Yahoo Finance Hampstead, the historic London village of pubs and ponds, is getting a brand new look
The story of how a park squatter found himself the owner of a multi-million pound plot of real estate will return to the public eye this week with the release of Hampstead, a romantic comedy starring Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson.
The film tells the story of an American widow, played by Keaton, who meets an Irishman (Gleeson) faced with eviction from his shack on Hampstead Heath. Together, they take on the might of property developers – falling in love along the way, of course.
The story is based on the real case of Harry Hallowes, who found himself homeless in the late Eighties and began to live rough on Hampstead Heath. He squatted for 20 years in a small shack on a plot of some 85 sq ft that belonged to the adjacent NHS-owned property, Athlone House.
In 2005, a developer who had bought Athlone House tried to evict him but Hallowes, with the support of local residents, took his case to court. Two years later, he won the right to ownership of the land and lived there until he died last year, aged 80. At the time of the court case, press reports valued his plot at between £2 million and £3 million; in his will, Hallowes left it to two charities.
Hallowes was an unusual character with an unorthodox home in an enclave better known for its high net worth residents and period properties. Hampstead offers a village lifestyle in London, with leafy streets of beautiful houses and upmarket boutiques and restaurants. The Heath is one of the city’s finest parks, with 790 acres of green space enjoyed by joggers, dog walkers and pond swimmers.
Today, property prices start at about £350,000 for a studio or small one-bedroom flat towards Belsize Park, rising to £5 million for a four-bedroom property near the Heath. However, values can easily pass £10 million for one of the large detached homes on the more popular avenues around Hampstead Village. It is not surprising, then, that developers are trying to make their mark on this historic and cultural nook of London.
Hampstead is an established residential area with a strong sense of community and people tend to live there a long time
Jon Hall, sales director of London developer Mount Anvil
“Hampstead is an established residential area with a strong sense of community and people tend to live there a long time,” says Jon Hall, sales director of London developer Mount Anvil, which is developing the three-acre site Hampstead Manor. “We’ve had significant interest in our project from locals, including people who want to downsize and those buying for their children who may have grown up here.”
Hampstead Manor is a redevelopment of the former campus of Westfield College, which was established in the 19th century as one of the first women’s colleges in London and later evolved into Queen Mary University; from 1992 to 2015, the site was used by King’s College.
Mount Anvil is turning this educational estate into 125 homes across 13 buildings, creating a mix of flats and houses ranging from one to five bedrooms, with prices starting from £747,500. The site will also have a spa and gym, extensive grounds and a pool.
Its show-stoppers are the three listed buildings being converted into single dwellings. Kidderpore Hall, a neoclassical mansion built in the early 1800s for the powerful East India trader John Teil, is expected to sell for upwards of £17 million. Skeel Library, built in 1904 on commission from a group of bluestockings, offers four bedrooms and 5,220 sq ft over four floors for £7.95 million. The Chapel, dating to 1929, has four bedrooms and is priced at £8 million.
Much of the property in Hampstead dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but the area is now seeing a surge in niche new-build and conversion schemes.
Down the road from Teil’s remastered house is a new Barratt London development, Kidderpore Green, which offers 93 one to four-bedroom apartments and houses. Three-bedroom apartments are available from £1.257 million, with the next phase launching on July 1.
Other development projects include New End from The Linton Group, which will offer 16 apartments and a 3,200 sq ft lateral penthouse. Prices start from £995,000 for a one-bedroom, 967 sq ft flat.
Godfrey London’s Hampstead projects are both conversions of existing buildings. Otto Schiff House on Netherhall Gardens, a stone’s throw from where the Freud family lived, is the former home of the philanthropist known as Britain’s Oskar Schindler. Apartments in the redeveloped 1880s house start from £2.4 million for two bedrooms. The other, 11 Fitzjohn’s Avenue, will be unveiled next year.
“Average prices per square foot in Hampstead are around £1,300 to £1,500 and the most popular price bracket for buyers is between £1 million and £4 million,” says Mark Pollack of local agency Aston Chase. “Buyers are generally professionals with children who are attracted to this area because it’s safe, very green, has a strong community and cultural heart, as well as a wide range of excellent schools.”
There has been a reduction in transactions of prime and super-prime property in the area, Pollack says, due to uncertainty over the UK’s political situation and the increased stamp duty on higher-value homes. Despite this, his firm recently sold two properties in excess of £15 million.
Though some have claimed the film Hampstead will do for NW3 what Notting Hill did for W11, Pollack is not convinced. “At the time of the movie’s release, Notting Hill wasn’t an established area, but subsequently became very trendy and desirable,” he says. “I don’t think this film will have the same effect on Hampstead, but it is an endorsement of how high value and beautiful the location is.”
As for Harry Hallowes and his battle to be allowed to stay on the Heath, Pollack says it’s unlikely that his land was really worth the fortune it was claimed to be. “As far as I’m aware there’s no planning permission to build on it, no utilities and no vehicular access. Effectively, its value is probably negligible.”
