Swiss Cottage

On a cold, misty January morning I visited the 16th station on the Jubilee Line. The station opened in 1939 when the Metropolitan Line's stations on its Stanmore branch were transferred to the Bakerloo Line. The Bakerloo Line station, along with the rest of the Stanmore branch, was transferred to the Jubilee Line when it opened in 1979.

The platforms are very similar to the previous ones at St John's Wood which were also designed by Harold Stabler. The station name and logo are contained in the tiling alongside decorative tiles. I found some different tile designs at this station such as: 

Crystal Palace 

The rearing horse is from the coat of arms from the County of Kent

55 Broadway - London Transport's original head office.

Five gulls

Five kings. Stabler did seem to like things in sets of five

Part of the coat of arms for the County of London.

Houses of Parliament with two crowns and a bowler hat.

The station is a deep cut station and as with St John's Wood it still has the original bronze up lights on either side of the escalators.







The ticket hall with art deco lights.

There is no above ground building at this station. The three exits bring you out onto the very busy Finchley Road.

Across the road  is Ye Olde Swiss Cottage  from which the station takes its name. The chalet style pub sits at the apex of a large triangular traffic island between Finchley Road and The Avenue. The pub has shuttered windows, wooden balconies and hanging baskets giving an alpine look. A swiss chalet was originally built on the site in 1840 known as the Swiss Tavern and was used as a coaching inn when the area was still countryside.

I decided to walk round this triangular block of buildings.  Next to the Swiss Cottage is a large red bricked building, the Odeon. When the Odeon was opened in 1938, it could seat 1300 in the stalls and a further 800 in the circle. It was one of the original cinemas in the Oscar Deutsch chain of Odeon Theatres. It was one of only nine of the original Odeon Theatres to be equipped with a theatre organ.  The cinema has been modernised a few times over the years and is now a multi screen cinema.

Also on this traffic island are these blocks of art deco flats.

Next to the station on the other side of the road is the Swiss Cottage Library, designed by Sir Basil Spence. His designs include Coventry Cathedral and the Beehive building in Wellington, New Zealand.

There is also a leisure Centre,

housing development and the Hampstead Theatre. All the buildings back onto an open green space that includes a water feature and sports pitch. 

The Hampstead Theatre moved here from Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead in 2003. The theatre was established in 1859 as The Hampstead Theatre Club. Harold Pinter was a permanent fixture in its early days trying out many of his plays there, before they were performed for larger audiences. This new purpose built 325 seater theatre was the result of the generosity of the local community and the theatre's supporters.

At the other side of the open green space is The Winch or the Winchester Project. Founded in this former derelict pub in 1973, this charity began as a much needed safe space for the young people of Camden. It is a community resource that supports children and families through difficult times. Their website states that more than 45% of children and young people in Camden live in poverty.

I walked down Winchester Road and onto Eton Avenue. I was taken aback by the size of these red bricked houses. Each house was unique with its tall chimneys, gable ends and elaborate ornamentation. I discovered this was part of the Eton College estate. In 1449 the Crown granted 243 acres of land, known as the manor of Chalcots, to Eton College. The land was in the southern part of  Hampstead. The estate was bounded by Haverstock East on the east and Swiss Cottage on the west. The Chalcots estate remained as farmland until the 19th century. It was used for hay meadows to feed the horses that provided London's transport. In the mid 1820s the Fellows of Eton College wanted to develop the land into an estate that would equal developments in Regent's Park and St John's Wood. From the 1840s onwards  semi-detached and detached villas were built as well as roads to link the houses. Despite numerous searches I couldn't find out just how much land Eton College still owns not just in this area but throughout the country. Nor could I establish whether these houses are leasehold or freehold. In other words whether Eton College still owns the land the houses are built on. The house I live in is freehold so I own the land the house stands on as well as the house. My son's house is leasehold so he owns the property but not the land. If you can't buy the lease you often have to pay a ground rent to whoever owns the land/lease. Hundreds of years ago the Crown gave land to educational establishments such as Oxford and Cambridge Universities and public schools like Eton. It would appear that the aristocracy still owns England.

Lots of reminders of the heritage of the land with road names such as Eton Road, Eton Avenue, Fellows Road, Eton College Road and others that are named after places near Eton in Windsor.

                     

In 1846, Eton College offered a site on a triangle of free land bordered by Provost Road, Eton Villas and Eton Road. It was decided that a church was needed to encourage more families to come and live in this newly developed area. In 1848 a temporary structure was constructed on a site nearby and used for worship until St Saviour's was completed and consecrated in 1856. 
         
There wasn't a spire on the original church but this was added in 1864 when more funds became available.
                
 

In the 1960s, the church's large Victorian vicarage was sold and a modern vicarage and church  hall  were built within the 'church triangle'. 

On the other side of Eton Road is the modern South Hampstead Synagogue which opened in 2019.  At the beginning of the 19th century there were very few Jewish people living in the Hampstead area. The Jewish population of London was mainly centred around the city. Tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants settled in the East End of London between 1880 and 1910 to escape anti- Semitism in Eastern Europe. Eventually Jewish communities moved away from central London northwards to St John's Wood and Hampstead. 

I walked through more of the Eton College estate and came out at Primrose Hill which is 66.7m (219ft)  above sea level. On a clear day you have great views over central London. However, today was not a clear day.

Primrose Hill was once part of Middlesex Forest. The land was later given to Eton College and in 1820 it was proposed that the hill be used as a vast cemetery but a public campaign succeeded in it being converted into a public park instead.

Views from the hill were surrounded in mist today.

In the 1830s, the London and Birmingham Railway wanted to run their line  through the Eton College land but the College insisted it would have to go underground. A tunnel was built between Primrose Hill Road and Finchley Road. At the time the architecture of the tunnel entrance created quite a stir so I decided to see if I could find this classical piece of architecture at the tunnel entrance.

Primrose Hill Tunnel was London's first tunnel

I tried to get a photo of the tunnel entrance but it wasn't possible as vegetation, buildings and the construction of the new railway line for the HS2 thwarted my attempts.

I left Primrose Hill and walked down Primrose Hill Road passing the church of St Mary -the-Virgin on Elsworthy Road. The church has its origin in the social action of two business men. In 1865 the men were so moved by the number of destitute children in London that they opened a home for destitute boys in Regents Park Road. Services in the iron church nearby proved so popular with local people that it out grew its premises and this new church was built and opened in 1872. The church is also well known for its musical history. In 1906 it was here that the vicar, Percy Dearmer, worked with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw to compile the English Hymnal. So it was in this church that congregations first sang many well known hymns such as 'He who would valiant be' and 'In the bleak mid winter'.

 I photographed this building so that I could research its history once I got home thinking it might be an historical building but I was wrong. This is a new build and was reported in the press as being the most expensive building in London in 2020. The property has 10 bedrooms with a cinema, spa, cigar room, climate controlled wine cellars, an underground four car garage with a hydraulic lift. I couldn't find out the cost of the building but I discovered it could be rented for £173,000 per month.

The last part of my walk took me to the other side of the Finchley Road to find the Alexandra and Ainsworth estate.

The Alexandra Estate is different from any other estate I have seen . It was designed by Neave Brown, an American architect who was working in Camden Council's architecture department. He wanted to move away from the high rise blocks of flats that were the main source of social housing after the second world war.

 The Brutalist design provides the residents with their own private open space by using  low rise stepped terraces. Greatly criticised at the time as the costs rose from £7.15 million to £20.9 million, it is still one of the most expensive social housing developments in London. The first residents moved in in 1978 and the development was awarded a Grade II listing in 1993.

Its staggered terraces are very distinctive and have appeared on numerous TV dramas especially where a chase is involved. I am sure those of you who watch British crime series may recognise this familiar backdrop.

I returned to the busy Finchley Road and Swiss Cottage station, pleased that I had found a few places of interest in this very residential area.