SETTLEMENT AND GROWTH.
Finds on
Hampstead Heath, including many Mesolithic flint
tools, pits, postholes, and burnt stones, indicate a
community of hunter-gatherers of c. 7000 B.C. (fn. 20)
Cinerary urns and grave goods of 90-120 A.D. were
found near Well Walk in 1774, suggesting a nearby
Roman dwelling or road. (fn. 21) Continuous habitation,
however, dated from Anglo-Saxon times, when the
name Hampstead indicated a single farm-site, presumably in a woodland clearing. (fn. 22) Fragments of
pottery possibly dating from the 5th-7th centuries
were found on the heath but were too small to
furnish evidence of settlement. Charcoal-burning
took place on the heath in the 10th century. (fn. 23)
The charter attributed to King Æthelred mentions one dwelling (Deormod's wic) on the eastern
border. (fn. 24) Domesday Book recorded only 1 villein,
5 bordars, and 1 serf and, although there were presumably famuli on the demesne and probably also on
Ranulf Peverell's subinfeudated hide, it is unlikely
that any other category of inhabitant was omitted. (fn. 25)
Probably during the 12th century there was considerable increase both in the population and in the
cultivated area. There were 41 tenants and another
4 tenants of the Hyde by 1259 (fn. 26) and 54 by 1281. (fn. 27)
Some tenants may have held only land and it was
not until 1312 that the holdings were described. (fn. 28)
There were then 40 customary dwellings and six
freehold houses in addition to the demesne farm.
The manorial demesne farmland occupied the centre
of the parish, with woodland and heath to the north
and north-east. The freehold estates, most of them
held by religious houses, were on the edges of the
parish, in areas originally largely woodland. Most of
the customary land and dwellings were in Hampstead town and Pond Street, south and east of the
heath, with smaller settlements at West End and
Kilburn, and one tenement at Frognal. The location
of the church suggests that its primary function was
to serve the manor, although it was not far from the
town well and High Street.
Hampstead, on high ground visible from London,
may always have represented health to the overcrowded citizens. In 1349 the abbot of Westminster
fled there to escape the Black Death, which he probably brought with him. (fn. 29) In 1524 Londoners sought
safety on Hampstead's heights from a threatened
flooding (fn. 30) and in the late 16th century topographers
remarked on the fine views and 'very healthful air'. (fn. 31)
In the plague of 1603 Sir William Waad, who lived
at Belsize, wrote of people coming from town and
dying under hedges, 'whereof we have experience
weekly here at Hampstead'. (fn. 32) During the great
plague in 1665, trust in clear air on hills brought
throngs from London to Hampstead town, where
there were 260 deaths in 100 houses. (fn. 33)
By 1653 Hampstead had acquired an additional
attraction, when doggerel advertised 'Air and Hill
and Well'. (fn. 34) In 1683, however, the earl of Arran was
pleased that the duchess of Ormond was leaving
Hampstead: 'for I do by no means think that a
wholesome air, there being a bog very near as I
remember'. (fn. 35) Most people, however, delighted in
the air on the heath (fn. 36) and agreed with the earl of
Oxford in 1720 that Hampstead was a very good
place for air and yet within the reach of the best
physicians. (fn. 37)
The Black Death may have contributed to the
concentration of customary holdings among fewer
tenants, the most important of whom, by the mid
15th century, were Londoners. Fewer names in
rentals from the late 14th century did not, however,
necessarily reflect a smaller population, for the inhabitants may have been undertenants. (fn. 38) By 1548
Hampstead had 147 communicants, (fn. 39) and in 1642
178 males took the protestation oath. (fn. 40) As outsiders,
particularly Londoners, acquired property, the old
inhabitants became landless labourers, employed in
the brickfields, or as launderers, servants, or tradesmen. In the early 16th century Hampstead was said
to be chiefly inhabited by washerwomen, who served
the nobility and London citizens. (fn. 41) In 1653 Hampstead pleaded poverty on the grounds that 'divers
houses' were occupied by citizens who paid their
taxes in London and many inhabitants were poor
wage-earning labourers at the tilekilns, while their
wives washed clothes for Londoners. (fn. 42)
Cheap lodgings were available for people like Sir
Martin Frobisher's wife and children, who were said
to be starving in Hampstead c. 1577. (fn. 43) Most of the
newcomers were more prosperous: merchants,
courtiers, lawyers, writers, and artists, who often
bought or rented a house, initially only for the
summer. In 1661 John Woodward sought exemption from the office of constable because he lived in
Hampstead only during the three or four summer
months (fn. 44) and in 1674 the manor house was leased
to a man who stayed there six weeks a year. (fn. 45) As late
as 1724 Defoe observed that in winter Hampstead
had nothing to recommend it. (fn. 46)
In 1648 poor inhabitants complained that Londoners were taking their houses for the sake of the
air in the summer. (fn. 47) As more substantial houses
were built for the newcomers on the copyholds and
on some of the freehold estates, several, for example,
being built in Belsize, indigenous inhabitants tended
to move to the heath. Some may have been squatters
but most sought grants of the waste, which became
copyhold, on which they built small cottages, having
in 1648 established their right to do so without needing 4 a. in support. (fn. 48) There was one grant of waste,
in Pond Street, in 1607 and one in 1654; c. 20
grants, possibly more, were made between 1654 and
1690, another 20 in the next decade, 30 in 1700, and
60 between 1700 and 1720. (fn. 49) Some of the earliest
inclosures, at Cloth Hill and Boad's Corner (New
End), were made during the Civil War and not recorded, presumably because of disorders and because the lord of the manor was on the losing side.
Other early inclosures were probably forgotten after
court rolls were destroyed in a fire c. 1684. There
was another period of disorganization between 1720
and 1737, when rival courts were held and records
of grants by Ditchfield, the deputy of one of the
contending stewards, were lost. (fn. 50)
Settlement spread during the 17th century from
Hampstead town across the heath, northward to
Cloth Hill and Littleworth, eastward to Boad's
Corner and New End, and westward to East End
and Frognal. Settlements grew up about the same
time at the northern end of the heath, at North End
and Spaniard's End and, during the 18th century, at
the Vale of Health. Growth in the older hamlets of
West End and Kilburn, although not on the heath,
was at least partly at the expense of roadside waste.
There were 78 cottages in 1646 (fn. 51) and nearly 100 in
1664, made up of 57 dwellings not charged for
hearth tax and another 40 with one or two hearths. (fn. 52)
In 1674 130 dwellings had two or fewer hearths (fn. 53)
and in 1762 70 dwellings were described as cottages. (fn. 54) The increase in the number of dwellings,
therefore, was mainly of larger houses, which
gradually replaced first the old cottages and then the
newer ones on the waste. A few places in the old
town, notably west of High Street, which became an
area of crowded yards, and the low-lying New End,
long remained the homes of the poor. Most of the
copyholds, however, fell into the hands of newcomers, either as owners or occupiers. Hampstead
was the home of several prominent parliamentarians
during the Civil War, probably because of its connexion with London merchants. In 1664 they still
occupied the six largest houses, each with 16 or more
hearths, except that Belsize House was occupied by
the royalist Daniel O'Neill. Also on the Belsize
estate were houses occupied by Serjeant John Wilde,
the parliamentarian, and by Thomas Hawley, a
London mercer of unknown political affiliation. To
the north all the large houses on Slyes estate were
occupied by parliamentarians: Col. John Owen and
the widow of Harry Vane; the widow of John Towse
(d. 1645), grocer and colonel, lived in the Old
Mansion at Frognal. Of a total of 161 houses in
1664, 6 had 11-15 hearths, 17 had 6-10 hearths, and
35 had 3-5. (fn. 55) By 1674 the total had increased to 225
houses, Belsize House had been rebuilt and was by
far the largest, with 36 hearths, and one house had
23 hearths and another had 20; there were six with
11-15, 29 with 6-10, and 54 with 3-5 hearths. (fn. 56) By
1704 there were 267 copyhold dwellings, of which
64 were specified as having been taken from the
heath. (fn. 57)
HAMPSTEAD IN 1762
With the commercial exploitation of the wells
from 1698, more visitors wanted lodgings. In 1710 a
German observed that 'many drive out from London
and some spend all summer there'. (fn. 58) For a brief
period Hampstead and, a little later, Belsize were the
height of fashion, but as early as 1709 the nearness
of London brought 'so many loose women in
vamped-up old clothes to catch the City apprentices,
that modest company are ashamed to appear'. (fn. 59)
Although in 1735 'the meaner sort' were discouraged
from settling there, (fn. 60) the town continued to grow,
attracting the middle class rather than the fashionable. The petition for a new church in 1747 gave as
its reason that the town was a place of great resort,
especially in the summer. (fn. 61) Hampstead in 1709 was
a large village with many pleasant lodgings (fn. 62) and by
1724 it had 'increased to that degree, that the town
almost spreads the whole side of the hill'. (fn. 63) There
was some terraced housing, notably in Church Row,
which was probably speculative, but most building
was of one or two houses, 'good substantial carpenters' jobs'. (fn. 64) There were between 500 and 600 families in the parish c. 1730 (fn. 65) and about 500 houses and
cottages by 1762. (fn. 66)
During the later 18th century some inns closed
and some larger houses were divided or tenemented.
More of the wealthy, including lawyers, merchants,
bankers, and politicians, moved into the newer areas
of settlement, Upper Terrace, Littleworth, Frognal,
and North End. In Littleworth, for example, the
total number of dwellings declined as villas in extensive grounds replaced the crowded cottages. By 1774
the heath was described as adorned with many
gentlemen's houses, (fn. 67) and during the late 18th and
early 19th centuries villas were built on several freehold and copyhold estates, including Bartrams, Belsize, and West End, and on the demesne at Frognal.
There were 686 houses in 1795, (fn. 68) 842 inhabited
houses in 1811, and 1,180 in 1831. (fn. 69) In 1814 Hampstead's permanent residents formed a 'select, amicable, respectable, and opulent neighbourhood'. (fn. 70)
Although Hampstead had ceased to be a spa, it continued to attract visitors and permanent residents
anxious for their health. During the 19th century its
reputation increased, as London became more polluted. In 1833 residents could enjoy 'pure air,
lovely scenery, and retired and beautiful walks',
while taking part in the amusements of the capital
and in summer receiving an influx of genteel Londoners. (fn. 71) In 1816, however, the far-famed salubrity
of Hampstead was said to have led speculators to
encumber it with tenements far beyond the need of
the population. Many streets diverged from the
'great thoroughfare' (presumably the London road),
crowded with ill-constructed and unoccupied buildings, intended as lodgings for invalids. (fn. 72) In 1826
there was a 'vast and increasing number of small
houses' and nearly half the houses were rated at less
than £10. Since rates were not collected from them,
there was until 1827, when the owners were rated,
an inducement for the owners, mostly bricklayers
and carpenters, to build small houses. There were
still many small dwellings in 1834. (fn. 73)
Hampstead town, with its copyholds, was, together with the heath and the demesne, the area
mainly affected after 1821 by the restrictions of Sir
Thomas Maryon Wilson's will. (fn. 74) The wholesale
development of estates, (fn. 75) as opposed to small-scale
building, was largely on freehold land to the south,
adjacent to districts outside the parish, where building had already recently taken place. Wholesale
exploitation on the Belsize estate began on the Bliss
estate in 1815 and increased after an Act in 1842
enabled church lands to be let on building leases. It
began on the Kilburn priory estate in 1819 and
accelerated during the 1840s and 1850s. An Act
enabling 99-year building leases to be granted on the
Chalcots estate of Eton College was passed in 1826,
followed by much building, especially in the 1840s
and 1850s. The construction of the Finchley New
Road in 1829 stimulated building on the St. John's
Wood estate, which followed agreements in 1838
and 1845. The numbers of houses in the parish rose
from 1,411 in 1841 to 2,653 in 1861 and 4,348 in
1871. (fn. 76)
The rate of building quickened from the 1860s,
partly as a result of the opening of railway stations,
which particularly affected West End and central
Kilburn. Another factor was the lifting of the restrictions of Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson's will after
the death of his son in 1869. The central demesne
area was then opened up for development and the
copyhold estates on the edges of Hampstead were
similarly developed in the 1870s. The tide of building
washed northward, reaching Childs Hill by the end
of the century, with no estate untouched. In the mid
1950s it was estimated that 69 per cent of Hampstead's buildings had been put up between 1870 and
1916, compared with 20 per cent before 1870 and
11 per cent after 1916. (fn. 77) The numbers of dwellings
rose to 9,517 in 1891 and 11,976 in 1911. (fn. 78)
Hampstead: Settlement And Growth
The estates (with the date of the earliest building lease in brackets) are:
I Hampstead Town: 1 Coleman (1812), 2 Bartrams (1867), 3 Greenhill (1869), 4 Gardnor (1871), 5 Gayton (1871), 6 South Hill Park (1871), 7 Salter (1872), 8 Hampstead Hill Gdns. (c. 1873), 9 Carlile (1875), 10 Wells (1876)
II Frognal and the Central Demesne: 1 Manorial demesne (1875), 2 Oak Hill (formerly demesne) (1850s), 3 Copyhold, 4 Formerly waste
III West End: 1 Land Co. of London (Hillfield) (1868), 2 British Land Co. (West End Ho.) (c. 1872), 3 Potter (1873), 4 Nicoll (West End Park) (1877), 5 Ripley (Gilberts) (1881), 6 Land Bldg. Investment & Cottage Improvement Co. (Earlsfield) (1883), 7 National Standard Land Mortgage & Investment Co. (Flitcroft) (1886), 8 Flitcroft (1886), 9 Sandwell Ho. (1893), 10 Woodbine Cottage (1896)
IV Kilburn: 1 Kilburn Priory (1819), 2 Nicoll (Little) (1865), 3 British Land Co. (Gilberts) (1869), 4 United Land Co. (Gilberts) (1869), 5 Little (1879), 6 Powell-Cotton (Liddell) (1866), 7 Powell-Cotton (Kilburn Woods) (1874), 8 Powell-Cotton (Shoot Up Hill) (1880)
V Belsize: 1 Bliss (1815), 2 Lund (St. John's Park) (1852), 3 Belsize Park (1855), 4 Rosslyn Ho. (1855), 5 Bliss (1864) 6 Todd (1865), 7 Todd (1869), 8 Belsize Court (1880), 9 Rosslyn Grove (1883), 10 Hillfield (1883), 11 South End farm (1878)
VI St. John's Wood
VII Chalcots
VIII North End, Littleworth, and Spaniard's End: 1 North End, 2 Littleworth, 3 Spaniard's End
IX Vale of Health
X Childs Hill: 1 Burgess (Temple), 2 Burgess (Childs Hill estate after 1855), 3 Teil (Childs Hill estate)
Most of the 19th- and early 20th-century houses
were a mixture of builders' vernacular and architectdesigned, the latter mainly in the better-class districts. There were many on the Fitzjohn's and
Greenhill estates of the 1870s and later among the
northern demesne houses around Redington Road,
but virtually none in West Hampstead or Kilburn.
Among architects who built in Hampstead, including several who built houses for themselves or their
relatives, were Ewan Christian, Richard Norman
Shaw, C. F. A. Voysey, Reginald Blomfield, and
Basil Champneys. Hundreds of builders, mostly
local men, worked on a small scale from pattern
books. Among more substantial builders were Daniel
Tidey, Charles Bean King, Batterbury & Huxley,
William Willett, father and son, E. J. Cave, and
Thomas Clowser. In spite of the many different
builders, the general impression was of homogeneity,
dictated by the style current at the time, from the
stuccoed, classical, or Italianate houses of the south
part of the parish, to the red-brick, spiky, gabled
Gothic or comfortable large-windowed 'Queen
Anne' of the central and north parts. (fn. 79)
The houses throughout the period were mostly
occupied by middle-class families. In 1831 Hampstead contained 356 capitalists, bankers, professionals, and 'other educated men' and 14 per cent of
the female population were servants. In 1861 it
housed 92 solicitors, 46 barristers, 132 merchants,
and 23 stockbrokers. There were 102 coachmen, 56
grooms or horsekeepers, and 147 gardeners, and
2,559 women, 21 per cent of the female population,
were servants. (fn. 80) By the end of the 1880s Hampstead, 'one of the largest and most prosperous' of
London's residential suburbs, had a higher proportion of upper-class and servants, 25.5 per cent and
16.3 per cent respectively, than any other place in
London except Brompton. All building was for the
rich, rents were high and, with a few exceptions, all
areas in Hampstead were becoming more wealthy. (fn. 81)
An analysis of the occupations of the population (fn. 82)
confirms that view. Of the male population, professional men and merchants increased from nearly
11 per cent in 1851 to 18 per cent in 1911, (fn. 83) and
gentry, independents, and annuitants of both sexes
similarly increased. (fn. 84) A surplus of unmarried but
marriageable women was accounted for by servants,
whose numbers, indicated by the ratio of women to
men, were a sign of the relative wealth of the parish.
From 57-8 per cent in the early 19th century, the
ratio increased to 61.6 per cent in 1862 and remained c. 61 per cent until 1931. (fn. 85) The highest
point was reached in the period before the First
World War, when 26-7 per cent of all females over
the age of 10 were domestic servants. (fn. 86) In 1901 in
the wealthy Central ward females formed 68 per
cent of the total population and in Kilburn, the
poorest area, 54.6 per cent. (fn. 87)
Professional men and gentlemen were dominant
in directing Hampstead's affairs, although in the
1870s and 1880s tradesmen, especially in the old
town, were influential, and in 1874 Hampstead was
castigated for backwardness in cultural and civic
matters. By c. 1900 professional men and gentry
from the newer areas were in control and there was
a revival in cultural and intellectual life. (fn. 88)
Writers had visited or settled in Hampstead at
least since the early 18th century, attracted, like
others, by the air and rural peace or by the company
and entertainments associated with the wells and
Belsize. (fn. 89) Later, at the time of the romantic movement, the wild beauty of the heath itself became the
chief attraction. (fn. 90) Hampstead was an especial
favourite with artists and writers, many of them
young and radical, who could still find relatively
cheap lodgings in Hampstead town, the Vale of
Health, or North End. There were other, more staid
and, in their day, celebrated people like George
Romney, Joanna Baillie, and the publishers Longman, but it was Constable and Leigh Hunt and his
circle who established Hampstead's reputation as an
intellectual centre. Lesser writers and artists, mostly
fashionable ones throughout the 19th century,
moved in to the newer estates or Church Row.
Thomas Batterbury, who lived in Parkhill Road, of
the firm Batterbury & Huxley, built artists' studios
on the Belsize and Chalcots estates, (fn. 91) a group of
architects established themselves in Church Row in
the 1870s, and architects designed studio houses for
artists on the expensive demesne estates and at
Greenhill. At the end of the 1880s Hampstead included an influential colony of workers in art,
science, and literature. (fn. 92) The number of authors,
editors, artists, architects, musicians, and actors rose
from 42 men and 7 women in 1851, to 1,033 men
and 679 women in 1911, an increase from 0.66 per
cent to 3.7 per cent of the occupied population. (fn. 93)
The wealth and culture were not found everywhere. About 1890, in spite of improvements which
had cleared away the worst slums, Hampstead town
was still the area with the highest proportion of
families in poverty, 28 per cent. In the district east
of Haverstock Hill, which included South End,
27.5 per cent of families were in poverty, partly
accounted for by a blight on building near the smallpox hospital, which itself increased the death rate in
the 1870s in an otherwise very healthy parish.
About 1890 20.2 per cent of families in Kilburn
were in poverty. The increase in the numbers of
wealthy residents caused a rise in rents, and clearances in the old town led the poor to move to Gospel
Oak, in St. Pancras, or to West Hampstead and
Kilburn, where rents were lower. Other immigrants,
from poor parts of London and from Ireland, were
competing for rooms there in houses which, though
small, were beginning to be divided. (fn. 94) Thus developed a cleavage between the wealthy east and the
increasingly poor and crowded west parts of Hampstead. Some 10.3 per cent of its inhabitants were
living more than two to a room in 1898 (fn. 95) and the
number of houses let in lodgings rose from 199 in
1906 to 405 in 1920. (fn. 96)
Hampstead: Evolution Of Settlement, 1844-1904
(scale 1 in. to 1 mile)
A certain cosmopolitanism had been apparent
since the 16th century, when Londoners owning
property and probably living in Hampstead included people whose names indicated Jewish or
European origins. (fn. 97) There were some 200 refugees
from the French revolution (fn. 98) and six Jewish households in Belsize in 1868, while Kilburn had enough
Irish by 1879 to lead to the opening of a Roman
Catholic church. (fn. 99) In the late 19th century foreignborn inhabitants came mainly from Germany,
France, or the United States; (fn. 1)
c. 1890 an influx of
Jews and Bohemians, especially in West Hampstead,
tended to replace the older families. (fn. 2)
The arrival of foreigners and urbanized Jews may
have furthered the growth, from the late 19th century, of purpose-built flats, and the division of
houses into flats and, increasingly, into bed-sitting
rooms or lodging houses. By 1931 there were 14,758
separate dwellings. (fn. 3) The division of houses spread
from West Hampstead to the large, middle-class
houses of Belsize, Chalcots, and St. John's Wood.
The trend, intensified after the First World War,
was to smaller families and more separate households: between 1911 and 1931 the population grew
by only 4 per cent but the number of households by
27 per cent. Although domestic servants dwindled
from 27 per cent of the total female population in
1901 to 19 per cent in 1931, there were still 10,348
servants in 1931. Meanwhile the ratio of servants to
households almost halved, from 81.4 servants to
every 100 households in 1901 to 47 in 1931. (fn. 4) Most
people rented their homes and many moved on after
the short leases expired: in 1895 it was estimated
that 4,000 out of 12,000 voters had left the district
between electoral registrations. (fn. 5) The turnover was
still greater after the First World War, partly because use of the motor car hastened migration by
some of the wealthy to the country. As others moved
to the upper part of the old town or the grand houses
hear the heath, 'a tide of multi-occupation swept in'
across the formerly smart southern estates, which
began to deteriorate, physically and socially. Houses
in Belsize Avenue halved in value between the 1880s
and the 1920s and 1930s. (fn. 6) The number of houses
let in lodgings had increased to 1,295 by the end of
1930 (fn. 7) and a drab existence in bed-sitting rooms,
described by George Orwell, (fn. 8) became more common during the 1930s. There were patches of
poverty but, while the general social and economic
level of Hampstead declined, real poverty held only
1.4 per cent of its population in 1930, the lowest for
any London borough. (fn. 9) Overcrowding, defined as
more than two persons to a room, was the lot of
6.5 per cent of the population in 1921 and 4.1 per
cent in 1931. (fn. 10)
In 1921 Hampstead was still favoured by
prosperous businessmen. (fn. 11) It also attracted the
intelligentsia, who formed 2.6 per cent of the occupied population in 1921 and 2.8 per cent in 1931. (fn. 12)
Hampstead was then about to see a flowering in the
arts, which made the 1930s 'the most significant and
influential period in its history'. (fn. 13) A group of leading British artists and writers, who came especially
to the Mall studios in Belsize and to the Downshire
Hill area, attracted European refugees, mainly
painters but also psychoanalysists, scientists, architects, Viennese booksellers, and German Jewish
cabaret artists. (fn. 14) Hampstead consequently remained
in the forefront of the arts until their practitioners
were dispersed by the war.
The percentage of foreign-born residents rose
from 4.9 in 1921 to 6.4 in 1931 and 16.4 in 1951. Of
those, mainly Jews, most came from Germany,
others from Poland, Austria, and Russia. In 1951
those born in the Irish Republic comprised 4.7 per
cent of the population, although the number of those
in Kilburn with Irish ancestry was evidently much
higher. Those born in the Commonwealth overseas
formed 2.9 per cent, a proportion which had risen to
7.9 per cent by 1961. (fn. 15)
During the Second World War air raids killed
200 people, destroyed 407 houses, and damaged
another 13,000. (fn. 16) Maintenance was neglected and
the deterioration apparent before 1939 continued
into the 1950s. In 1951 the Church Commissioners
sold off many of their freeholds, which had long
been declining in value. Bed-sitting rooms multiplied and the population became still more fluid,
with one-third leaving every year. (fn. 17) In 1955 Hampstead had the highest suicide rate in England and
Wales, which was explained by the loneliness of so
many people who had left home for London. (fn. 18) In
1961 almost half of all dwellings were unfurnished
and privately rented and, in spite of the virtual disappearance of servants, there were still 27,000 unmarried girls, compared with 31,000 in 1931.
Hampstead metropolitan borough was one of the
first, albeit on a modest scale, to build houses or
flats. Its activity in that field greatly increased after
the Second World War. There were 2,989 local
authority dwellings by 1961, when the total housing
stock was 29,468, (fn. 19) and 3,660 by 1965, when Hampstead became part of Camden L.B. (fn. 20) Blocks of flats,
some built by the borough and the L.C.C., others
by private developers, have transformed much of
Hampstead, particularly the south and west parts.
The flats, aesthetically controversial, have relieved
the overcrowding, which rose from 0.71 persons to
a room in 1931 to 0.81 in 1951, being as much as
0.92 in Kilburn ward. By 1961 the ratio was 0.75 to
a room and by 1971 0.66. (fn. 21)
Except in Well Walk, where the last of the wells
buildings were demolished, Hampstead town survived the war with its old buildings intact and later
escaped the wholesale transformation of some other
areas. The best houses had never lost their desirability and by the mid 1950s speculators were buying
up houses on some of the dingier streets and selling
them to the better off. In 1961 most of the 5,467
owner-occupied dwellings, 18.5 per cent of the
whole, were in Hampstead town and the more
attractive areas to the north. (fn. 22) Throughout the
1960s and 1970s, as redevelopment grew more
obtrusive, Victorian houses were rehabilitated in
increasing numbers, first in Hampstead town and
then in the surrounding estates. Although many
dwellings were still bed-sitting rooms, more and
more houses came to be occupied again by middleclass families, many of the large houses having been
divided. At the end of the 1970s the contrast between west and east remained: council flats and
large families, often of Irish or more recent immigrant origin, characterized the west, conservation
areas with young and prosperous inhabitants the
east. (fn. 23) By the late 1980s property in most of Hampstead was expensive. Residents included many people
prominent in the arts and popular entertainment.
The population doubled from 4,343 in 1801 to
8,588 in 1831, and had increased to 19,106 by 1861,
45,452 by 1881, and 82,329 by 1901. The increase
had slowed to 88,947 by 1931 and, after dropping
to 58,000 in 1941 during the war, increased, partly
by immigration, to 95,131 in 1951 and 98,844 in
1961, before dropping to 89,910 in 1971. (fn. 24)