Boundary Wall, Piers And Southern Gate

CAMDEN

TQ2686SW HEATH STREET 798-1/16/1767 (East side) Boundary wall, piers and southern gate

GV II

Boundary wall. Early C18 and later. Pink-red bricks, with stone copings to gate piers, in Flemish bond. The wall runs from the northernmost pair of gate piers 20m north of the most northerly of two K6 telephone kiosks (qv) 60m long and about 2 or more metres in height. Later C19 phase of pink-yellow brick between middle and southern gate piers; adjoining 70m length of yellow brick in Dutch bond beginning at second of 2 distinctive insets. 3 gate piers are set into the wall, the 2 most southerly with wrought-iron overthrows. Spiked iron bracket in bend of first inset. C18 wrought-iron gate set within southernmost gate piers. Renewed coping along entire length. HISTORICAL NOTE: this wall was formerly attached to the Upper Flask Tavern, summer meeting place of the Kit-Kat Club, and referred to in Richardson's 'Clarissa' (1748). The tavern was converted to domestic use in the later C18 and renamed Upper Heath. The house was demolished in 1922 when Queen Mary's Maternity Home was built. The wall is depicted in several topographical prints of the former Upper Flask: they show that the middle section, the C19 section of pink-yellow bricks, replaced a dwarf wall that stood in front of the west side of Upper Heath which enabled the view towards Harrow to be enjoyed. Anna Maxwell's 'Hampstead', c1910, p.45 declared that 'no remnant of old Hampstead is more arresting than the sight of the strong, high garden wall at the summit of Heath Street, with its ancient towering trees within.' (Maxwell A: Hampstead: London: 1910-: 45; Barratt T: The Annals of Hampstead: London: 1912-: 200).

Listing NGR: TQ2635786152