Hampstead
was still very much the rural town during the Georgian period. About
four miles north of London and close to Highgate,
Hampstead was a populous small town renowned for its "romantic
situation, and the extensive and beautiful views it commanded".
Hampstead sat on the declivity of a hill whose summit formed an extensive
heath, "many parts of which, consisting of broken ground, divided
into enclosures, and well planted with elms and other trees, are extremely
picturesque, and finely contrast with the metropolis." On the side
of the hill to the east of the town was a spring of mineral water, highly
impregnated with iron, very popular during the late seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. During the Georgian period a long room adjoined
the spring which had been used for promenades and public breakfasts.
By the turn of the nineteenth century it had been converted into a chapel
of ease. During 1774 several Roman artifacts (vases, urns, earthen lamps
etc.) were dug up close by, indicating the spring had been in use during
Roman times as well.
Hampstead
church was a chapel of ease, annexed to Hendon until 1477 when it
became a perpetual curacy. It was completely rebuilt in 1747 and "merits
the appellation of a neat structure, but possessed no further claim
to notice".
