A Day in Hampstead

Hampstead is an urban village that is about 4 miles northwest of Charing Cross (which is considered the center of London). The average house price in Hampstead last year was 1,668,840 British pounds ($2,224,413 US), and the average rental price is 2,045 pounds per WEEK (about $2,728). It’s considered quite “posh”, so when I called it “our” neighborhood in my post yesterday it kind of made me laugh, because this is not quite our natural habitat. But we love having it as our base of operations when we are in the UK.

Chris stays in Hampstead when he works in London mainly because it is within walking distance of the two main recording studios in London – Abbey Road Studios and Air Lyndhurst Studios. He has always stayed in the same small hotel – LaGaffe – where the front desk for the Italian restaurant of the same name is about 5 steps away from the front desk for the hotel rooms located above. LaGaffe is decidedly NOT posh. It is cozy and quaint and the people who work there are wonderful and welcoming. Chris is treated like family there, and there’s nothing more comforting for him after 10 hours in the studio than spaghetti bolognese and a glass of wine downstairs followed by falling into a coma in his room upstairs. 

On my last day in the UK, we decided that we would take it easy and just do a gentle wander through Hampstead. I did want some traditional scones, jam, and clotted cream, though, and when Googling “best scones in Hampstead” I ran across this blog describing a pleasant afternoon spent having tea and scones at Burgh House, so we decided to start our day with breakfast there. Burgh House is an historic house that is run as an independent arts-centered charity serving the community of Hampstead. They have a cafe with both indoor and outdoor seating, some rooms set up as a museum of Hampstead history, some rooms furnished as they would have been in the house’s heyday, and some rooms fashioned as galleries for shows of local artists. After Chris and I had coffee and scones in their cafe we explored the house.

I had another location I wanted to find in Hampstead – the source of the River Tyburn, one of Londons “lost rivers” and an important character in the Rivers of London series of books by Ben Aaronovitch. Yes, a river is a character in these books – but it’s not what you might imagine. Chris and I both enjoyed the series immensely, and our friend Beth introduced us to the series, so she was excited when I told her I was going to search out some locations important to the books during my trip. The plaque showing the approximate location of the Tyburn’s source was a bit overgrown with vines (the more accurate location is in the middle of the adjacent busy road – not a good place for a historical plaque) so I really felt like we found buried treasure when we found it!

For lunch I was in the mood for a crepe, and I had heard of a freestanding crepe stand called La Creperie de Hampstead. It is famous in the area for its crepes, has been in operation for 40 years, and it stands outside the King William IV pub on Hampstead’s Main Street. I approached what I thought was La Creperie de Hampstead and ordered a spinach, cheese, and sun-dried tomato crepe. Then I looked around while my crepe was being made. Not 5 yards away stood the ACTUAL La Creperie de Hampstead; I was getting a crepe from plain old “La Creperie”, an IMPOSTER! There was a sign outside the real La Creperie de Hampstead saying “This is the only creperie in Hampstead we operate.” It really should have said – “Look out! The guy next door is an imposter!” I felt bad getting my crepe from the interloper (and later found out the history behind this War of the Crepes here), but in the end, I do have to report that my crepe was pretty darn delicious. 

Next we got coffee from a newer fixture in Hampstead – a coffee vendor who operates out of an old iconic red British phone booth. I wish I had taken a photo of his very efficient operation, but for some reason I was too shy to ask him if I could have a photo. I’m not sure why – I know he probably would have been thrilled to have me publicize his business to my many readers. 🙂

The evening turned rainy and we walked only a block away from La Gaffe for my going-away dinner – steaks at an Argentinian restaurant called Gaucho. We ate early and had an entire corner of the dining room to ourselves. I had a filet, Chris had a sirloin; we both had spinach and chips (fries). We were both too full for dessert. Ooof. We walked through the drizzly Hampstead streets to work off our meal.

The next day I traveled back to Ohio and Chris stayed on to finish the last week or so of his job.

Tomorrow I will post some random photos from the trip. We went some places that I decided not to devote entire blog posts to, but I’d still like to share the images with you.

Love,

Michelle xoxo