Hampstead's Hidden Alleys and Courtyards

Hampstead rewards the pedestrian who refuses to stay on the main streets. Behind the High Street, behind Flask Walk, behind the apparent coherence of the village grid, there is a network of alleys, courtyards, and stepped passages that constitutes a kind of secondary village — more intimate, more accidental, and in several places more beautiful than what is visible from the road.

Flask Walk

The best-known pedestrian lane, Flask Walk runs from the High Street down to Well Walk, passing antique shops, the original Ginger & White, and the Old Bottle House where Hampstead spa water was once packaged for London. It is paved in the original York stone and has not been significantly altered for a century.

Perrin's Court

Perrin's Court is a narrow alley off the High Street, paved and pedestrianised, with a particular quality of quietness at odds with its proximity to the main road. The original Ginger & White is here; so are a small number of independent businesses that have found the passage a useful retreat from the competition of the high street.

Holly Mount

Holly Mount is a stepped alley ascending from Heath Street to the Holly Bush pub and the upper village. The steps are uneven, the lamp posts are Victorian, and at the top the view across the rooftops to the Heath is unexpectedly good. Coming down at dusk, when the pub is lit and the mist is in the valley, is one of the particular pleasures of Hampstead.

Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon is a curved lane of early Victorian cottages running between Holly Walk and Hampstead Grove. It is narrow, quiet, and wholly residential — one of the lanes that most visitors miss entirely and residents value precisely because of that.