Reply to comment

Published: 19 May, 2011
by GERALD ISAAMAN

HE was 90 yesterday (Wednesday). And, modest as ever, Christopher Wade, Hampstead’s own history man, dismisses the event as nothing particularly special.

“The community centre has an over-sixties club, where most of the members are over 80,” he points out. “Walking with a stick, I get a bit of precedence among the swarms of pushchairs and I can wave my stick at the cars that don’t let me cross the road.

“And an unexpected bonus for longevity – I am now a great grandfather!”

But there will be a celebratory party at Burgh House, New End Square – “Your presence is present enough,” says the invite.

It is an entirely appropriate venue for the celebration, as Christopher played his own role in stopping Camden Council selling off the grade-I listed mansion.

Despite the property boom that meant only millionaires could afford modest Hampstead homes – and the forever changing face of the High Street shops – he maintains that the village remains unchanged at heart.

It was Daniel Defoe who claimed the hilltop enclave was fit only for a special race because it was “so close to heaven” they needed superior lungs to survive. And Christopher maintains that ethos.

“For a competition organised by Ian Norrie at Burgh House, I wrote a poem beginning: ‘The pleasure of old Hampstead is its constant metamorphosis…’” he recalls. 

“It didn’t win a prize and was severely criticised by the one and only Peggy Jay for being inaccurate.

“I argued that, though Hampstead had certainly changed, it was amazing how much of old Hampstead had survived. In my 55 years here most of old Hampstead is still recognisable – despite the touristy chain shops, the bra boutiques, the traffic, the wardens.

“We still have the muddle of buildings, the stagger of streets, the corners and alleys – and the ambience. Not only the residents, but the semi-residents and the variegated visitors combine to produce a pleasurable Hampstead hum.”

Born in Bradford, Christopher is surprised to be 90 and still living in Willoughby Road. His solicitor father died at 71, his grandfather at 70, but although suffering some deafness and having survived a slight stroke, he declares: “I am still self-catered, self-propelled and tottering on.” He knew he had found the perfect place to live when he stepped out of the Tube at Hampstead in 1956 after his late wife, Diana, had promised to marry him – but only if they lived on a hill.

She hailed from the heights of Snowdonia and was his secretary at the BBC, where, after war service in the RAF, he became a script editor for TV drama. He took early retirement in 1973 on a then-generous BBC pension.

His role as Hampstead’s history man followed through membership of the Camden History Society and the creation of a remarkable series of more than a dozen popular pocket books. 

They began with The Streets of Hampstead, now three editions old. Similar tomes followed for other parts of the old borough: Constable’s Hampstead, A Hampstead Town Trail and even Buried in Hampstead. 

There were also several Burgh House publications – a labour of love after the Queen Anne property was saved for community use in 1979, and revamped with the help of a Heritage Lottery grant and a major fundraising campaign.

“We were largely trying to make history for the man in the street,” says Christopher, who set up the museum with Diana with what he describes as “mostly photocopies and sellotape”.

“There was all this fascinating information here, about the houses, their architecture, those who lived in them, their passions and ideals.

“I sometimes felt I ought to write ‘The History of the World According to Hampstead’ because, when important events happen, there’s always some link with Hampstead. Everything has been touched by NW3 at some time.”

He wasn’t a Swinging Sixties man, believing still that the late 1970s was the major time for action in Hampstead Village. It was then that he helped Nancy Hill create the High Street community centre and supported David Sullivan in fighting Camden to save Burgh House. This, too, was the era of Peggy Jay and her battles as chair of the Heath and Old Hampstead Society, in which he was heavily involved.

Nowadays, he opposes those who want to create swimming pools in their basements – “environ­mental hell,” he protests – yet still believes the essential Hampstead remains unscathed by the desecrators. 

“Hampstead has a quality that modernism and the technological age cannot alter,” he declares. As to the future, Christopher has a simple goal: “I just want to keep in touch with Hampstead, update my card index, my historical files… and chuck the rubbish!”