The Most Beautiful Streets in Hampstead
Hampstead is one of the best-preserved old villages in London, and its real beauty is in the streets themselves rather than any single building. Walk the right ones and you get Georgian terraces, hidden lanes, flower-lined alleys and houses with two hundred years of history, all within a few minutes of each other. Here are the most beautiful, and how to link them into one walk.
Church Row
If there is one street to see, it is Church Row. A complete Georgian terrace running down to the parish church, it is widely called the finest Georgian street in London, and it deserves it. The houses are elegant and almost unchanged, the proportions are perfect, and the avenue of trees leads your eye to St John-at-Hampstead at the end. Period dramas film here constantly because it needs no dressing. Walk it slowly, in both directions, because it looks different each way.
Flask Walk
Flask Walk is the prettiest of the village lanes, narrow at one end where it leaves the High Street, then opening out past the old bathhouse and cottages. It takes its name from the flasks of spa water once sold here, and it leads into the quiet heart of the village. It is the street that best captures what Hampstead actually feels like: small, old, slightly hidden, and lovely.
Holly Walk and the heights
Up at the top of the village, around Holly Walk, Mount Vernon and Hollybush Hill, the streets get grander and quieter. This is where the bigger houses sit with their views, reached by steep lanes and stepped passages. The walk up is part of the pleasure, the rooftops appearing below you, and the Holly Bush pub waits at the top up its own hidden alley. It is the most village-on-a-hill part of Hampstead.
Admiral's Walk
Short but striking, Admiral's Walk is home to Admiral's House, the white house with the ship-style roof thought to have inspired Mary Poppins. The whole little street has a storybook quality, set high in the village with grand houses and a sense of having been important for a long time. It is worth the short detour from the main streets.
Keats Grove
For literary beauty, Keats Grove, where John Keats lived in what is now the Keats House museum, is a graceful street of larger houses set back behind gardens. It is leafier and more open than the tight village lanes, and the literary history adds to the atmosphere. Combine the street with a visit to the house and you have the prettiest corner of literary Hampstead.
A walk linking them
- Start at Church Row off the High Street, the showpiece.
- Wander up Flask Walk into the village's heart.
- Climb to Holly Walk and the heights, finishing near the Holly Bush.
- Detour to Admiral's Walk for the Mary Poppins house.
- End down at Keats Grove and Keats House.
It is an easy hour or two, with plenty of stops, and it covers the most beautiful Hampstead has without ever touching a main road for long.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most beautiful street in Hampstead?
Church Row, a complete Georgian terrace leading to the parish church, widely regarded as the finest Georgian street in London. Its elegant, almost unchanged houses and avenue of trees make it the highlight of the village.
Where is Flask Walk in Hampstead?
Flask Walk runs off Hampstead High Street, narrow at first then opening past the old bathhouse and cottages into the quiet centre of the village. It is named for the flasks of spa water once sold there.
Can you do a walk of Hampstead's prettiest streets?
Yes, easily. A loop from Church Row up through Flask Walk to Holly Walk and the heights, with a detour to Admiral's Walk and ending at Keats Grove, takes an hour or two and covers the most beautiful streets.
Why are Hampstead's streets so well preserved?
Hampstead developed early as a fashionable village and has been protected by conservation rules and well-off residents ever since, so its Georgian terraces and old lanes survive largely intact, unlike much of inner London.
