Hampstead

According to my research (ahem, Wikipedia), Hampstead has more millionaires in its boundaries than any other city in the United Kingdom. Those millionaires obviously take very good care of their city, as it's beautiful. Although Hampstead is only twenty minutes from central London by tube, it retains the feel of a village. Well, a very chic village; I saw some of the nicest independent boutiques here, along with your standard high street shops. Hampstead must also be home to some great gardeners, as I saw the most amazing flowers. Britain, with all its rain and cool temperatures, makes for fantastic greenery.


Hampstead was also Keats’s home for the last two years of his life before he moved to Rome and succumbed to consumption. During his lifetime the house was actually two: that of his patron, Charles Brown, and the Brawnes’. The Keats museum worked closely with the film Bright Star (although house was too small to accommodate the filming) and I experienced a strange sense of déjà vu.

Hampstead was the final dwelling place of Sigmund Freud after he escaped from Vienna. While I didn’t get a chance to see his house, the couch where he performed his analyses is apparently on display there. But unlike many other London dwellers, he is not buried in nearby Highgate cemetery.

The Heath itself is really beautiful and much wilder (and larger) than most London parks. The paths are rustic and unmanicured, and you’d be hard-pressed to find the pristine flower arrangements and fountains that you see in Kensington Gardens or Regent’s Park. You may not be able to get cream tea as you can at The Orangery, but you can swim in the mixed bathing area, and you can feel blissfully alone.