Belsize Park

 

This is the 34th station on the Northern line and the 213th station on the Underground system that I have visited so far. I have never been to this part of London before so I was interested to see what I might find. Apparently the name is derived from the French bel assis (beautifully situated). The station opened in 1907  to serve a developing residential area from what used to be farmland.

Being built prior to the iconic roundel sign with the station's name at its centre, the name of the station is included in the wall tiles. 

Belsize Park is a deep level underground station and there are lifts taking you up and down to the platforms. 

The lifts were replaced in the late 1980s.

If you are feeling energetic there are steps you can take.

The station was designed by Leslie Green. The familiar green ceramic tiles are the same design as in some of his other stations on this line.

The distinctive ox-blood red tiles and semi circular windows  are indicative of Green's underground stations. During the Blitz the stations deep tunnels were used as air raid shelters. By 1944 it had space for up to 8000 people. Belsize Park is one of just 8 London Underground stations that house deep level air raid shelters which were built in the early years of the war by London Transport. The entrances can be seen close by.

The tunnels are now used for data storage and are not accessible to the public.

I exited the station onto a wide tree lined road, Haverstock Hill, with lots of cafes, bars and restaurants.

The community notice board advertised lots of forthcoming events.

The post box topper greatly improved the look of the pillar box.

In amongst the bars and cafes on the Haverstock Hill is the Everyman Cinema. The Screen on the Hill was built on part of the site of the former Odeon which had a central entrance in the centre of a parade of shops and flats. It opened in 1977 and was the first of the luxury style Everyman cinemas. 

Further along the Haverstock Hill is the Old Town Hall. The Old Town Hall was built as a Vestry Hall in 1876 used for local government functions. Apparently the interior still has many of the original Victorian details including the elaborate staircase and Victorian floor tiles. the hall's first function was to host the Cambridge local examination for Women and the first parish council meeting took place a few months after it opened. At the beginning of the 20th century there was an increase in the work of local government and the Borough of Hampstead was established. The Vestry Hall became a Town Hall and was extended in 1910. In the 1960s Hampstead was amalgamated into the London Borough of Camden and although the Town Hall here carried out certain civic duties by the 1990s it had fallen into disrepair. When it became a listed building in 1994 there was a campaign to save it run by 'The friends of Hampstead Old Town Hall'. Largely due to their efforts the Old Town Hall is now an arts centre

I left the Hill to have a look at some of the houses down the side roads.

In the 19th cent the area attracted the middle classes. Many roads had very large houses but I noticed that a large number of them have been converted into flats now.

Then in the 1930s avant garde British artists such as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore moved into the area, I found the house where Moore had lived and worked.

  

 

Continental artists fleeing Nazi Germany also moved into the area.

Round about the same time in 1934, the Isokon was built, a landmark in modernist architecture. The idea behind it was the minimalist approach to living. The living space was carefully calculated to be the least needed by a 'rational, modern person'. Each flat consisted of a bedsitting area, bathroom, dressing room and all electric kitchenette decorated with Isokon's company furniture. Isokon attracted the writers and artists fleeing Nazi Germany such as Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius and sculptor Laszlo Moholy-Nagy as well as home grown writers such as Agatha Christie. The building also had communal facilities such as a bar, clubhouse and a canteen with a resident cook, Philip Harben, who later became one of the first TV chefs. The building's international and transient nature also made it a base for some Soviet agents including Arnold Deutsch, who recruited the Cambridge Five.

 

I crossed back over Haverstock Hill and walked down Lyndhurst Road and found a large property with lots of flags outside. It turned out to be the World Centre for the Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. There have been three world centres in London. One in 1939 (Our Ark), Olave House in 1959 and this one, Pax Lodge in 1991. It was decided in the 1930s that as more than one million girls and young women had already joined the Girl Guiding group with many of them visiting London, they needed a place to stay and that was the start of the World Centres. 

This centre was named 'Pax Lodge' as a tribute to the Baden-Powells. The Latin word for peace, pax, was included in the name for their homes both in London and Paxtu in Kenya. Since opening, hundreds of thousands of guides have visited from around the world. 

I crossed back over Haverstock Hill and walked down Pond Street. The badge above the door and the shape of this building required further research.  

Although now a community gym this building began as two houses built around 1760 but was altered around 1811. In the 1900s it was converted  to become the headquarters for the First Cadet battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. It was a drill hall and military store for the cadets and that's when it got the name The Armoury. When it ceased being the Cadets' Headquarters it was converted into offices for civilian use. A partnership deal was achieved in 2013 between the Jubilee Hall Trust and The Royal Free Charity:

We are delighted that the Royal Free Charity has stepped in to help us to secure the future of The Armoury as a community gym, which enables more than 2,000 Camden residents – many of them disadvantaged – to be more active. The uncertainty over the last few months has made things very difficult for us, and we are grateful for the outstanding support of our gym members, our staff and many other local people. We look forward to working in partnership with the Royal Free Charity, to continue to build a healthier community in Camden for the foreseeable future.”

Jubilee Hall Trust

Across the road fr.om the Armoury is The Royal Free Hospital. The hospital was founded in 1828 by William Marsden, a nearly qualified surgeon who was shocked that he could not find treatment for a penniless poor woman. He founded the hospital on the principle that it would provide free healthcare to those who could not afford medical treatment. This was the first hospital in London to provide free care. In 1837 it was given the title 'Royal' by Queen Victoria in recognition of its work with cholera patients. It was the only hospital in London to stay open during the cholera epidemics. It was also the first hospital in London to accept female medical students in 1857.

I continued to the bottom of Pond St and round the corner on South End Road, I spotted this ghost sign on one of the buildings. This is an old hand painted advertisement for the London and North Eastern Railway. The sign reads: L.N.E.R: King's Cross for Scotland: Shortest and Quickest. The LNER was formed in 1922 and existed until the nationalisation of the railways in 1948. Although now British Rail no longer exists we are back to LNER rail for trains to the North East and Scotland, so the advert is relevant once again.

I followed the road round and realised I was on the edge of Hampstead Heath and the Hampstead Ponds. Hampstead Heath is a large area of woodland and grassland and within it there are a series of ponds. The main ponds were originally dug in the 17th and 18th centuries as reservoirs. These ones are the Hampstead ones with  larger ones on the other side of the Heath. There are three main ponds here. Pond number 3 is a mixed bathing pond. Pond number 1 is a nature/wildlife pond whilst this one is pond number 2 which permits angling. The ponds over the other side of the Heath  are also used for swimming.

I returned to South End Road and followed a sign for Keats House.

The house was built in 1814-1816 as two semi detached houses. John Keats moved into one of them in !818. The following year Fanny Brawne and her family moved in next door and Keats and fanny became engaged. It was here he wrote 'Ode to a Nightingale' and 'The Eve of St Agnes'. In 1820 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and moved to the warmer climate of Italy but died the following year aged just 25. In 1925 after a public fund raising effort the house was opened to the public as a museum.

I enjoyed my walk today and discovered some new parts of London.