History 3 - HAMPSTEAD HEATH 2012

Despite Sir Thomas's disavowals of plans for the heath itself, a third estate Bill had to be withdrawn in 1843 and a fourth, to permit the sale of all his Hampstead property, was defeated in 1844.
A fifth Bill was defeated in 1853 and a sixth, concerned only with land along Finchley Road, in 1854.
When a seventh Bill was overtaken by the Leases and Sales of Settled Estates Act of 1856, making it easier to change strict settlements, an unprecedented clause was inserted to debar Sir Thomas, as a previous applicant, from taking advantage of the new law.
Further debates followed in 1857, 1859, and 1860, as lawyers' attempts to remove the clause were frustrated by metropolitan M.P.s, whose constituents were making increasing use of The Heath.

The proposal was made after public discussion of a plan by C. R. Cockerell to lay out a park on the enlarged heath, which would have come to resemble Regent's Park. Public purchase was urged on both the M.B.W. and the government in 1856 by the reformed vestry, which in 1857 promoted an unsuccessful Bill.

The climate changed in the 1860s, as threats to other open spaces led to the conferment of new powers on the Metropolitan Water Board (M.B.W.) by the Metropolitan Commons Act, 1866.
The Act was a result of pressure by the Commons Preservation Society under George Shaw-Lefevre, which included Gurney Hoare, Philip Le Breton, and other Hampstead campaigners among its members.

In 1861, however, he threatened to commercialize The Heath, a process which he began by building on the summit and selling the sand along Spaniard's Road.

East Park was also despoiled, by brickfields.

He went on to reject compromise offers not to oppose building on his land along Finchley Road in return for the abandoning of plans for East Park.

In consequence a Hampstead Heath Protection Fund was established under Gurney Hoare, to defray the expenses of a suit which was started against Sir Thomas in Chancery in 1866 and was ended only by his death in 1869.

The Hampstead Heath Act, 1871, authorized the M.B.W.'s purchase of nearly all that survived from the original common, (East, North-West or Sandy, and West heaths), which was ceremonially taken over early in 1872.

A few small additions were soon made, including Judges' Walk, and in 1879 its estimated 240 a. made Hampstead Heath the largest of the M.B.W.'s open spaces after Blackheath.

The Act did not allay all the fears of those who had resisted building, since the right to lay roads across The Heath had been reserved in the sale, which did not include East Park or other adjacent lands.

Fortunately for preservationists, the Maryon Wilsons concentrated their resources on the area around Fitzjohn's Avenue.

Meanwhile the Act had secured an inviolable core of open space for public recreation and set a precedent by sanctioning its purchase with public funds.

The story of The Heath after 1871 was one of its expansion and of the changes which were brought about by public ownership.

Expansion was largely in response to the spread of housing north and west of The Heath, where open country survived in the 1880s, and its full value became apparent only as the ring of building was completed in the 20th century.

The committee, stressing social and sanitary needs, soon won support from such reformers as Lady Burdett-Coutts and Octavia Hill.

A Hampstead Heath Extension committee was then formed, with the Duke of Westminster as chairman; it was ready to pay the market price and, through Shaw-Lefevre, reached agreement with the landowners.

The Hampstead Heath Enlargement Act, 1886, amended in 1888, allowed the application of public and charitable funds, after Hampstead vestry, which supported the extension committee, had voted a contribution, followed by St. Pancras.

Similar arguments, and a similar mixture of public and private contributions, secured the addition of c. 80 acres in Hendon, adjoining Sandy Heath.
The campaign to buy the land, which was part of Eton college's Wyldes farm, was stimulated by plans for a tube railway under The Heath, with a station at North End and the consequent prospect of building.

Hampstead Heath Extension council was formed in 1903 by Henrietta Barnett, with Shaw-Lefevre as president, and public contributions were permitted by an Act of 1905.

Although support from the L.C.C. and Hampstead borough council was inadequate, Hampstead bearing a much smaller proportion of the cost than in 1898, the 80 acres were bought in 1907.

The last major additions, on the east side of The Heath, resulted from the break-up of Lord Mansfield's estate, first projected in 1914.

The Kenwood Preservation Council in 1922 raised money to buy 100 acres, of which 9 acres east of Millfield Lane were resold to the owners of Caen Wood Towers and Beechwood subject to a ban on building.

Ken Wood itself and the lakes south of the mansion, 32 acres, were also bought, vested in the L.C.C., and in 1925 opened by George V. Kenwood House and 75 acres around it were saved from the builders by the earl of Iveagh (d. 1927), who settled them on himself for life.

Further small but important additions followed the Second World War as a result of bombing, demolitions, or changes of use.

They included the sites of Fern Lodge and Heathlands north of Jack Straw's Castle in 1948 and 1951, the gardens of Pitt House, 3 acres when the Elms became a hospital, the Hill gardens of Heath Lodge, and in 1967 the tollhouse at the Spaniards.

The many changes helped to account for slight variations in the figures given for the acreage.
In 1937 The Heath, including the Extension and Golders Hill Park, was estimated by the L.C.C. at 287.5 acres, Parliament Hill at 270.5 acres, and Kenwood at 195.2 acres, a total of 753.2 acres.

In 1951 The Heath was said to be 290.5 acres and the other two areas were unchanged.

In 1971 the G.L.C.'s estimated total was 802 acres.

The appearance of The Heath continued to cause concern after the possibility of direct private exploitation had been eliminated.

One controversy was about the moorland character of the old Heath, in which it differed from most of London's open spaces and from the additions made after 1871, which were either farmland or parkland.

By 1875, with the scars of excavation largely grown over, the M.B.W. won praise for a judicious neglect which had not made The Heath 'prim or park-like'.
The success of resistance to the plans of public authorities may have owed much to the prominence of many of the heath's local defenders.

The L.C.C., warned by Octavia Hill in 1890 against attempted improvements, adopted schemes for tree planting, in 1894, and tidying up, both of which brought petitions signed by distinguished protesters.

Critics were told that the need to provide shelter for visitors must affect views from some houses but were assured that it was desired to preserve the rusticity of West Heath and that gorse cutting was pruning.

The threat from new roads and obtrusive buildings was lessened by the acquisition of East Park in 1889, which made it possible for access roads reserved in the Act of 1871 to be left as no more than tracks.

The L.C.C. at first hoped to make wider ways, with cinders from the dismantled East Park brickfields, but retreated after protests by Octavia Hill and others.

Sandy Road, skirting West Heath and bisecting Sandy Heath from West End Lane to the Spaniards, was closed to motor traffic in 1924 and thereafter formed two bridle paths.

The acquisition of such plots as the Hill gardens brought further protection.

Vigilance was still needed in 1984, however, when fears sprang mainly from plans for houses in the grounds of Witanhurst, on the Highgate side of The Heath.

In the 1960s Hampstead Heath's 'romantic abrupt scenery, a bit like the hilly parts of Shropshire', was thought to give maximum effect in the smallest area.

It continued to be praised in the 1980s for its variety and in particular for its wildness.