790 acres of woodland, meadow, hill and pond, with views across London, wild swimming, a Rembrandt in a Robert Adam mansion and the best pub garden in north London. Here are the walks that make the most of all of it.
Hampstead Heath is one of those places that Londoners think they know until they actually explore it properly. Parliament Hill with its panoramic view is famous. The bathing ponds have their devoted regulars. But the Heath covers 790 acres and most people see maybe a fifth of it on any given visit. These four walks are designed to fix that, covering different sections of the Heath and giving each one the time it deserves.
A few practical notes before you set off. The Heath is hilly and the paths can be muddy after rain: wear boots or proper trainers rather than anything you care about. The Heath itself is free and open around the clock. Pond swimming costs around £4.80 per adult, with the Men’s and Ladies’ Ponds open year-round and the Mixed Pond open April to October. Kenwood House is free to enter. The Brew House Café at Kenwood opens from 8am daily.
Walk 1: The Grand Tour (6 miles, 3 to 4 hours)
Start: Parliament Hill Café, Gospel Oak entrance Nearest station: Gospel Oak Overground or Hampstead Heath Overground Terrain: Hilly with some muddy sections after rain
This is the classic Hampstead Heath walk, taking in the highlights of the southern and northern halves in one satisfying sweep.
Start at the Parliament Hill Café at the Gospel Oak end of the Heath. Climb Parliament Hill for the view across London: on a clear day you can see from Crystal Palace to the Shard to Canary Wharf. Kite-flying has been a tradition here since at least the 17th century, and you’ll almost certainly see someone doing it.
From Parliament Hill, head north along the eastern edge of the Heath, passing the Highgate Ponds. These are the quieter cousins of the more famous Hampstead Ponds further south, and the woodland around them is some of the most beautiful on the Heath. The path you’re following north is known as Poet’s Lane, because both Coleridge and Keats used to walk here. Take a moment with that.
Continue to Kenwood House, the magnificent Robert Adam neoclassical villa at the northern edge of the Heath. Free to enter, it contains a Rembrandt self-portrait, a Vermeer, a Gainsborough and one of the finest small art collections in London, in a house of extraordinary elegance. Stop at the Brew House Café in the grounds for coffee or lunch before continuing.
From Kenwood, head west through the woodland towards the Spaniards Inn on Spaniards Road. The pub has been here since 1585, has one of the best beer gardens in north London, and John Keats apparently wrote Ode to a Nightingale in it. Whether you believe that or not, it’s a good place to stop.
Return south through the West Heath and back via Hampstead Village, where Flask Walk and Well Walk wind between Georgian houses and the high street has everything you need for a post-walk meal.
Walk 2: The ponds and pergola (4 miles, 2 to 3 hours)
Start: Hampstead tube station Nearest station: Hampstead (Northern line) Terrain: Mix of surfaced path and rougher ground
This walk takes in the Hampstead Ponds, the wild west of the Heath, and the extraordinary Hampstead Hill Garden and Pergola, which most people who have lived in London their entire lives have never found.
From Hampstead tube, walk down Heath Street and onto the Heath via East Heath Road. The Hampstead Ponds are on your left: three distinct ponds used for swimming, with the Ladies’ Pond and Men’s Pond open year-round for those who want to take a dip. In summer, booking in advance is essential. In winter, the hardy regulars who swim here do not slow down and do not apologise for it.
Continue west across the main Heath toward the West Heath, the quietest and most genuinely wild section of the whole 790 acres. Sandy Heath, beyond it, is ancient woodland that feels nothing like the rest of the park: older, denser, more disorienting in the best possible way.
From the West Heath, follow the path south into Golders Hill Park, a more manicured section with a small zoo, deer paddock and flower garden. Then loop east toward the Hill Garden and Pergola. Built in the early 20th century by Lord Leverhulme as a private garden, the Pergola is a raised walkway draped in wisteria, climbing roses and ancient vines, entirely free, almost entirely unknown, and in late spring one of the most beautiful places in London. We have said it before and we will say it again: if you have not been, you need to go.
Return to Hampstead tube via Hampstead High Street, which has no shortage of places to eat and drink.
Walk 3: Parliament Hill short walk (2 miles, 1 hour)
Start: Hampstead Heath Overground station Nearest station: Hampstead Heath Overground Terrain: Mostly surfaced path, one steep hill
For when you want the Heath without committing to a full afternoon. From the Overground station, walk through the Gospel Oak entrance and straight up to Parliament Hill. The climb takes about fifteen minutes and the view at the top is worth every step.
From Parliament Hill, loop round to the Mixed Pond, a lifeguarded open-water swimming spot open April to October and usually less busy than the single-sex ponds. If you’re not swimming, the path around the ponds is pleasant and quiet even in high summer.
Return via the Parliament Hill Café for a coffee and call it a morning. Under two hours, entirely satisfying.
Walk 4: The Hampstead literary walk (3 miles, 2 hours)
Start: Hampstead tube station Nearest station: Hampstead (Northern line) Terrain: Mostly surfaced, some Heath paths
Hampstead has housed more significant writers, artists and thinkers per square mile than almost anywhere else in London. This walk takes in the village before joining the Heath, and gives the whole thing the literary context it deserves.
From Hampstead tube, turn right onto Flask Walk, one of the prettiest streets in north London, named after the flask tavern that has stood here since the 17th century. Continue to Well Walk, where Keats lived from 1817 to 1820 and wrote much of his best work. Keats House on Keats Grove, a short detour south, is a free museum dedicated to his life and is worth the ten minutes it takes to walk there.
From Well Walk, join the Heath via East Heath Road and walk up to Parliament Hill for the view. Then drop down to the ponds and back via the South End Road entrance, finishing with a walk up Hampstead High Street through the village.
The houses you pass on this walk have been home to John Constable, H.G. Wells, Wilkie Collins, Boy George, Ricky Gervais, Daphne du Maurier and Judi Dench, among many others. It is that kind of village.
If you’d rather have a guide
London Walks run a guided Old Hampstead Village and Heath walk every Sunday morning at 10.30am and Wednesday afternoon at 2pm (except January and February). The meeting point is outside Hampstead tube station. David, who leads the Sunday walk, has been doing it long enough that almost nothing on the route goes unexplained, and the readers who have done it report it as one of the best guided walks in London. No booking required, just turn up.
The Inner London Ramblers run a circular Hampstead Heath walk of either 4.5 or 6.5 miles, starting and finishing at Hampstead tube, taking in Parliament Hill, the Highgate Ponds, Kenwood House and Poet’s Lane. The shorter version is an easy walk with moderate hills; the longer version adds a Highgate loop and is more demanding. Full step-by-step directions are available at innerlondonramblers.org.uk.
Heath Hands, the conservation charity that manages much of the Heath’s ecology, also runs free guided walks on Monday mornings at 10am from the Hampstead Heath Overground entrance, covering a larger area of the Heath including off-path sections. These are free with a suggested donation, and the Monday morning regulars tend to know the Heath in a way that most visitors never will.
Useful information
- Cafés on the Heath: Parliament Hill Café at the Gospel Oak entrance; Brew House Café at Kenwood (open from 8am daily); Golders Hill Café in the Golders Hill section.
- Pubs: The Spaniards Inn on Spaniards Road is the essential Hampstead Heath pub. The Flask on Flask Walk is the essential Hampstead village pub.
- Swimming: Around £4.80 per adult. Men’s and Ladies’ Ponds open year-round. Mixed Pond open April to October. Book in advance in summer at hampsteadheath.net.
- Kenwood House: Free entry. Open daily from 10am.
- Address: Multiple entrances. Parliament Hill entrance: Parliament Hill, London NW5. Hampstead entrance: Heath Street, London NW3.
The London x London Take: We have walked every one of these routes multiple times and they do not get old. The pergola in late spring, Parliament Hill on a clear winter morning, the Spaniards Inn in autumn: Hampstead Heath is the best green space in London, and these walks are the best way to understand why.
