opposite the Hippodrome theatre, on the corner of North End Road and West Heath Drive, there was an Italian restaurant. Here, my father and I always received a warm welcome and enjoyed reasonably good Italian food. Currently, the site is occupied by a Turkish restaurant, which I have not yet tried.

Some weekends, we travelled up to Hampstead village. One of the two restaurants we visited occasionally was La Cage imaginaire, which still exists at its original location at the lower end of Back Lane, where it meets Flask Walk. Back in the 1980s, this place served classic French cuisine prepared to a high standard. I remember the cheese trolly which was richly supplied with ripe French cheeses. We revisited the place in about 2021 for ‘old times sake’. The management had changed and the food was nothing to write home about.

Today, the 3rd of November 2023, we ate at Mani’s in Hampstead’s Perrins Court. It was our third visit there, and the quality of the food in this busy eatery is highly satisfactory. Near the corner of Perrins Court and Hampstead High Street, there stands the Villa Bianca (‘white house’). This Italian restaurant must have first opened its doors to customers sometime in the 1980s. Never cheap, this restaurant was one of my father’s favourites in northwest London. Being a regular diner there, he was always welcomed like an old friend. Unlike many of the places where my father and I ate Sunday lunches in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Villa Bianca still exists, and is popular. Today, I looked at the menu. Although not suitable for those on a tight budget, many of the dishes did not seem much more costly than those served in far less fancy looking establishments.

DISCOVER MUCH MORE ABOUT HAMPSTEAD BY READING MY BOOK AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON, e.g., :https://www.amazon.co.uk/BENEATH-WIDE-SKY-HAMPSTEAD-ENVIRONS/dp/B09R2WRK92/

An old survivor in Hampstead

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MUCH HAS CHANGED in Hampstead since I used to visit it every weekend during the early 1960s. The same is true for many places in London.

The Pimpernel on Heath Street, where my parents enjoyed espresso coffees, has long since closed. Likewise, my parents’ favourite Cellier du Midi in Church Row. Tragically, the High Hill Bookshop on the High Street disappeared many years ago, only to be replaced by yet another branch of Waterstones.

The venerable Everyman Cinema still functions, but now it is far more plush than it used to be when I was a lad. Of Hampstead’s many second-hand bookshops, only one, Keith Fawkes, remains. However, only recently I spotted Mr Fawkes sitting outside his shop, which has now been rebranded as ‘House Clearance Specialists’.

Another remnant of the Hampstead of my childhood is the Shahbhag Indian restaurant on Rosslyn Hill. Founded in 1954, my parents patronised it occasionally during the 1960s. I ate there once or twice in the late 1960s, but not since. By the 1970s, I had Indian friends, who introduced me to restaurants where the Indian food was far more authauthentic was offered at the Shahbhag. Unfortunately, many of these better eateries, many of which were on or near Warren, no longer exist.

During a recent stroll through Hampstead, I noticed that the Shahbhag was still in business. Seeing this sparked off the memories I have just described.

Once there were two in Hampstead; now there is only one

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YESTERDAY (16th SEPTEMBER 2023), we met one of my cousins in Hampstead village.  We ate a very satisfactory lunch at The Flask pub in Flask Walk. We chose items from the ‘brunch menu’. Each of the three dishes we ordered was tasty and generous in portion size. The dish with wild mushrooms was exceptionally good.

Long ago, there were two pubs with the word Flask in their names in Hampstead: The Upper Flask and the Lower Flask. The Upper Flask was located close to where East Heath Road meets the top (northernmost) end of Heath Street, close to Whitestone Pond. It was a meeting place for noteworthy cultural figures, but it was closed in 1750. The pub in Flask Walk, where we ate lunch, was known as The Lower Flask. Here is something about it from my book “Beneath a Wide Sky: Hampstead and its Environs”:

“Once upon a time, Hampstead had two pubs or taverns whose names contained the word ‘Flask’. This is not surprising because the word ‘flask’ used to be common in the naming of pubs. One of them, the erstwhile Upper Flask, has already been described. The other, the once named ‘Lower Flask’, now renamed, is on Flask Walk, not far from Hampstead high Street. The Upper Flask was a remarkable establishment, as already described. It figures several times in ‘Clarissa’, a lengthy novel by Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), first published in 1747. The Lower Flask pub (in Flask Walk) is also mentioned in the novel, but unflatteringly, as:

“… a place where second-rate persons are to be found often in a swinish condition …”

Unlike the Upper Flask, the Lower Flask is still in business, but much, including its name and clientele, has changed since Richardson published his novel. Located at the eastern end of the pedestrianised stretch of Flask Walk, the Lower Flask, now The Flask, was rebuilt in 1874. Formerly, it had been a thatched building and was a place where mineral water from Hampstead’s chalybeate springs was sold. Oddly, despite visiting Hampstead literally innumerable times during the last more than 65 years, it was only on Halloween 2021 that I first set foot in the Flask pub, and I am pleased that I did. The front rooms of the pub retain much of their Victorian charm and the rear rooms, one of them with a glass roof, are spacious.”

Although the Flask Pub is interesting enough, there are plenty more interesting places to see along Flask Walk and in other parts of Hampstead. You can discover these by reading my book, which is available from Amazon websites such as:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BENEATH-WIDE-SKY-HAMPSTEAD-ENVIRONS/dp/B09R2WRK92/

Why are Hunt and Keene together in Shepherds Bush?

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I FIRST CAME ACROSS the critic, writer, and poet Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) when I was collecting information for my book about Hampstead. For some years, Hunt lived in a house in Hampstead’s Vale of Health. Amongst the many noteworthy people who visited him there regularly were the poets Shelley and Keats. Later, when I was writing my book about west London, I found out that Hunt had resided in Edward’s Square, Kensington. He had also lived in Chelsea. Until today (the 7th of August 2023), I had never seen a memorial to Hunt.  Today, I spotted one, a carved stone plaque, high up on the wall of the Bush Theatre that faces Pennard Road (in Shepherds Bush).

The theatre is housed in what was formerly one of several libraries established by the newspaper entrepreneur and philanthropist John Passmore-Edwards (1823-1911). The library building was built in 1895 and its external features are well-preserved. The theatre moved into it in 2011.

Hunt is not the only person commemorated on the plaque. Below his name is that of the artist Charles Keene (1823-1891).  In his book “A Few Footprints”, Passmore-Edwards wrote (in 1906) that he placed memorials of illustrious people in places near where they died:

“I have placed medallions of Charles Lamb and John Keats in the Public Library, Edmonton; of Sir Henry Austin Layard and Sir William Molesworth in the Public Library, Borough Road ; and of Leigh Hunt in the Public Library, Shepherd’s Bush…

… Mr. A. E. Fletcher, who unveiled the memorial medallion of Leigh Hunt at the Shepherd’s Bush Public Library, said: ” Let us remember Shelley’s fine description of Leigh Hunt as one of the happy souls who are the salt of the earth.’ We have learnt enough to admire him for his genius and his marvellous industry, to honour him for his fearless outspokenness and courageous sacrifice for principle, and to love him for his splendid faith in humanity and his buoyant optimism””

However, Passmore-Edwards makes no mention of Keene.

The plaque was probably affixed to the library when it was built. But why the two names are on the same plaque is a bit of a mystery to me. The only possible connection, which makes sense in the light of what Passmore-Edwards wrote, is that both men died reasonably close to Shepherds Bush.