Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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HAMPSTEAD HEATH
Gospel Oak or Hampstead Heath Overground, or Hampstead or Golders Green.
MAP
Hampstead Heath is the city's most enjoyable public park, with a wonderful variety of bu-
colic scenery across its 800 acres. At the park's southern end are the rolling green pastures
of
Parliament Hill
, north London's premier spot for kite-flying. On either side are numer-
ous
ponds
, three of which - one for men, one for women and one mixed - you can swim in
(daily 7am-9pm or dusk). The thickest woodland is to be found in the West Heath, also the
site of the most formal section,
Hill Garden
, a secretive and romantic little gem with ec-
centric balustraded terraces and a ruined pergola. Beyond lies
Golders Hill Park
, where
you can gaze at pygmy goats and fallow deer, and inspect the impeccably maintained aviar-
ies, home to flamingos, cranes and other exotic birds.
The Heath's most celebrated sight is the whitewashed Neoclassical mansion of
Kenwood
House
(daily 10am-5pm; free;
www.english-heritage.org.uk
), set in its own magnificently
landscaped grounds at the high point of the Heath. The house is home to a superlative col-
lection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century art, including masterpieces by Vermeer,
Rembrandt, Boucher, Gainsborough and Reynolds. Of the period interiors, the most spectac-
ular is Robert Adam's sky-blue and gold library, its book-filled apses separated from the
central entertaining area by paired columns.
