North London is an area of contrasts from the affluent West to the less
well-off East, from the rural idyll of the Green Belt to the bustle of Tottenham.
Hampstead and Highgate are particularly rich in history and architecture, boasting fine
18th century houses with stunning views over the capital. Hampstead is probably best known
for Hampstead Heath, which is made up of 789 acres of woodland and meadows with a
surprisingly rural atmosphere. The heath has a wide variety of flora and almost 100
species of birds flit between its trees. The most imposing house on the heath is Kenwood
House, Hampstead Lane, a stately home formerly owned by the Guiness family before being
left to the nation. The house boasts a superb art collection including works by Vermeer,
Rembrandt, Gainsborough and Reynolds and landscaped gardens, where lakeside concerts are
held during the summer. The house is a popular venue for picnics, although it has a cafe
and restaurant.
Kenwood House is open daily from 10am to 7pm between April and
September, 10am to 5pm in October, February and March, and 10am to 4pm from November to
January. Admission is free. Call 0181 348 1286 for more information.
Hampstead village provides secluded homes for the rich and famous, but the area's golden
age was in the 18th century, when it was a resort complete with a health spa, bolwing
green and bus hop. Politicians, writers, poets and painters who have been attracted to
Hampstead's natural beauty include Pitt, Byron, Keats, Constable, Freud, Pavlova,
Lawrence, Orwell and Le Carré. Several of their homes have been turned into museums.
The life of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova is commemorated in the Anna Pavlova
Memorial Museum, Ivy House, North End Road. Admission is free to the museum, which is open
from 2pm to 5pm on Saturdays.
Some of the Romantic poet John Keats' greatest odes were written at Keats House, in
Wentworth Place, Keats Grove. Although he spent just two years of his life there, the
house contains displays of his letters, manuscripts, books and furniture. The garden has a
plum tree planted on the site of the one underneath which Keats heard the songbird and
wrote Ode to a Nigthingale. He also wrote a huge number of passionate letters to his
fiancée, Fanny Brawne, which is surprising because she lived just next door.
Admission is free to the house, which is open from 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm Monday to
Saturday and 2pm to 5pm on Sundays. Call 0171 435 2062 for more information.
Sigmund Freud's couch is one of the exhibits on display at his wartime refuge at 20
Maresfield Gardens. Freud lived here until his death, after which his daughter Anna kept
it as an undisturbed shrine. It became a museum in 1986. The museum is open from
12pm to 5pm Wednesday to Sunday. Admission costs £3 (£1.50 conc.). Call 0171 435 2002
for more information.
Just as Hampstead is famous for its heath, Highgate is renowned for its cemetery. Opened
in 1839, the 20 acres of paths were so popular that a 30 acre extension had to be built
across Swain's Lane in 1857. Pilgrims pass Egyptian obelisks, angels of stone and
catacombs to reach the tombs of Karl Marx, George Eliot and Christina Rossetti. Both sides
are open from 10am to 5pm every day in the summer and 10am to 4pm in the winter. Visits to
the western side are by guided tour every hour on the hour from 11am to 4pm. Call 0181 340
1834 for more information.
Few tourist attractions can boast the chequered past of Alexandra Palace, which has been
burnt down twice in its 125-year history. In 1936 the BBC made the first public
television transmissions from the palace, in Alexandra Palace Way, Wood Green. The palace
has retained its connection with television, recently hosting the MTV Europe Music Awards.
It has now become an exhibition and conference centre, with a large banqueting hall, an
ice rink, boating lake, an 18 hole pitch and putt golf course and an animal enclosure. For
more information call 0181 365 2121.
Further north, in Colindale, is the Royal Air Force Museum. Its three aircraft halls
display 70 vintage airplanes and exhibitions about the history of the RAF, from the World
War One German fighter pilot the Red Baron to Douglas Bader and the heroes of the Falkland
and Gulf wars. There are also exhibitions about the Battle of Britain, the story of the US
Air Force's arrival in the UK and a hands-on flight simulator. The museum, in Grahame Park
Way, is open from 10am to 6pm daily. Call 0181 205 2266 for more information.
Two attractions in the East of the capital are often unlooked by visitors. The Vestry
House Museum, in Vestry Road, Walthamstow, is an early 18th century building that has been
a plice station and workhouse in the past. The exhibition tell the story of how the
railways transformed Walthamstow fields to the town it is today, including a Victorian
parlour and milk-cart and the first British motor vehicle, the Bremmer Car. Admission is
free to the museum, which is open from 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5.30pm Monday to Friday and
10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm on Saturdays.
The William Morris Gallery, set in beautiful parkland, was the childhood home of William
Morris, who went on to become a pioneering socialist and designer. Frank Brangwyn, an
admirer of Morris, gave his own work and some Pre-Raphaelite paintings. The collection
includes tiles, stained glass, pottery, furniture, tapestries, wallpapers and embroidery.
Admission is free to the gallery, at Water House, Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow,
which is open from 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm (or dusk) on Saturdays, and from 10am to
noon and 2pm to 5pm (or dusk) on the first Sunday of the month.
Call 0181 527 5544 ext. 4390 for more information.