We begin our exploration of Hampstead Heath in Golders Hill Park, 36-acres of manicured lawn and formal gardens appended to the Heath’s northwestern tip. Laid out in a rough triangle between West Heath Drive and North End Road, the Park is demarcated from the forested West Heath by a wide pedestrian path called Sandy Road. Technically, nearly all of the Park lies outside of Hampstead in the Borough of Barnet, but we don’t let that bother us too much.

History
The Park was not always part of the Heath. The Golders Hill estate was created in the 1760s by businessman Charles Dingley, an associate of William Pitt the Elder (namesake of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and father of the long-serving British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger). A later owner, John Coore, hired one of the great English landscape architects, Humphry Repton, to landscape the property.

Golders Hill Park in relation to Rosecroft Avenue (bottom right) and the West Heath

Golders Hill Mansion, c. 1905

The last owner of the estate was Queen Victoria’s surgeon, Sir Spencer Wells. After Wells died in 1897, the estate was put up for auction. No one bid the reserve price, however, and a second auction was held in 1898. A committee of prominent locals raised £35,000 to buy the estate to save it from development, but the bidding exceeded that price. Soap magnate Thomas Barrett (who is credited or blamed, depending on one's view, for inventing modern advertising) purchased the estate for £38,000 on his own account, and then sold it to the committee at that price. The park—with its Victorian mansion still intact—was opened to the public in December 1898.

The mansion stood until 1941, when it was destroyed by a German parachute mine.

Golders Hill Park Today

Golders Hill is an exceptional children’s park. There is, of course, plenty of space for play. There is a large sloped lawn in the Park’s center, dotted with aged oak trees and perfectly graded for safe-and-sane winter sledding. Much to Heidi's delight, there are two playgrounds, one reserved for children under 5. Hopefully, we will still be living here when Jack is old enough to use it.

View from the walled garden toward the bandstand

There is also much to explore in Golders Hill. On the West Heath Drive side of the Park, a hilly path follows a brook down to a water garden, culminating in a large pond—imaginatively called Swan Pond—that serves as home to several swans. On the North End Road side of the Park is a lovely walled garden with an arched bridge, a small pond that is home to a number of ducks and geese, and several sculptures. A café now stands on the site of the original mansion; by all accounts, it serves decent Italian food and very good own-made ice cream. There is a bandstand that, in the summertime, is a venue for live music.

Between these features are, for many, the Park’s two main attractions—a large enclosure that is home to a dozen or more deer, and a small zoo and aviary that houses a butterfly house, a huge owl and some very cute small mammals, including several coati and four lemurs.

Here are some photos from two afternoons at the Park. Push play to enjoy the show:

_____________________________

References:
A. Farmer, Hampstead Heath (1984).