Hampstead Heath: The Walker's Guide Book

Hampstead Heath is London's favourite open space, walked over by thousands every day of the year. It also offers Londoners the ultimate treasure hunt, for you can find on the Heath both the traces of an extraordinary geological structure and the marks of mankind's relationship with the landscape over the past millennium. In this richly illustrated book, the authors unveil what anyone strolling on the Heath can look out for, including: a geological structure which is unique for London, and allows a very particular flora; veteran trees which enrich the Heath by the remarkable range of biodiversity which they encourage; the 'ghosts' of ancient woodland and hedgerows some of which date back to the Middle Ages, and possibly beyond; the boundaries laboriously dug in Anglo-Saxon times to demarcate one estate from another; and, the traces of the great landscape estates of the eighteenth century, of which Kenwood is now the sole survivor. And, as the authors explain, we hardly know how lucky we are, for the Heath would have been covered in housing had it not been for our determined, cunning and generous forebears, who outwitted the landowners step by step to secure the landscape for us all.Read More