Autumn on the Heath: A Season-by-Season Guide

I have strong views about the seasons on Hampstead Heath, and they are essentially this: autumn is the best of them. Not the most convenient, not the warmest, not the most obviously inviting. But the best — in the way that the best things often are, which is to say that they require something of you before they give anything back.

The Woodland

The Heath's woodland is predominantly hornbeam and oak — both of which turn extraordinary colours in October and November. The hornbeam goes a clear, luminous yellow; the oak a deep, saturated bronze. When the two are mixed, which they frequently are in the older sections of the North Wood, the effect is of walking through something that has been lit from inside.

The Light

Autumn light on the Heath is unlike any other. The low angle, the clarity after the first frosts, the way it picks out individual leaves against dark backgrounds — these are the conditions that Constable was painting when he produced his 100-odd cloud studies from Lower Terrace. He was right: the sky above the Heath, in October especially, is operatic.

The Quiet

The summer crowds leave with the warmth. By late September, weekday mornings on the Heath are genuinely quiet — you can walk for an hour without seeing more than a handful of people, which in inner London is a form of luxury that cannot be bought.

Where to Walk

The North Wood circuit in mid-October, when the hornbeam is at peak colour. The Parliament Hill walk on a clear November morning, when the frost is still on the grass. The Viaduct Pond at any point in the season, when the woodland reflection in the still water doubles everything.