ARTY FACTS - HAMPSTEAD HEATH - 2013

Main menu

ARTY FACTS

CULTURE

In 1971 Jethro Tull published the Song Mother Goose on their Aqualung Album. The lyrics are a pastiche of surreal figures based on images that Ian Anderson saw while wandering around Hampstead Heath. Lyrics excerpt: "As I did walk by Hampstead Fair I came upon Mother Goose -- so I turned her loose --"

Views of the Heath and its cloudscapes were a favourite subject of John Constable, who lived in nearby Well Walk.

John Keats lived in West Heath Road, and his poem Ode to a Nightingale was inspired by a bird he heard while at the Spaniards Inn on the northern border of the Heath.

CS Lewis was inspired to write the famous novel, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", while walking on the heath on a snowy day

The novel "It" by Stephen King features a fictional American writer who takes up residence at Hampstead Heath.

In the Dracula novel, by Bram Stoker, Hampstead Heath area plays an important role.
Lucy Westenra is supposed to live and be buried here.
Professor Abraham van Helsing and Dr. John Seward make several trips to Hampstead to examine Lucy's tomb.
On their way, they visit The Spaniards and Jack Straw's Castle.

The feature film, Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006), directed by Ed Blum, was shot entirely on Hampstead Heath. Notting Hill (1999) featured scenes shot at the Heath, located primarily around Kenwood House.

Hampstead Heath was featured on the television programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the London area, with a focus on Parliament Hill to the south. The episode was presented by Bill Oddie, who lives in nearby Gospel Oak, and watches birds there regularly.

In 2005, Giancarlo Neri's sculpture The Writer, a 9-metre tall table and chair, was exhibited on Hampstead Heath for a while.

Whilst living in London, Karl Marx and his family would take regular Sunday picnics on the Heath.
His body is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London, on March 17, 1883.

There were only eleven mourners at his funeral.

In the comedy show, Bo' Selecta, The Bear lived in a tree house on Hampstead Heath and would continually complain of being kept awake at night by 'the bummers'.

John Atkinson Grimshaw, Victorian era painter, painted an elaborate night-time scene of Hampstead Hill in oils.

Hampstead Heath also provided the backdrop for the opening scene in Victorian writer Wilkie Collins' novel The Woman in White.

A post-apocalyptic Hampstead Heath is the site of the village of Ham in Will Self's The Book of Dave.

Hampstead Heath is the primary setting for the 1983 short novel "The Purple Runner" by Paul Christman (Highgate Lane Press, Boulder, CO).

The appearance of a mysterious disfigured runner of incredible talent intrigues the habitués of the heath.

This book is considered one of the greatest running novels of all time, having become a cult classic (and very expensive to purchase).

In the television series "Spaced", Hampstead Heath is mentioned in a bit concerning a dog named after Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci.

Gramsci hungers for wealthy individuals- Simon Pegg's character, Tim, claims that the dog "now roams on Hampstead Heath, close to the meat."

In John Le Carre's novel Smiley's People, a major plot element involves retired spy George Smiley being called out of retirement to look into a murder committed on Hampstead Heath.

OTHER WELL KNOWN PEOPLE who have lived IN THE HAMPSTEAD AREA

Martin Amis, Simon Amstell[1994], Andrei Arshavin[1995], David Baddiel[1996], Mark Banin, Clive Barker, Björk, Helena Bonham Carter[1997], Alain de Botton, Russell Brand, Alfred Brendel[1998], Fiona Bruce, Emma Bunton, Tim Burton, Melanie Chisholm, Constantine II of Greece[1999], Giles Coren[1996], Russell Crowe, Craig David, Dame Judi Dench, Francesc Fabregas[2000], Ralph Fiennes, Judy Finnigan, Michael Foot, Stephen Fry, Liam Gallagher, Boy George, Ricky Gervais, Hugh Grant, David Gray (musician), Eva Green, Jeff Green, Geri Halliwell, Marlon Harewood, Thierry Henry[2001], Freddie Highmore, Aliaksandr Hleb, Jeremy Irons, Samantha Janus[2002], Katrina Kaif, Suzy Kendall, Stephen Kovacevich[2003], Hugh Laurie, Jude Law, Freddie Ljungberg, Ki Longfellow, Nick Mason[2004], George Michael, Carol McGiffin, Richard Madeley, Chris Martin, Jake Maskall, William Melling, Stephen Merchant, Sienna Miller, Samir Nasri, Rex Newmark, Jamie Oliver, Peter O'Toole, Michael Palin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robin van Persie, Karl Pilkington, Brad Pitt, Jonathan Ross, Tim Roth, Paul Samwell-Smith, Marc Sinden, Jon Sopel, Rachel Stevens, Sting, Melanie Sykes, Janet Suzman, Elizabeth Taylor, Emma Thompson, Linda Thompson, Richard Thompson, Thomas Vermaelen, Emma Watson[2005], Rachel Weisz, Richard Wilson, Kate Winslet, Michael Wood (historian), John Williams (guitarist).

In John Le Carre's novel Smiley's People, a major plot element involves retired spy George Smiley being called out of retirement to look into a murder committed on Hampstead Heath.