Hampstead Is an Inspiration to the Literary Set

Hampstead is to the book world what Hollywood is to the movies, what Washington, D.C., is to politics.

So it was no surprise that poet Joseph Brodsky was dining with his old friend, novelist Kingsley Amis, in Hampstead when he heard that he had won the Nobel Prize for literature.

This is, after all, the north London village where English poet Stephen Spender and English biographer Lytton Strachey were schoolboys, and where the Keats House overlooks Margaret Drabble’s back yard. Writers and Hampstead just go together.

Hampstead is more an atmosphere than anything else. Something in the village air, in the clean church steeples and graveyards, in the narrow courtyards and curving streets, and in the hills and heathland captures the imagination. Part of its attraction are contrasts between the old and new, urban and rural, bustle and quiet. It seems a long way from central London, but in fact it’s only a short tube ride away.

Artists have found solace and inspiration here. In 1749 Samuel Johnson started a literary trend when he polished off “The Vanity of Human Wishes” while vacationing to escape the dirty air of nearby London. Hampstead was a resort town then, kind of an early Palm Springs for those who could afford its elegant brick mansions.

Famous Names

Those who followed in his footsteps were Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived on Mt. Vernon, the highest point of the village; John Keats, who lived at the edge of Hampstead Heath; D. H. Lawrence, who lived with his wife, Frieda, in the Vale of Health; Katherine Mansfield, who lived in a tall, gray house she called “The Elephant,” and H. G. Wells, who lived with his wife on stately Church Row before running off with Rebecca West.

No longer a bohemian hideaway, Hampstead has become an upscale neighborhood, yet some of its country-cousin charm lingers on. On the main avenue, Hampstead High Street, you can envision when the shop spaces were not mostly boutiques, restaurants and real estate agents but butcher shops, haberdashers and greengrocers.

Then, cars were not crawling up the hill at a snail’s pace, but horses took people and goods from place to place. That is the Hampstead most of its writers knew and loved.

A landmark, Admiral’s House, contains a clue to Hampstead’s character. The house deliberately resembles a ship, built in the form of decks, with white paint, orange trim and a weather vane perched on top. The original owner was a lieutenant, not an admiral. The present owner is a tax lawyer, so visitors must content themselves with the outside of the house.

Admiral’s House suggests that Hampstead nurtures the eccentric, an impression echoed by the Vale of Health where Frieda and D. H. Lawrence lived. Set next to Hampstead Heath, the vale is a world of its own, a village within a village.

Colorful cottages, each expressing a distinct personality, display names such as Ashdown or Lakeview. Sprawling heath on all sides creates an untamed feeling that Lawrence described in several short stories.

A narrow passageway covered with shrubbery leads past people’s living rooms, so small and tidy that they look like doll houses.

You may have another look at Hampstead’s past and a writer’s life at Keats House, a handsome white structure in the area of Hampstead that Amis calls the “most romantic.”

In the front garden you can see where the 23-year-old Keats furiously penned his “Ode to a Nightingale” under a plum tree in a few hours. Inside the house the furniture and decor remains much as it was when Keats lived there with a friend in the 1820s.

Far from poetic poverty, the three-story house is designed in the elegant simplicity and light colors that predated Victorian interiors. A collection of Keats memorabilia--letters, reviews, original manuscripts, locks of hair--is unobtrusively arranged for students of literary history.

Especially poignant are the letters he exchanged with his fiancee, Fanny Brawne, who lived in a separate part of the same house, before his death in Rome.

Sylvia Plath Wrote Here

Primrose Hill in South Hampstead, the setting of “A Thousand and One Dalmatians,” also has its share of literary ghosts. Sylvia Plath wrote her most haunting poems here before killing herself during one of London’s worst winters ever, 1963.

Did she know that William Butler Yeats, poet and playwright, once lived around the block? You can only guess; this, like many Hampstead secrets, has faded into the mists of time.

Sigmund Freud was another resident of Primrose Hill. He lived here briefly after being chased out of Vienna by the Nazis and before dying of throat cancer in 1939. Perhaps Plath and Freud found a brief respite from their troubles in the glorious view of London seen from the top of Primrose Hill’s enormous green park.

Hampstead always has had beautiful buildings. Squire’s Mount, true to its name, looks like the city dwelling of a country squire. A magnificent brick mansion, graced by cherubs on the gate and bells on the roof, it is a reminder of another age, yet still a family home.

The only sign that this is the 1980s, not the 1790s, is the Mercedes in the driveway instead of a horse carriage. Like many Hampstead homes, it is missing some original windows. Two centuries ago the owners covered them with brick to avoid paying the “window tax.”

Lord Mansfield, who built the Kenwood estate in 1764, had no need to block his windows. He spared no expense in the creation of Kenwood, an 18th-Century English masterpiece of architecture and landscape. Kenwood is best approached from the woods of Hampstead Heath on foot, so that the cream-colored house suddenly appears rising out of the land like a gleaming pearl.

As you cross the lush lawns around the house, the spectacular scenery holds a surprise. If you stand at the right place you behold a cubist vision of England: Kenwood House in front, a Victorian church steeple in the distance and an abstract Henry Moore sculpture on your left.

Upon reaching the house, turn to survey the view the lord enjoyed outside his window. The pond, the bridge, the rolls in the hills, the paths into the woods were all planned and put neatly into place by landscaper Capability Browne.

Unlike the French, who treated grounds as a grand extension of the interior, the English liked to feel the great outdoors around them, ripe for hunting, walking and riding. They altered nature only to make nature more picturesque.

Large, Airy Rooms

Inside Kenwood House you can see how the rich and famous lived in England in 1780. Rooms are large, airy and beautifully decorated in Georgian splendor that contrasts sharply with the simplicity of the Keats House.

The room colors vary from sky blue to light yellow, with such touches as gilt mirrors, chandeliers and circular windows on the ceiling. Don’t miss the oval-shaped library, the most formal room, with a mural ceiling, classical columns and antique English furniture.

The orangery, a peach-colored room with huge windows facing the grounds, has four impressive Gainsboroughs looking very much in their element.

Kenwood’s excellent art collection consists mainly of 18th-Century English masters--Reynolds, Lawrence, Gainsborough, Turner--but also includes a lovely Vermeer and a Rembrandt self-portrait.

A day in Hampstead would end well at one of its beloved pubs. The Wells Tavern has an open patio in the summer and the Holly Bush has fires burning in the winter. The Holly Bush is exactly as it was in 1829, with original oak paneling and swinging glass doors. Small and friendly, it gives a flavor of the small-town intimacy once upon a time, when everyone went a long way back with everyone else.

Chatting With Locals

If you chat with the locals, who knows, you might find that the white-haired gent drinking next to you is Stephen Spender. Or you may simply wonder what it is about this village, where so many writers--as well as actors, artists, musicians and refugees--have congregated for centuries.

There’s something in the Hampstead air that makes outsiders feel at home.

-- -- --

To get to Hampstead from London, take the Northern Line into the heart of the village (about 25 minutes from Leicester Square).

Hampstead has an international mix of restaurants. Among the best:

Taj Mahal, 46 Roslyn Hill. Excellent Indian food at reasonable prices, with good service. Dinner for two, including appetizer and side dishes, $30-$35 U.S.

ZENW3, 83 Hampstead High St. Decent Japanese food at a pricey restaurant with a trendy atmosphere. Name is a play on words; Hampstead’s ZIP code is NW3. Average dinner about $30.

Le Cellier du Midi, 28 Church Row. Tucked away below street level, it offers authentic French cuisine and atmosphere. Good for a discreet splurge. Two-course dinner with dessert about $30, wine extra.

Odette’s, 130 Regents Park Road. Delightful decor and imaginative menu, mostly French and nouvelle cuisine dishes, $30-$35.

Everyman Downstairs, Holly Bush Vale. Below a famous Hampstead cinema, this is a good, inexpensive place to grab a snack or meal.

Villa Bianca, 1 Perrins Court. A beautiful Italian restaurant with good food and modern art. Dinner, with wine, dessert and coffee, $40-$50.

Maxwell’s, 76 Heath St. If you’re in the mood for an American hamburger, this is the place to go. Not great, but good; $10-$20.

Primrose Patisserie, 136 Regents Park Road. Delightful bakery, good for a cappuccino, sandwich or croissant after walking on Primrose Hill. Popular neighborhood hangout.

Hotels include:

The Sandringham, 3 Holford Road, London NW3 1AD. A highly recommended, incredibly inexpensive hotel where the clients have been coming back for years. In the heart of Hampstead village, it is a large Victorian house made into a hotel; has a wonderful staff and a real English breakfast included in the price of a room, from $45 for a single to $90 double. A large family suite is available for less than $100.

The Swiss Cottage Hotel, 4 Adamson Road, London NW3 3RH. This hotel is more expensive and closer to central London. It also boasts antique Victorian furniture in the parlor and in rooms. Easy access to Jubilee tube station, on a pleasant tree-lined street. From $60 for a tiny single up to $200 for a large double.

For further information contact British Tourist Authority, 350 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles 90071.