The Spaniards Inn: 400 Years of Highwaymen and Poets

The Spaniards Inn stands at the edge of Hampstead Heath on the ancient road between London and St Albans, in a position it has occupied since at least 1585. In the centuries since, it has served as a toll gate, a highwayman's hideout, a literary salon, and — if a certain Victorian novelist is to be believed — a setting for scenes of vampiric drama.

Dick Turpin

The highwayman Dick Turpin is the Spaniards' most famous associate. The stable block to the rear is said to have housed Black Bess, his legendary horse, and local tradition insists that Turpin used the inn as a base of operations for robberies on the Heath road. The historical record is, as with much of Turpin's story, somewhat elastic, but the association is too good to relinquish.

The Literary Connection

Keats was a regular in the 1810s. Byron drank here. Shelley walked from his house at Vale of Health to the Spaniards for evening conversation. Charles Dickens sets a scene from The Pickwick Papers at the inn. Most remarkably, Bram Stoker places a pivotal scene from Dracula in the Spaniards — Van Helsing and his companions enjoy a repast in the saloon bar while waiting for Mina Harker to arrive. Stoker knew the pub well; he lived in St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, but spent time in Hampstead researching his novel.

The Building Today

The inn remains largely unchanged. The main bar, with its low beams and uneven floor, is clearly ancient. The garden — one of the largest of any London pub — spreads behind the building in a series of terraced levels. On a summer afternoon, it is one of the finest places to be in North London.