Published:
4:00 PM April 30, 2021
Children from Ash Class at Brookfield School celebrate Earth Day by joining Heath Hands to litter pick and learn about the wildlife on the Heath. Pictured Maya, Jemimah, and Georgia (aged 10)
- Credit: Polly Hancock
To celebrate Earth Day, pupils from Brookfield Primary joined Heath Hands on Hampstead Heath, and helped to set an example to visitors by litter-picking.
Children at Brookfield were involved in activities and learning about wildlife on the Heath.
Paula Harvey, who leads on forest school-type activities at Brookfield, said: Children loved going to the Heath last Thursday and really enjoyed the activities prepared by Heath Hands.
Published:
10:23 AM April 28, 2021
The Household Cavalry rode through Whitestone Pond twice on Tuesday morning, completing a short circuit on the Heath
- Credit: Polly Hancock
The Household Cavalry enjoyed a morning on Hampstead Heath this week.
Horses and riders, clad in their distinctive and traditional regalia, delighted onlookers by trooping through Whitestone Pond twice, and parading around the Heath on Tuesday morning.
This event was part of the City of London Corporation s efforts marking the 150th anniversary of the Hampstead Heath Act which preserved the Heath for generations to come.
Crowds gathered around Whitestone Pond and the Hampstead War Memorial to see the horses and riders pass.
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Author John le Carré
- Credit: PA/Matt Crossick
This year marks 150 years since the act of parliament protecting Hampstead Heath was passed and a call has been made to include John le Carré in the celebrations.
The spy novelist – real name David Cornwell – died of pneumonia aged 89 in December.
He split his time between Hampstead and Cornwall, and had a great affection for the Heath, which is protected as an open space by the Hampstead Heath Act in 1871.
The act has been widely referenced in recent years, with some claiming it is contravened by the introduction of charges for swimming in the Ponds.
In the second quarter of the 19th century London was growing ever faster as a conurbation, the privately owned green space on its outskirts being sold off for housing.
The largely unregulated development of this kind and on this scale brought with it dangers to public health, and loss of amenity and open space.
So it was that public welfare campaigners, conservationists, politicians and newspapers came together to call for the saving and protection of the diminishing number of the capital s open spaces.
Some owners of these open spaces were sympathetic to the idea of preservation and cooperated to make their land public, but the Lord of the Manor of Hampstead was not one of them.