Church Row is a residential street in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

. Many of the properties are listed on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

. The street runs from Frognal in the west to Heath Street in the east.

St John-at-Hampstead St John-at-Hampstead is a Church of England parish church dedicated to St John the Evangelist (though the original dedication was only refined from St John to this in 1917 by the Bishop of London) in Church Row, Hampstead, London. History H ...

and its additional burial ground is at the west end of the street. Mavis Norris in her ''Book of Hampstead'' describes the street as "the show piece of Hampstead" and it "is almost completely preserved in its early eighteenth-century elegance". The 1998 ''London: North'' edition of the

Pevsner Architectural Guides The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

, described Church Row as "the best street in Hampstead" thought it was "better still" before the construction of Gardnor Mansions at the Heath Street end.

Ian Nairn Ian Douglas Nairn (24 August 1930 – 14 August 1983) was a British architectural critic who coined the word "Subtopia" to indicate drab suburbs that look identical through unimaginative town-planning. He published two strongly personalised criti ...

, in his 1966 book ''

Nairn's London ''Nairn's London'' is a 1966 book about the architecture of London. It is authored by British writer Ian Nairn and this is the work for which he is the best known. Architecture critic Jonathan Meades has praised the work as an "imperious mongre ...

'' describes the design of the street as "complete freedom which results from submission to a common style. A rough gentlemen's agreement about heights and size...and you can do what you want". Nairn was critical of the number of parked cars and felt that the trees that run down in the middle of Church Row broke up the space of the street. Nairn felt that the south side of Church Row was more "austere and formal" than the north side which was "much more ribald".

Anne Thackeray Anne Isabella, Lady Ritchie ( Thackeray; 9 June 1837 – 26 February 1919), eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray, was an English writer, whose several novels were appreciated in their time and made her a central figure on the late Vi ...

described the street as 'an avenue of Dutch ed-faced houses leading demurely to the old church tower that stands guarding its graves in the flowery churchyard'. A line of trees runs down the middle of the street. The trees have been present since at least the development of the south side of the street in the 1720s. Six lime trees were planted in the mid 19th century, of which only one still stands, at the furthest end from the church. The present trees were planted in the 1970s, and are maintained by the

Architecture

Gardnor Mansions dominates the top part of Church Row by Heath Street. It was the first modern block of flats built in Hampstead. Norris describes Gardnor Mansions as a "dull block of flats" that " reaksthe harmony of the north side". Adjoining Gardnor Mansions is No. 5, which is listed II*. No. 5 projects out into the street and is noted for its distinctive white

weatherboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

ing which was added in the late 18th-century. It was built in 1728 by an R. Hughes. The distinct design of No. 5 in contrast to its red brick neighbours on Church Row is described in its NHLE listing as "an important element in the picturesque composition" of the street. No. 6 and its attached railings are listed Grade II as is No. 7. No. 8 and its attached railings and gate are listed Grade II.

described No. 8 as "odd" as it was "only two bays wide but wider than everything else". No. 9 is listed Grade II* and No. 9a is listed Grade II. 10 and attached railings are listed Grade II. 11 is listed Grade II. No. 12 with its attached railings, gate, and lamp holder is listed Grade II, it adjoins the graveyard extension of St Johns. No. 15 was built in 1924 in a complimentary style to the 18th-century houses of Church Row. Church Row, Hampstead - geograph

On the south side, 24 to 28 are listed Grade II*. 24 Perrins Walk is the former coach house to No. 24 Church Row. 23, 22, and 21 are individually listed Grade II*. No. 20 and its attached railings are listed Grade II* as is Nos. 18 and 19. Nos. 15, 16, and 17 are individually listed Grade II. Listed street furniture on Church Row include six bollards at the end of the path that links Frognal Way with Church Row and ten cast iron mid 19th-century lamp posts.

Filming location

15 Church Row is shown as the surgery of Dr Burgess in the 1959 film ''

Sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sapphir ...

''. Eve is shown arriving at her parents house on Church Row in

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

's 1950 film ''

Stage Fright Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, real or imagined, whether actually or potentially (for example, when perf ...

''. Church Row is shown as the address of John Preston's home in the 1955 film ''

Alias John Preston ''Alias John Preston'' is a 1955 British thriller film directed by David MacDonald and starring Betta St. John, Alexander Knox and Christopher Lee. Its plot is about a mysterious and wealthy man who moves to a small village where he outwardly ...

''. Freddie tries to sell insurance on Church Row in the 2010 film '' Cemetery Junction''.

Diane Keaton Diane Keaton ('' née'' Hall, born January 5, 1946) is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Gl ...

walked along Church Row and other nearby streets in the 2017 film ''

''. Scenes from the 2019 BBC miniseries of ''A Christmas Carol'' were filmed on Church Row and the churchyard of St. John's in 2019.

Notable residents

The scientist and philosopher

Henry Cavendish Henry Cavendish ( ; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English natural philosopher and scientist who was an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "infl ...

lived at the end of Church Row by St. John's church during the 1780s. Cavendish's town residence was in Great Marlborough Street. He calculated that the

solar time Solar time is a calculation of the passage of time based on the position of the Sun in the sky. The fundamental unit of solar time is the day, based on the synodic rotation period. Two types of solar time are apparent solar time (sundial ti ...

difference between his two houses was exactly 10.2 seconds. Cavendish performed experiments on the air quality of Hampstead and on freezing mercury at the house. The writer

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

In 1910 Gip underwent an

appendectomy An appendectomy, also termed appendicectomy, is a Surgery, surgical operation in which the vermiform appendix (a portion of the intestine) is removed. Appendectomy is normally performed as an urgent or emergency procedure to treat complicated acu ...

in the study of the house. Wells wrote ''

The History of Mr Polly ''The History of Mr. Polly'' is a 1910 comic novel by H. G. Wells. Plot summary The protagonist of ''The History of Mr. Polly'' is an antihero inspired by H. G. Wells's early experiences in the drapery trade: Alfred Polly, born circa 1 ...

'', ''

Tono-Bungay ''Tono-Bungay'' is a realist semiautobiographical novel written by H. G. Wells and first published in book form in 1909. It has been called "arguably his most artistic book". It had been serialised before book publication, both in the United ...

'', ''

Ann Veronica ''Ann Veronica'' is a novel by H. G. Wells published in 1909. It describes the rebellion of Ann Veronica Stanley, "a young lady of nearly two-and-twenty", against her middle-class father's stern patriarchal rule. The novel dramatizes the contem ...

'', ''

The Sleeper Awakes ''The Sleeper Awakes'' is a dystopian science fiction novel by English writer H. G. Wells, about a man who sleeps for two hundred and three years, waking up in a completely transformed London in which he has become the richest man in the world ...

'', ''

The New Machiavelli ''The New Machiavelli'' is a 1911 novel by H. G. Wells that was serialised in ''The English Review'' in 1910. Because its plot notoriously derived from Wells's affair with Amber Reeves and satirised Beatrice and Sidney Webb, it was "the litera ...

'' and ''

Marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

'' while at the house as well as having an extramarital affair with the writer

Elizabeth von Arnim Elizabeth von Arnim (31 August 1866 – 9 February 1941), born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an English novelist. Born in Australia, she married a German aristocrat, and her earliest works are set in Germany. Her first marriage made her Countess v ...

while living there. In August 1909, in the first year of the family's occupation, Wells's daughter with

Amber Reeves Amber Blanco White (' Reeves; 1 July 1887 – 26 December 1981) was a New Zealand-born British feminist writer and scholar. Early life Reeves was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, the eldest of three children of Fabian feminist Maud Pember Re ...

, a 21-year-old student, and future feminist writer, was born. Wells also lived in a flat in Candover Street, off Great Portland Street at this time. Wells's book ''

Floor Games ''Floor Games'' is a book published in 1911 by H. G. Wells. This light-hearted volume argues in a humorously dictatorial tone that "The jolliest indoor games for boys and girls demand a floor." Illustrated with photographs and drawings, it brief ...

'', written in 1911, was inspired by children's games he and his sons would play on the floors of the house. A frequent visitor to Wells at the house was

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

who recommended that he purchase a pianola, which he duly did. The comedian

Peter Cook Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, comedian, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishme ...

bought No. 17 for £24,000 in 1965 () and lived here with his wife and two daughters until 1971, when it was sold for £45,000. Cook and

Dudley Moore Dudley Stuart John Moore CBE (19 April 193527 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer. Moore first came to prominence in the UK as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writ ...

wrote their Pete & Dud routines in the attic of the house, Cook's study. The kitchen was in the basement of the house and Cook's wife, Wendy, would prepare dinner parties that would attract many notable people of the 1960s including John Bird,

Eleanor Bron Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress, and an author. Her film roles include Ahme in the Beatles musical ''Help!'' (1965), the Doctor in ''Alfie'' (1966), Margaret Spencer in '' Bedazzled'' (1967), an ...

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...

Bernard Levin Henry Bernard Levin (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by ''The Times'' as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship t ...

Victor Lownes Victor Aubrey Lownes III (April 17, 1928 – January 11, 2017) was an executive for HMH Publishing Company Inc., later known as Playboy Enterprises, from 1955 through the early 1980s. Soon after he met Hugh Hefner in 1954, Hefner founded ''Playb ...

Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romfo ...

Charlotte Rampling Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role ...

Willie Rushton William George Rushton (18 August 1937 – 11 December 1996) was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the satirical magazine ''Private Eye''. Early life Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in 3 Wilbraham Plac ...

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...

Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later in ...

, Ken Tynan and

Peter Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov ; 16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, filmmaker and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits ...

. Frequent visitors to Cook at the house included

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

and

Cynthia Lennon Cynthia Lennon (born Powell; 10 September 1939 – 1 April 2015) was the first wife of John Lennon and the mother of Julian Lennon. Born in Blackpool and raised in Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula, she attended the Liverpool College of Art where ...

and

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

. Lennon and Cook would perform comedy routines and characters at the dinner table.

Nicholas Luard Nicholas Lamert Luard (26 June 1937 Hampstead, London – 25 May 2004 Kensington, London) was a writer and politician. Background He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read English and was taught by F. ...

recalled a dinner party with an eclectic mix of guests including the actors

Tom Courtney Thomas "Tom" William Courtney (born August 17, 1933) is a retired American athlete, winner of two gold medals in the 1956 Olympic Games Tom Courtney came into national prominence while a student at Fordham University, winning the 1955 NCAA 88 ...

, and

Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic ...

, the poet

Christopher Logue Christopher Logue, CBE (23 November 1926 – 2 December 2011)Mark EspineObituary: Christopher Logue ''The Guardian'', 2 December 2011 was an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival, and a pacifist. Life Born in Portsmouth, ...

, fashion designer

Mary Quant Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene, (born 11 February 1930)The Mary Quant exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2019-20 stated her year of birth as 1930, and that she became a student at Goldsmiths College around 1950. is a ...

and the boxer

Terry Downes Terry Downes, BEM (9 May 1936 – 6 October 2017) was a British middleweight boxer, occasional film actor, and businessman. He was nicknamed the "Paddington Express" for his aggressive fighting style. At the time of his death, Downes was Brita ...

. The

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

architects

George Frederick Bodley George Frederick Bodley (14 March 182721 October 1907) was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and worked in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career. He was one of the founders of Watt ...

Thomas Garner Thomas Garner (1839–1906) was one of the leading English Gothic revival architects of the Victorian era. He is known for his almost 30-year partnership with architect George Frederick Bodley. Early life Born at Wasperton Hill Farm in Warwi ...

, and George Gilbert Scott Jr. all lived on Church Row in the 1860s and 70s and would regularly meet to discuss ideas. No. 28 was the site of several institutions from the middle of the 19th-century. It was the site of a Roman Catholic school in the 1850s and a home for the 'rescue of young women' in the 1860s. In the 1870s it was a home for young female servants. It served as the offices of the

Women's Co-operative Guild The Co-operative Women's Guild was an auxiliary organisation of the co-operative movement in the United Kingdom which promoted women in co-operative structures and provided social and other services to its members. History The guild was founded ...

in 1908. The writer

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

and her husband

Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate from the Old High German ''Leonhard'' containing the prefix ''levon'' ("lion") from the Greek Λέων ("lion") through the Latin '' L ...

visited the guild here. The average price of a property on Church Row was estimated at £2.9 million in 2020. 9 Church Row, Hampstead (2)

List of notable residents

*No. 8 – Donald C Towner, noted ceramic historian and painter, 1937 to 1985 *No. 17 –

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

*No. 18 – John James Park, historian, and his father Thomas James Park, antiquary, c.1814 *No. 19 –

Frank Soskice, Baron Stow Hill Frank Soskice, Baron Stow Hill, (23 July 1902 – 1 January 1979) was a British lawyer and Labour Party politician. Background and education Soskice's father, was from a family of Russian Jewish merchants. David Soskice became involved in ...

, politician, 1970s *No. 20 –

, architect, 1867-1893 *No. 21 –

Edward Nairne Edward Nairne (1726 – 1 September 1806) was English optician and scientific instrument maker. Biography Nairne was born in Sandwich, England. He was apprenticed to the optician Matthew Loft in 1741 and established his own business at 20 Cor ...

, instrument maker, 1780s *No. 22 – Josiah Holford, merchant, 1776 *No. 24 –

, architect, 1860s,

Lord Alfred Douglas Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carried a homoer ...

, poet, 1907 to 1910,

Norman Evill Norman Adolphus Evill FRIBA (1873 – 5 August 1958) was an English architect and draughtsman, apprenticed to Edwin Lutyens. Life and works Evill was born in the village of Hewelsfield, Gloucestershire, in 1873. His father, Walter, was also an ...

, architect, 1930s *No. 25 – Sisters

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...

, painter, and Mary Gilles, writer, 1830s. *No. 26 – George Gilbert Scott Jr., architect, 1860s *No. 27 –

William Henry Fisk William Henry Fisk (1827–1884), was an English painter of landscapes and historical subjects, and a drawing-master. Life Fisk, born in Homerton, Middlesex, was the son of William Fisk. He was a pupil of his father, and also studied at the R ...

, artist, died here in 1884.

George du Maurier George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (6 March 1834 – 8 October 1896) was a Franco-British cartoonist and writer known for work in ''Punch'' and a Gothic novel ''Trilby'', featuring the character Svengali. His son was the actor Sir Gerald d ...

, the writer and artist lived here with his family from 1870 to 1874 and his son

Gerald du Maurier Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier (26 March 1873 – 11 April 1934) was an English actor and manager. He was the son of author George du Maurier and his wife, Emma Wightwick, and the brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1903, he m ...

was born here in 1873.

Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English-born collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was the pre-eminent activist in the development of t ...

, the musician, later lived here from 1915. *No. 28 –

Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish independence, Scottish nation ...

, writer in 1910 *No. 34 –

, scientist, 1782 to 1785

Malvina Cheek Malvina Cheek, A.R.C.A., (8 July 1915 – 22 May 2016) was a British artist, best known for her work during World War II for the Recording Britain project. During the War she was commissioned for Recording Britain to make architectural recor ...

shared a house on Church Row with fellow artist

Olive Cook Olive Muriel Cook (20 February 1912 – 2 May 2002), was an English writer and artist who published county guides, as well as writing various books accompanied by the work of her husband, the photographer Edwin Smith. Early life Olive Muriel C ...

in the late 1940s.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld Anna Laetitia Barbauld (, by herself possibly , as in French, Aikin; 20 June 1743 – 9 March 1825) was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature. A " woman of letters" who published in mu ...

, the writer and poet lived on Church Row in the early 1800s, though it is not known exactly which house she occupied. Nos. 2, 8, 9 and 11 have all been proposed at various times. The local builder and property developer Charles Bean King lived on Church Row during his construction of 16-22 Christchurch Hill and 15 and 17 Well Walk in the 1870s.

References

{{Commons category, Church Row, Hampstead Hampstead Streets in the London Borough of Camden Georgian architecture in London