West Hampstead is one of those places where you live if Hampstead village itself is beyond your budget and if, actually, you rather like a more down-to-earth, family feel, rather than the rarefied, dizzy heights of the Hampstead elite.
West Hampsteadites have their main street, the main artery, Fortune Green Road which morphs, unannounced into West End Lane, and then, bizarrely, turns into Abbey Road for a few yards, before continuing as West End Lane; meanwhile Abbey Road continues south towards Lord’s and features the very famous zebra crossing of the Beatles’ album.
Anyway, the West Hampstead ‘High Street’ is for much of its length, West End Lane, and it has the usual (Gail’s and all that) and not-so-usual selection of shops, bars, pubs, cafes for the good folks of West Hampstead to frequent, along with a railway station unsurprisingly entitled ‘West Hampstead Station.
There are a number of celebs who live, or who have lived there, including Gerry Anderson, the famous animator of Thunderbirds; Joan Armatrading (biggest hit ‘Love And Affection’, opening lines ‘I’m not in love, but I’m open to persuasion’); Dirk Bogarde; Stephen Fry; Barry Humphries, who died the other day, as my friend says ‘unfortunately’); and among others, Dusty Springfield, who was born and lived in Sumatra Road. Her address segways to an observation about street names in West Hampstead. The bureaucrat responsible for street naming obviously had all manner of cultural and exotic interests and engaged in flights of fancy. Pandora Road. Ajax Road. Achilles Road. Agamemnon Road. Obviously a Greek scholar who was looking, within the urban corridors of this London suburb, to revive the glories of Homer’s Iliad. And when done with that, he evokes Wagner: Parsifal Road.
Back to the main street, West End Lane, a busy thoroughfare wiggling and waggling its way through umpteen traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, not to mention the obligatory roadworks, towards, you guessed it, the West End. Along its path: the Wolfpack West Hampstead, ‘for social animals’, with a selection of craft beers. Alice House, for brunches, cocktails, and more craft beers. Mumbai-inspired Colaba Indian restaurant. Bobby Fitzpatrick, 1970s retro cocktail bar. Banana Tree pan-Asian fare. Took Took Thai restaurant. The Railway pub that actually had gigs by Hendrix, Cream and the Stones. So a lot of different ways of dicing meat and cutting vegetables going on in the various kitchens in those parts.
The Sherriff Centre is worth noting as it is church used for a variety of social purposes and to quote its website ‘was born out of the desire to retain a Post Office in the area when the postmaster at the West End Lane site wished to retire and close his branch. Father Andrew, who until the summer of 2017, was the vicar at St James’, saw a tweet from local estate agents Dutch and Dutch who were looking for alternative venues to host the Post Office. St James’ church was suggested and subsequently accepted as a viable site.’ It now has a café, soft play area, as well as a post office and has live music and performances. It’s good that a church, which would otherwise probably be empty nearly all the time, is being used in this way.
Parks? The nearest one of any size is obviously Hampstead Heath, one of London’s greatest assets, or perhaps Primrose Hill and Regents Park for something more metropolitan.
Yes, West Hampstead is a neighbourhood much liked by locals and could be a good solution if you are looking for a lively area, kinda quirky, with good transport links, and not outrageously expensive.
