Branch Hill Pond

Pond in/near Hampstead, existing until 1889.

 HOME  ·  ARTICLE  ·  MAPS  ·  STREETS  ·  BLOG  ·  CONTACT US 
(51.561 -0.18255, 51.561 -0.182) 
MAP YEAR:175018001810182018301860190019502024Show map without markers
ZOOM:14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 18 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 18
TIP: Use the zoom controls (top left) to zoom in and out of a particular map
Pond · * · NW3 ·
JANUARY
18
2017
Branch Hill Pond which was fed from a spring which was also the main source of the Westbourne.

Branch Hill Pond, which disappeared in the late nineteenth century, can still be seen as a distinct hollow in the heath which is still grassland at this point.

John Constable (1776-1837) came to Hampstead Heath in the late summer of 1819, seeking relief from urban London for his family of two children and his wife Maria who suffered from consumption. He rented a cottage at Upper Heath and at once began to paint the countryside; the uneven ground provided splendid viewpoints over the heath and toward London to the south.

By 1827 Constable had rented on a permanent basis a small four-story house at 40 Well Walk, Hampstead Heath. while still keeping a studio and minimum living space in London. He wrote Fisher that the drawing room of their new house situated on the high ground commanded "a view unequalled in Europe—from Westminster Abbey to Gravesend."

It was there in 1827 that he painted an important oil of Branch Hill Pond. Hampstead Heath. From a raised vantage point we look past a high hillock on the right across Branch Hill Pond to Windsor Castle and the fields of Harrow in the distance. Amid the rising and falling ground, labourers and farmers go about their chores of digging and hauling sand or tending animals. Two men fill a two-wheeled cart with sand much in demand for London building. A figure urges three donkeys towards us around the shoulder of the hill. Tiny figures of bathers appear at the near edge of the pond at which a horse with rider drinks. A single figure with walking staff is seated above the sand diggers on the hill which partly conceals the roof and chimneys of a local architectural landmark known as the Salt Box.

In the distance to the left, a local thunderstorm showers an area beyond Windsor. Constable painted the broken ground’of the heath, its hillocks and hollows in all their roughness. He took great delight in capturing the weedy bank in the foreground with separate thick strokes of sandy brown and green over a warm underpaint.




Main source: JSTOR
Further citations and sources


Click here to explore another London street
We now have 664 completed street histories and 46836 partial histories
Find streets or residential blocks within the M25 by clicking STREETS


CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Born here
   
Added: 16 Nov 2022 12:39 GMT   

The Pearce family lived in Gardnor Road
The Pearce family moved into Gardnor Road around 1900 after living in Fairfax walk, my Great grandfather, wife and there children are recorded living in number 4 Gardnor road in the 1911 census, yet I have been told my grand father was born in number 4 in 1902, generations of the Pearce continue living in number 4 as well other houses in the road up until the 1980’s

Reply

LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Comment
Wendy    
Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT   

Polygon Buildings
Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings.

Reply

Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT   

Road construction and houses completed
New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only.

Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

Reply
Comment
Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT   

Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS)
One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc.

I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

Reply
Comment
Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

My House
I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s.

Reply

NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

Telephone House
Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000

Reply
Comment
Paul Cox   
Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT   

War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street
Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there.

Reply
Comment
Diana   
Added: 28 Feb 2024 13:52 GMT   

New Inn Yard, E1
My great grandparents x 6 lived in New Inn Yard. On this date, their son was baptised in nearby St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

Source: BDM London, Cripplegate and Shoreditch registers written by church clerk.

Reply
Comment
Vic Stanley   
Added: 24 Feb 2024 17:38 GMT   

Postcose
The postcode is SE15, NOT SE1

Reply



LOCAL PHOTOS
Click here to see map view of nearby Creative Commons images
Click here to see Creative Commons images near to this postcode
Victorian house under construction
TUM image id: 1483541885
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Soldier’s Daughters Home from the "Illustrated London News", June 19, 1858 The Royal School, Hampstead was founded in 1855 as the Soldiers’ Infant Home before becoming the Royal Soldiers’ Daughters’ School on this site in 1867. It was established "to nurse, board, clothe and educate the female children, orphans or not, of soldiers in Her Majesty’s Army killed in the Crimean War". The Daughter’s School, as described in 1902: "At the back a large extent of grass playground stretched out westward, and at the end of this there was a grove of trees. On one side of the grass is a large playroom built in 1880 by means of an opportune legacy, and on the other a covered cloister which led to the school, standing detached from the house at the other end of the playground. An old pier burdened with a mass of ivy stood up in the centre, the only remnant of this part of old Vane House. A portion of the ground was profitably sold for the frontage to Fitz John’s Avenue." The school site is now used as a senior campus of North Bridge House School.
Credit: The Illustrated London News
TUM image id: 1458756121
Licence:
Holly Walk, NW3
TUM image id: 1455451397
Licence: CC BY 2.0
North End Road, NW11
TUM image id: 1492987726
Licence:

In the neighbourhood...

Click an image below for a better view...
The Old Bull and Bush The Old Bull and Bush, near Hampstead Heath, gave its name to the music hall song "Down at the old Bull and Bush" sung by Florrie Forde. The interior was renovated to a modern, gastropub style in 2006. Until the introduction of the smoking ban in England in 2007, The Bull and Bush was one of the few completely smoke-free pubs in London. The earliest record of a building on the site is of a farmhouse in 1645. The farmhouse gained a licence to sell ale in 1721. William Hogarth drank here, and is believed to have been involved in planting out the pub garden.
Old London postcard
Licence:


Heath House, Hampstead
Credit: GoArt/The Underground Map
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Church Row, NW3 Church Row is an eighteenth-century residential street. Many of the properties are listed on the National Heritage List for England. The writer H. G. Wells bought No. 17 in 1909 and lived there with his wife, Jane. The comedian Peter Cook bought No. 17 for £24,000 in 1965. Cook and Dudley Moore wrote their Pete & Dud routines in the attic.
Licence:


Flask Walk, Hampstead (1922)
Credit: Charles Ginner (1878-1952)
Licence:


Holly Walk, NW3
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Removing the ’Dick Turpin House and Stables’ which once stood close to the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead, January 1934. The building caused an even narrower traffic obstruction than the pub still does today
Licence:


Spedan Close
Credit: municipaldreams.wordpress.com
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Yorkshire Grey Place, NW3
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Church Row, Hampstead. This etching appears as the frontispiece of 'An introduction to Hampstead' by G.E. Mitton, published in 1902.
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Whitestone Pond (1900s)
Licence: CC BY 2.0




  Contact us · Copyright policy · Privacy policy