Welcome to London x London’s Hampstead Guide: your guide to the best bars, restaurants and things to do in this North London neighbourhood.
Hampstead sits in the London Borough of Camden, several miles north of central London, bordering Hampstead Heath to the north and Highgate to the east, with Belsize Park just south.
Hampstead is one of London’s most handsome corners, and it rewards a slow wander more than almost anywhere else in the city.
With more than a thousand years of recorded history behind it, this is a place that has drawn writers, artists and the well-off for centuries.
Bronze Age settlers occupied Parliament Hill long before the Romans left pottery scattered across the area, and by the 19th century Hampstead Village had become home to a long list of influential residents, laying the groundwork for the sought-after postcode it remains today.
Its Georgian and Victorian streets have since been carefully restored, returning the area to something close to its old, affluent glory. Weekends here have a settled rhythm: locals grabbing coffee on the high street, then heading out to walk off the weekend on the Heath, past the ponds and pubs that give Hampstead its particular, villagey charm.
Villagey, literary and quietly affluent
