Ask a local

A day to ourselves and, instead of heading into London as we had thought we might, we decided to stay local. We are getting to know and like Hampstead, but I needed to know more about it. I found a little booklet in the local book shop and we used this trail to take us from Hampstead back to Belsize Park, following little streets and side roads and finding a good deal of the history of the area. In terms of buildings, it would have been easier to say who amongst the famous in various walks of life didn’t live in Hampstead at some point. I have never seen so many blue plaques.

But, before we arrived at the really ‘posh’ bit of Hampstead, we walked through the old village, finding terraces of houses that were built for workers to live in. We arrived at what had once been the village green, although there wasn’t much of it left now, and found this building - a 19th century public baths and wash house. Gordon got talking to a lady who lived locally and she told us that she remembered when the place was still in use. The houses in the area rarely had baths and so people used to go down to the washhouse - females on certain days and males on the other days. The women used to take the washing with them to the laundry and drying room. Hard to imagine all that, when those very houses, built for workers and without baths, can now only be bought by the very well off indeed. I presume they have bathrooms now!

Eventually, after passing the houses of the rich and famous and many other intriguing buildings, we returned to the hotel and then set off on the ‘sight seeing’ 168 bus ride to Waterloo Bridge. By that time the sky, which had been clear and bright, was very dark. There was a strange light and wind. Strangeness seems to be all we have seen of this weird weather, others haven’t been as lucky. Hope everyone is safe in the gales.

We are now down at the Royal Festival Hall and will soon be meeting up with the rest of the family to go to the Booker Shortlist Readings.