Park of the week

77. Hampstead Heath at the Vale of Health 

The Vale of Health is a country lane, off East Heath Road to the north of Hampstead. I’d passed the end of it many times, but one Sunday afternoon I decided to see what was down there. It turned out to be a cul-de-sac with a small cluster of houses at the end, surrounded on all sides by Hampstead Heath. 

It was originally called Hatches or Hatchett’s Bottom and was also referred to as Gangmoor. The area it occupies used to be wet and marshy but in 1777 the Hampstead Water Company drained it and formed a new pond to store and supply water for the City. Houses were built, and the area started to change into a desirable residential location. 

The name Vale of Health starts to appear in the early nineteenth century and was probably an attempt at rebranding. It became a focal point for summer weekends and Bank Holidays when Londoners would come to the Heath to escape the city. According to the Ham and High from April 1888 “On Easter Monday there were probably not far short of 80,000 visitors to Hampstead Heath.” There was a fair, and swings and a steam roundabout in the Vale. I was relieved to read that “In spite of some horse-play, especially in the Vale of Health, the holiday makers as a whole, behaved themselves well, and only one or two police charges arose out of the day’s holiday.”

The Vale of Health is said to be one of the most expensive residential areas in the world. Past residents include DH Lawrence, Stella Gibbons, Compton Mackenzie, Edgar Wallace, Rabindranath Tagore, and Liam Gallagher.
The Vale of Health is sometimes said to be as the source of one of London’s lost rivers, the Fleet. The river now flows underground in culverts, pipes, and sewers, until it spills into the Thames near Blackfriars Bridge. 

Judith Field

Vale of Health, London NW3 1AP