Historical charm

Published: 17 June, 2010

• IN the 1600s the main thoroughfare from London to the north was through Hampstead. 

As such, by the 1700s many coaching stops and inns had sprung up along Heath Street and its byways.

Just concentrating on the taverns which are still in living memory, the first to be encountered heading north was the Three Horseshoes– named as such because the blacksmith opposite tended the poor horses which had lost one of their four shoes.

Then came the Horse and Groom, followed near the top of the hill by the Coach and Horses, which had courtyard space to park the coaches.

Around the corner (in what is now New End) was the Hampstead workhouse (later New End Hospital) with a morgue conveniently situated opposite. 

This was adjacent to the coaching inn now under threat of closure, the Duke of Hamilton, established in 1729.

The gentry, of course, stayed at the top of the hill at Jack Straw’s Castle, but that by no way detracts from the historical charm of the Duke, with its cobbled lane to the rear of the building where the old stables and rooms for the grooms are still situated.

All the pubs I’ve mentioned, apart from the Duke, are sadly now gone.

After 40 years of being a regular customer at those lovely old establishments, with all the famous and infamous names associated with them, the funerals, weddings and birthdays (mine included, last April) celebrations and events which coheres a community, it breaks my heart to think we are in grave danger of losing the last bastion of a thriving historical village.

What can be done to save the Duke?
ELSA NELSON
Maresfield Gardens, NW3