Hampstead: Communications

COMMUNICATIONS.

Watling Street or Edgware Road, often called Kilburn Street or Road, (fn. 1) was the Roman road to St. Albans and beyond. Almost parallel to it on the east was a route leading north through Hampstead town and over the heath to Hendon; in the 16th century and later it was sometimes identified as Watling Street. (fn. 2) The boundary described in the charter of c. 970 and the discovery of a medieval costrel in Holly Hill in 1876 suggest that the route, if not Roman, was old, (fn. 3) although its precise course was not established until the 18th century. (fn. 4) The road was usually called Hampstead Street or the highway to Hampstead or London. (fn. 5) Its most southerly section was called Haverstock (Harberstocke) Hill by 1575 (fn. 6) and the next section Red Lion or Rosslyn Hill after the inn and house of those names. (fn. 7) High Street, so named (alte strate) in 1633, (fn. 8) the next section, originally included the part called, after 1831, Heath Street. (fn. 9) The northernmost section, which by the 19th century was called North End Hill (fn. 10) or Road (fn. 11) and in the 20th North End Way, passed through North End and Golders Green. Branching from the main route at Jack Straw's Castle, a second road, by 1862 called Spaniard's Road, (fn. 12) led from Hampstead town to Highgate through Cane Wood (Kenwood). It existed by c. 1672 and was mentioned in 1695. (fn. 13)

Roads crossing North End Way and Edgware Road c. 1672 (fn. 14) indicated a west-east route, which was in use by the mid 18th century, (fn. 15) running from Walm Lane in Willesden, (fn. 16) through Shoot Up Hill or Mill Lane, Blind Lane, Fortune Green, and Platt's Lane to Childs Hill and thence along the edge of the heath. By 1862 the route near the heath had dwindled to a footpath and Blind Lane had disappeared. (fn. 17) By the mid 18th century West End Lane led from Edgware Road at Kilburn through West End to Fortune Green, and Cole Lane and Frognal Lane linked West End respectively with Shoot Up Hill and Frognal. (fn. 18) By 1679 Belsize Lane (fn. 19) and by 1714 Upper Chalcot (later England's) Lane existed as access roads. (fn. 20)

The usual complaints about the state of the roads led to bequests for repairs in the 15th and 16th centuries. (fn. 21) Hampstead benefited from the John Lyon and Edward Harvist charities for the whole of Edgware Road and from the turnpike trust set up in 1710. Under the Metropolis (Kilburn and Harrow Roads) Act, 1872, Edgware Road was disturnpiked and administration of the relevant charities passed to the local authorities and their successors, including Hampstead metropolitan borough and Camden L.B. (fn. 22) Hampstead Road Trust was established by Act in 1717 initially for 21 years but extended and varied by numerous Acts, to keep in repair the road from Stone's End to Highgate gatehouse and Hampstead, presumably Hampstead Lane and Spaniard's Road. The trustees used gravel from the heath and in 1719 levelled a hill there. (fn. 23) There was a tollhouse on Spaniard's Road near the inn, which in 1966 was given by the brewers to the G.L.C. and became part of the heath. (fn. 24)

There were abortive attempts in 1778 and 1819 to build a new north-south route through the centre of Hampstead parish. The Finchley Road Act was passed in 1826 and the new turnpike road was completed in 1835. (fn. 25)

Until 1769, in accordance with an agreement between the lords of Hampstead and Mapesbury (Willesden) manors, Hampstead paid 5s. a year towards the repair of a brick bridge on Edgware Road, (fn. 26) presumably Kilburn bridge. (fn. 27) In 1826 Kilburn brook was culverted in West End Lane and the Fleet was culverted near the southern of the heath ponds and at the eastern end of Pond Street. (fn. 28)

Regular transport between Hampstead and Holborn or Covent Garden, for the City, and Tottenham Court Road, for the West End, was advertised by John Duffield, who leased Hampstead wells in 1700. Guards were sought for the passengers in 1718 (fn. 29) and Hampstead stage coaches were often robbed in the 1720s. (fn. 30) In Clarissa Harlowe, whose plot was set some 20 years before its publication in 1747, the fleeing heroine chose the coach to Hampstead as being 'so ready a convenience'. (fn. 31) A coach ran from the Black Swan, Holborn, and another from James Street, Covent Garden, in 1740 and 1755, apparently only once a day. By 1768 there were 2 daily journeys from James Street, 5 in summer and 2 in winter from Holborn bars, and 2 from Chiswell Street, Moorfields. (fn. 32)

The service remained too infrequent for daily business travel until the late 18th century, when the number of return journeys by short-stage coach rose, from 14 in 1770 to 18 in 1793 and 43 in 1799. About 43 journeys were still made in 1815. (fn. 33) Hampstead was the terminus for 10 coaches from the City, together making 17 return journeys a day, in 1825, (fn. 34) when most of them started from the Bird in Hand at the top of High Street. With the services to London's west end, there were perhaps 40 daily journeys in all. (fn. 35) In 1826-7 Hamilton & Clarke's coaches ran hourly to the Blue Posts in Tottenham Court Road and the Mansion House, and Mary Woodward's to Covent Garden, Oxford Street, and Tottenham Court Road. The earliest left at 8.0 a.m. (fn. 36) but the frequency of mid-day services suggests that most passengers were not bound for an office. (fn. 37) Coaches provided the only public conveyance to London until the mid 1830s. (fn. 38) Thirteen short-stage coaches ran to Tottenham Court Road or Holborn, or, less often, to Charing Cross, in 1838-9, when all were owned by Alexander Hamilton, who also ran omnibuses. (fn. 39) Hamilton still provided a half-hourly coach service, calling at Jack Straw's Castle and so presumably coming from north of the parish, in 1845. (fn. 40) Local journeys could be made by hackney coaches, which obstructed High Street in 1783. (fn. 41) Sedan chairs survived until c. 1841, when there were also three stables for the hire of hackney coaches. (fn. 42)

Eight omnibuses (fn. 43) made 20 return journeys from Hampstead to the City in 1834. There were 7 omnibuses in all in 1838-9, owned chiefly by Hamilton, and perhaps 24 by 1856, when most were acquired by the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus de Londres (later the London General Omnibus Co. or L.G.O.C.). (fn. 44) The route from Hampstead was that of the coaches, from the Bird in Hand down High Street and Haverstock Hill to Chalk Farm, where the Adelaide and Britannia taverns were popular boarding points, and thence to Camden Town. (fn. 45) By 1838-9 one of the omnibuses ran along Edgware Road to Kilburn and in 1856 as many as ten, along Finchley Road, served Swiss Cottage, where the Atlas line had been inaugurated c. 1850. Less than half of Hampstead's c. 800 commuters could have been carried by public road transport in the 1850s. (fn. 46) Perhaps many were like a man who rode daily to his City counting house in 1845 and complained at having to pay three turnpike tolls. (fn. 47) Omnibuses also had to pay tolls, until the removal of the metropolitan commissioners' only turnpike gate within Hampstead, at Haverstock Hill, in 1864. (fn. 48)

Omnibuses routes were pushed farther north with the spread of building and opening of suburban railway stations after 1855. By 1880 they not only stretched along Kilburn High Road to Brondesbury but also served Kilburn and West Hampstead by way of Abbey Road and the area north of Swiss Cottage by way of Finchley Road as far as Finchley Road station. Later omnibuses were extended along Finchley Road to meet others from Edgware Road along West End Lane, continuing north to Childs Hill in Hendon. In the populous south part of the parish they ran east-west from Chalk Farm along Adelaide and Belsize roads to Kilburn station. (fn. 49) Services also became more frequent: in 1890 the L.G.O.C.'s yellow cars left High Street every 18 minutes and the Adelaide, Haverstock Hill, every 10 minutes, while light or dark green Atlas cars left Swiss Cottage and red or light blue cars left Kilburn at still shorter intervals. Less frequently, omnibuses ran from Kilburn to Willesden green and on 'rural routes' from Swiss Cottage to Hendon and Finchley, although they did not extend north of Hampstead village across the heath. (fn. 50) On the opening of Hampstead tube station the service from High Street to Oxford Street, one of the oldest in London, was twice briefly rerouted to run to Bayswater, by way of Swiss Cottage, and then to Kilburn, before returning to its original line and finally closing in 1907. (fn. 51)

Horse trams, owned by London Street Tramways, reached Kentish Town in 1871 and Southampton Road on the Hampstead boundary, by way of Prince of Wales and Malden roads, in 1880. A line was opened to the foot of Highgate West Hill and another from Southampton Road across the boundary and along Fleet Road to South End green in 1887. (fn. 52) A large stables and depot were built near the terminus, along Fleet Road and with an entrance from Cressy Road. (fn. 53) In 1901 the L.C.C., which had taken over London Street Tramways' systems within the county, added a one-way extension from South End green back to Southampton Road along Agincourt Road, so forming a loop. (fn. 54) The lines to and from South End green were electrified in 1909. (fn. 55)

Opposition to trams, as a working-class form of transport, (fn. 56) prevented them from penetrating farther into the parish. The line to South End green, which, with the depot, provided much local employment, was popular with trippers to the heath. (fn. 57) Tradesmen and gentry combined, however, in 1881 to resist proposals for cable trams up Haverstock Hill and through the heart of Hampstead village to Jack Straw's Castle. A standing committee of residents drew attention not only to the threat to property values but to the steepness and narrowness of the streets, until the scheme was rejected in 1883, (fn. 58) the year before cable trams were introduced up Highgate Hill. (fn. 59) Renewed proposals were successfully resisted in 1885. (fn. 60)

The L.C.C. in turn hoped for tramways to Jack Straw's Castle and thence back along East Heath Road to Hampstead Heath station in 1899, but by that date a further objection was that they would be made unnecessary by the proposed tube line. (fn. 61) Along the Willesden boundary there were no trams in Kilburn High Road, although they operated farther north, from Cricklewood, and eastward along Cricklewood Lane almost to the Hampstead boundary at Childs Hill. (fn. 62) In 1874 the vestry opposed a projected Edgware Road and Maida Vale Tramway Co. (fn. 63) and in 1911 the L.C.C. decided not to lay tramlines from Marble Arch to Cricklewood, partly because Hampstead council gave a high estimate of the cost of road widening. (fn. 64) Plans for an extensive network of tramways, along Adelaide and Finchley roads, were also dropped after opposition from the council, ground landlords, and residents. (fn. 65)

Trolleybuses replaced the trams which ran to South End green, by way of the Agincourt Road circle, in 1938. Operating from London Transport's Highgate depot, they made way for motorbuses in 1961. (fn. 66)

Motorbuses had replaced horse omnibuses by 1911, when their routes included one which ended, like the tramway, at South End green. (fn. 67) Hampstead village and the heath remained free of public road transport (fn. 68) until an east-west service from Finsbury Park to Golders Green, entering the parish at the Spaniards and turning away towards North End at Jack Straw's Castle, was started in 1922, despite many objections. (fn. 69) Motorbuses also ran north from Adelaide Road across Belsize Park to the upper part of Haverstock Hill, whence they continued as far as Pond Street, South End Road, and Downshire Hill. A Sunday service along Downshire Hill drew further protests in 1928. (fn. 70) No motorbuses ran north of Pond Street c. 1950, when the routes were otherwise similar to those of 1930. (fn. 71) There was successful resistance in 1957 and 1962 to a proposed service from Swiss Cottage to Golders Green by way of Hampstead village, where the streets were too narrow for double-deckers, despite the lack of any public transport across that part of the borough other than the North London railway. (fn. 72) A single-decker service through the village was finally opened in 1968, followed by a circuitous service farther south from Cricklewood by way of Swiss Cottage to Pond Street and thence to Archway station in 1972. (fn. 73)

The first railway in the parish was part of the main line from Euston built in 1837 by the London & Birmingham Railway Co., which from 1846 formed part of the London & North Western Railway (L.N.W.R.). The line crossed southern Hampstead and ran beneath Primrose Hill in a much admired stone tunnel, whose turretted entrance front was designed by W. H. Budden. At first the nearest station was by the main goods yards across the boundary at Chalk Farm. (fn. 74) Although the company was not initially interested in suburban traffic, its desire to reach the docks led it to promote the East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway, incorporated in 1846 and renamed the North London Railway (N.L.R.) in 1853, which in 1851 extended its line westward from Camden Town to meet the L.N.W.R. line at Hampstead Road station (renamed Chalk Farm in 1862 and Primrose Hill in 1950). The N.L.R. proved popular for travel to the City (fn. 75) and could be used by passengers from Hampstead's first station, opened in 1852 in Belsize Road by the L.N.W.R. as Kilburn; it was rebuilt in 1879, with a second entrance in Kilburn High Road, as Kilburn & Maida Vale, was closed in 1917 but reopened in 1922, with only the High Road entrance, and in 1923 was renamed Kilburn High Road. The company opened a second Hampstead station on the new tracks in 1879, when its original main line was quadrupled. The station, at the west end of the Primrose Hill tunnel, was called Loudoun Road; (fn. 76) it was closed in 1917 but reopened in 1922 as South Hampstead. (fn. 77)

Congestion near Camden Town led the L.N.W.R. to promote the Hampstead Junction Railway (H.J.R.), (fn. 78) which in 1860 opened a northerly bypass through Gospel Oak and the central part of Hampstead to rejoin the main line at Willesden. The company was managed by the N.L.R. from 1864 and absorbed by the L.N.W.R. in 1867. Stations in the parish were opened in 1860 at Hampstead Heath, Finchley Road (from 1880 Finchley Road & Frognal) and Edgeware [sic] Road (renamed Edgware Road and Brondesbury in 1872, Brondesbury (Edgware Road) in 1873, and Brondesbury in 1883). (fn. 79) The line was tunnelled between Hampstead Heath and Finchley Road and came to be known as part of the Broad Street to Richmond line, the N.L.R. having secured more direct access to the City by means of its Broad Street terminus in 1865. (fn. 80) Trains ran every 15 minutes from Hampstead Heath to the City from its opening, first to Fenchurch Street and from 1865 to Broad Street. (fn. 81) West End Lane station (from 1975 West Hampstead) was opened in 1888. (fn. 82)

From 1868 the Midland Railway, which previously had made use of the Great Northern Railway's terminus at King's Cross, ran trains from Bedford to its own terminus at St. Pancras. The line entered the parish at Childs Hill, passed southeastward beneath the H.J.R.'s line to a second station called Finchley Road (closed 1927) and thence through a long tunnel and Haverstock Hill station (beyond the boundary, in Lismore Circus; closed 1916) towards Kentish Town. The Midland's local service quickly proved successful, (fn. 83) being served by suburban trains which went on to the City by way of the Metropolitan line at King's Cross, besides main line trains to St. Pancras. West End (from 1950 West Hampstead, Midland) station was opened in 1871; it had previously been a halt, built to serve a yard and sidings, and remained profitable only because of the freight traffic. (fn. 84)

Meanwhile, south of the parish, the Metropolitan in 1863 had opened London's first Underground railway from Farringdon Street to Paddington, by way of Baker Street. In 1865 the Metropolitan & St. John's Wood Railway Co., promoted and in 1882 absorbed by the Metropolitan, was authorized to construct a feeder northward from Baker Street to Hampstead, where it was to cross High Street by a bridge and terminate at Willow Road. The line never reached the village, where it would have made a powerful impact, because of financial difficulties. A single track, running only as far as Swiss Cottage, was opened in 1868 but there were no through services from the City between 1869 and 1907. A double-tracked extension to Willesden Green was opened, however, in 1879, with stations at Finchley Road, West Hampstead, and, on the Willesden side of the high road, at Kilburn, and in 1882 a double track was completed to Swiss Cottage. (fn. 85) In 1888 there was a frequent service from Swiss Cottage to Baker Street, for both the City and (by omnibus) the West End, and a half-hourly service to Willesden Green and beyond. (fn. 86) The line was electrified in 1905. (fn. 87) Under London Transport's new works programme of 1935, a stretch of the Bakerloo line was built in a tube beneath the Metropolitan line from Baker Street to Finchley Road, where it took over two of the Metropolitan tracks to Wembley Park and its branch to Stanmore. (fn. 88) The new Bakerloo line opened in 1939, the Metropolitan's station at Swiss Cottage being replaced in 1940 by one designed by Stanley Heaps. Alterations were carried out at Finchley Road, where the platforms were reconstructed in 1939, and at West Hampstead in 1938. (fn. 89) After further work in the 1970s, the Stanmore line, renamed the Jubilee line with its own extension south of Baker Street into the West End, was inaugurated in 1979, when new entrances and a ventilation tower were built at Swiss Cottage. (fn. 90)

Hampstead's 19th-century railways ran east and west, except the Underground line through Swiss Cottage. None crossed the comparatively empty northern half of the parish, which required a tunnel under the heights. A railway, albeit less objectionable than tramways, was successfully resisted as early as the 1860s, when it was alleged that work would affect the drainage and so harm the vegetation of the heath. (fn. 91) After the Charing Cross, Euston, & Hampstead Railway had been authorized to build a tube railway from Charing Cross to Heath Street in 1893, nothing was done until its powers passed to the American Charles Tyson Yerkes, who formed the Underground Group. (fn. 92) There was more enthusiasm for his proposed line to Hampstead, a village still 'singularly cut off from the west end of London', than for his planned extension 'burrowing mole-like under the heath and throwing up stations to mark its track'. (fn. 93) In the event the longer line, to a rural crossroads at Golders Green but without a station on the heath, was opened in 1907 as the Hampstead Tube. There were stations called Chalk Farm, at the foot of Haverstock Hill, Belsize Park, and Hampstead, at the corner of High Street and Heath Street. All were designed by Leslie W. Green in the dark-red glazed bricks used for all surface stations in the group, and at Hampstead the platforms were 192 ft. below the surface, the deepest in London. After the Hampstead Tube had been linked with the City & South London Railway Co. under an Act of 1913, the line was known as the Edgware, Highgate & Morden line and later as the Morden-Edgware line. It formed part of the L.P.T.B.'s Northern line from 1937. (fn. 94)

A station to serve the summit of the heath, near Jack Straw's Castle, had been planned by Yerkes but opposed both by Hampstead vestry and the local preservationists. (fn. 95) Its site was accordingly moved to a point just across the boundary, where platforms but not access shafts were built for a station whose intended name was changed from North End to Bull and Bush. The station, which never opened, was used for storage of archives in the First and Second World Wars. (fn. 96)

For commuters, the early railways have not retained their importance. Soon after 1900 the N.L.R. was menaced by competition from the electrified Metropolitan line through Swiss Cottage, from the Hampstead Tube, and from the electrification of the tramways. (fn. 97) A similar loss of traffic by the Midland led to the closure of Haverstock Hill and Finchley Road stations. (fn. 98) By 1962 the Broad Street to Richmond line, which still provided a quarter-hourly service through Hampstead Heath, was under threat. West Hampstead (Midland) station, where glass had been replaced by wooden shutters during the Second World War, was a 'gloomy ruin', whose little used hourly diesel service contrasted with busy traffic through the Bakerloo line's West Hampstead. The Broad Street line, however, was valued as a route across the borough by residents west of Finchley Road. Since use was not concentrated at the daily rush hours, its steady service was reputedly profitable, (fn. 99) although trains were reduced to run every 20 minutes from 1962. The service was rerouted to provide electric trains from North Woolwich to Richmond (the North London link), with peak-hour connexions from Camden Town and elsewhere to Broad Street, in 1985. (fn. 100)