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Ghostly Hampstead by Night Highlights

Haunted Hampstead Walking Tour. (sample itinerary only – Directions are a guide to location only).

Start/Finish Hampstead Underground Station (Northern Line)
Distance 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres)
Best Time Any time, although St John’s Church is closed after dark, a time when I wouldn’t recommend venturing onto the Heath anyway.

Hampstead is a delightful village perched on a hill 440 feet (135 metres) above sea level. There has been a settlement here for over a thousand years and from the Middle Ages onwards Londoners journeyed here to take the air, enjoy the fresh water or escape the plague raging in the city below. It was the arrival of poets such as Keats and Shelley and the artists Constable and Romney that helped establish Hampstead as a Bohemian village. Today it is still home to actors, film stars and writers. This walk is a relatively long one that begins with a stroll through the bustling village centre before striking off into the back streets in search of vampires and ghosts.

Much of the walk is spent crossing Hampstead Heath, which even today can be lonely, desolate and, if the conditions are right, quite frightening. Highlights include the eerie overgrown pathways of St John’s Church and a chance to unwind and seek out the ghosts at the splendid Spaniards Inn, once a haunt of highwayman Dick Turpin.

Leave Hampstead Underground Station, go to the William IV.
This quintessential Hampstead pub is cosy, snug and haunted. Local tradition maintains that a long time ago a doctor’s wife, for reasons long since forgotten, was murdered by her husband and bricked up in the lower depths of the house, now the pub’s cellar. Ever since, her ghost has rattled windows and slammed doors in the middle of the night, and generally disturbed the pub.
This section of the High Street is haunted by the ghost of a young girl who stands on the pavement looking sadly in at the windows of the pub.

Go right along Perrin’s Lane onto Heath Street and into Church Row.
The graceful approach to the parish church was built in the 18th century and is considered the most attractive street in Hampstead. The writer William Makepeace Thackeray’s daughter Anne described it as ‘an avenue of Dutch, red-faced houses, leading demurely to the old church tower that stands, guarding its graves in the flowery churchyard’.

People walking along Church Row as the first rays of daylight appear have heard stealthy footsteps shuffling behind them and a red-haired woman has been seen moving quickly toward the church, her head turning from side to side as she glances furtively around her.

Go through the gates of the Parish Church of St John, and turn immediately left to descend the earth path that snakes its way past crumbling, weatherworn tombs.
As it twists violently right and the ground beneath your feet changes to asphalt, you pass the tomb of the artist John Constable (1776–1837). Walk to the end of that path, go right and take the right uphill fork, passing beneath gigantic trees that give a shadowy stillness as you walk among the graves.

It has been suggested that this was the churchyard in which Bram Stoker (1847–1912) placed the vault that housed the undead Lucy Westenra in Dracula. The location is certainly eerie and sinister, and it is easy to imagine Van Helsing and Dr Seward standing by the tomb which:-

‘in the daytime, and when wreathed with fresh flowers, had looked grim and gruesome enough; but now, some days afterwards, when the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust and their greens to browns; when the spider and the beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance… was more miserable and sordid than could have been imagined…’

The story unfolds.

Keep ahead along the path and, on arrival at the church (well worth a visit), go straight ahead and out of the side gate to cross the road into Holy Walk.

Further on, a plaque on the wall at the junction with Holly Berry Lane commemorates the site of Hampstead’s first Police Station.

Turn right into Mount Vernon where, at Number 7, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), author of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Treasure Island and many others, lodged on several occasions.

At the end of Mount Vernon keep ahead into Holly Mount, where on the left is the Holly Bush Inn.

This gaslit, atmospheric old inn was once frequented by Boswell and Doctor Johnson. It also has associations with the painter George Romney, whose house still stands nearby. It was the stables of the house that became the Holly Bush Inn. The pub once had a long musical tradition, with jazz being played there on Sunday nights for many, many years. If you choose to eat at the pub, and a waitress wearing a crisp white linen apron and a long dark skirt takes your order, don’t blame the staff if you have a long wait. ‘We don’t offer waitress service,’ says landlord Peter Dures. ‘People come up to the bar and order.’ Yet on more than one occasion Peter and his wife, Hazel, have found themselves confronted by irate customers, demanding to know why their lunch is taking so long to arrive. It transpires that they have given their order to a phantom waitress who, although very polite and obliging, never delivers the orders to the kitchen!

Proceed onto Holly Bush Hill and onto Admiral’s Walk, passing on the right the:-
Admiral’s House, notable for its roof, which resembles a ship’s quarterdeck. It was adapted in 1791 by the then occupant, Lieutenant Fountain North, who used to fire a cannon from his roof to celebrate royal birthdays.

The property was immortalised by P.J Travers as Admiral Boom's house, Cherry Tree Lane, in her book Mary Poppins.

Next door, at Grove Lodge, John Galsworthy (1867–1933), author of the Forsyte Saga, lived.

At the end of Admiral’s Walk, go right onto Lower Terrace, over the grass triangle to the line of pretty cottages.

Number 2 was the summer residence of John Constable and his family in 1821 and 1822. Constable completed several oil paintings here, including one of Admiral's House, and one of the shed in the back garden.

Facing the house, bear right along Lower Terrace, turn left, and cross over Upper Terrace to enter the narrow pathway opposite called Windmill Hill. Continue ahead to pass through the gap in the railings onto:-

Judges’ Walk, traditionally held to be the place where justices came to take the air after they had fled London during the Great Plague of 1665.

Keep ahead along the rough pathway and bear right across the open Heath, then cross Lower Terrace and bear left to cross the busy main roads towards the large yellow, weatherboard building at the corner of North End Way.

This was Jack Straw’s Castle, a pub that was completely rebuilt following bomb damage in World War II. It was another favoured haunt of Charles Dickens, who spent many a happy hour at what he termed ‘a good ’ouse’ enjoying a ‘red hot chop for dinner’. Van Helsing and Dr Seward dined here before their midnight vigil at Lucy’s tomb. ‘Jack Straw’ was a generic name for farm labourers, and this was reputedly the rallying point for Hampstead labourers on their way to join Wat Tyler’s peasant revolt in 1381.

A long walk follows, the monotony of which is occasionally broken by stunning views to the right across Hampstead Heath and over London beneath.
Eventually you arrive at the:

Spaniards Inn. This 16th-century hostelry was named for two Spanish brothers, joint proprietors who argued over a woman and killed each other in a duel.
Following this inauspicious start, the pub later became a reputed haunt of highwayman Dick Turpin, who is said to have stabled his mount, Black Bess, here, a remarkable achievement since Black Bess was a ficticious mount dreamed up by 19th Century author Harrison Ainsworth!

Fact, however, should never be allowed to get in the way of a good ghost story and so it is that her ghostly hoof beats are said to be heard galloping across the car park in the dead of night.

Turpin himself has been seen inside the pub – a shadowy, cloaked figure that strides purposefully across the bar then disappears into the wall. On the panelled first floor is Turpin’s Bar, where, in winter months, a roaring log fire crackles in an ancient fireplace, and customers have often felt an unseen hand tugging gently at their sleeves.

Leave the pub and backtrack along Spaniards Lane.

Two hundred years ago, this journey would have been undertaken only by the brave or the foolhardy. Records show dozens of attacks on travellers, many ending with murder. Even today you get the uncanny feeling that someone is watching from the dense woodland and bushes, waiting to pounce upon you at any moment.

Worse still is the ghostly, dark figure on horseback that comes riding from the thickets towards walkers.

Follow the path to the right and descend the asphalt path on the right. Keep ahead until you reach a barrier and there turn right into the:-

Vale of Health. This sleepy Hampstead corner acquired its picturesque name in 1802, when a malodorous, malarial swamp was drained to make way for the construction of numerous fashionable dwellings.

Go left after Byron Villas and keep ahead to cross over East Heath Road.
Cross East Heath Road and go along Squire’s Mount. At the junction with Cannon Place is:-

Cannon Hall, childhood home of the writer Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989).
Cross Well Road, and take the small pathway directly opposite, turning right along Well Walk. Opposite is number 40, where John Constable lived from 1827 until his death ten years later.

Cross Christchurch Hill, and keep ahead into Flask Walk, which ends at a paved passage, on the left of which is the Flask Tavern. This cosy old pub takes its name from the flasks that in the 18th century were sold here, to those who came to take the waters at the nearby springs.

It is haunted by a 19th-century landlord called Monty. A stickler for tradition, and totally opposed to change, he keeps a close eye on those who are now entrusted with the running of his pub. The 1997 redevelopment of the conservatory caused him considerable annoyance and he disrupted the work as often as he could. Upon its completion he made his disdain apparent by moving tables across the floor in front of astonished customers, and by switching off the lights.

At the end of the alley is Hampstead High Street where, to the right, is Hampstead Underground Station, which is where the walk ends.

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