Welcome to the February Belsize Society Newsletter. A pdf of this Newsletter is available also.

It was good to see so many members at this year’s carol singing in Belsize Village. We were fortunate to avoid the heavy December rain. We were once again joined by Primrose Hill Community Choir, raising over £300 for the Royal Free charity. 

Members will have noticed that the Swiss Cottage pub has been shut down. This historic site, which gives the area its name, is a part of our community that should not be lost. This Newsletter features a piece about what is happening to preserve the pub. 

Averil Nottage has contributed a piece about Belsize from 1900 to 1945. This is a taster of what she will tell us in the BelSoc Spring local history walk in April. The details of how you can book for this event using Eventbrite or by contacting us if this option is not possible all at the link. Places are limited so do sign up soon. 

There are also articles about local initiatives towards cleaner energy and Camden’s climate change policies.  A piece covers recent developments on energy performance certificates for homes. There is also an update on paper residential parking permits.

We include a piece about the craft club that produces, among other things, the decorations for letterboxes that you will have seen in the area. The article points out that the club is not only enjoyable but brings people from different backgrounds together. 

As usual at this time of year, we are getting ready for the AGM.  If you are interested in local affairs, or have administrative or IT skills, please do think about joining the Society’s Committee. We would also be grateful for any member recommendations for Traders You Can Trust, with a form online. Other local news and issues are also covered.

We hope you enjoy this Newsletter.

New Newsletter contributor, Clara Dubanchet, writes:

For the last three years, residents and visitors to Belsize Park have been able to pause in astonishment, amusement, awe, or bewilderment at the sight of peculiar hats topping the red letterbox on England’s Lane. Crowned by a cover on which are sewn various items, animals, or characters changing with the seasons or major events, it is not the only one to stand out. On Thurlow Road, another letterbox is decorated, as is the telephone box in Primrose Gardens. Who could be working behind the scenes to produce these original creations? 

The Belsize Society’s Newsletter wandered over to the Belsize Community Library to attend the Wednesday craft club from 1 to 4 p.m., which produces the designs. Near the large windows overlooking the street, tables have been assembled, taking up the entire width of the room. Women are gathered there in small groups, all busily involved in handicraft activities.

Caroline Chan, co-founder of the club, has been a long-time member of the library, teaching music classes. After 2021, a year shaken by COVID-19 and the repeated lockdowns, a suggestion was made to set up a space for creative people, made available by the library, to bring together those who, like herself, love to work with their hands. The club, which started with a trio, has grown steadily, attracting new members from the neighbourhood and extending their reach to others.  It now has around thirty participants, the majority of whom are women. 

“Talk and let your hands talk”

While the project’s origins lie in the conviviality of cakes and tea prepared by club members, the craft club has taken on a much more powerful dimension. It has become a social project where refugee communities have found a place to meet, socialize, and share their art. For the charities that have joined the club, such as Families4peace for the Ukrainians, Hopscotch for the Afghans, and Gathering Leaves for the Hongkongers, it is a means of putting their talent into practice. It gifts the Belsize community a time for cultural exchange, as much for the delicacies savoured, as for the different artistic techniques and practices introduced by the regulars each week. 

Art and craft as therapy, but not only. Who would have thought that this small neighbourhood club could be so beneficial for its members? Young retirees, busy mothers, newcomers to the hustle and bustle of London, art aficionados keen to pass on their passion, despite the language barrier: anything goes at these voluntary weekly gatherings. 

As the club continues growing, readers of the Belsize Society Newsletter, keep your eyes wide open. It is always possible to see a new project blossom, one fine morning, around the corner in Belsize Park. And for those who would like to take a look, the doors are wide open!

Local historian and BelSoc member Averil Nottage gives a taster of her forthcoming BelSoc walk

At the end of the 19^th century, Belsize aspired to be a suburb for the wealthy middle classes.  The First World War, the tube, the motor car and competition from newer suburbs all changed that, in the first half of the 20^th century.  The trend began in 1884 when a large empty house in Belsize Park Gardens was pulled down and replaced with the 20 apartments of Manor Mansions.  Then early in the 20^th century, it was accepted that it was better to split large houses into flats or boarding houses than to leave them empty. 

After WW1 these changes accelerated.  Wealthier residents drove off to more spacious suburbs and were replaced by smaller families and young people setting up first homes.  To meet their needs, many large blocks of flats were built in the 1930s in a variety of distinctive styles.  Hampstead Borough Council and ratepayers protested that there were already far too many flats in the area.  Alternatively, “homely” hotels offered food, comfort and sociability.  New Belsize residents may have been less prosperous or younger but were still expected to be “of a good class”.

Improved transport made it easy for the growing numbers of clerks working in Central London to live in Belsize.  By 1906 electric trams had replaced horses.  Belsize Park underground station opened in June 1907 as part of the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway, offering first, second and third-class travel.  The platforms provided shelter during the Blitz and by 1944 there were bunks for around 8000 people in extended deep tunnels.

Cinema arrived in 1913 when the Hampstead Picture Playhouse opened at the bottom of Pond Street.  In 1934 Oscar Deutsch incorporated a newly built cinema on Haverstock Hill into his Odeon chain.  It opened in September with George Robey in “Chu, Chin, Chow”, and was the chain’s flagship cinema until the Leicester Square one opened in 1937. The cinema was in a new parade of shops that extended up to the Town Hall with another new parade across the road.  Traders advertised it as one of the finest shopping centres in North West London and vowed to spare no effort to meet every demand made of them.

The Town Hall was a popular venue for talks, concerts and dances.  Both Christabel Pankhurst and Oswald Mosely held rallies there.  From 1919 until 1932 Cinderella Balls were held every Saturday night during the winter season.  In 1926 the Charleston and modified Tango were added to the dances that Jack Hutton’s Manhattan Band played.  T.S. Elliot and his first wife Vivien, and Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, were married there.

Some refugees escaped the Third Reich from 1933, but most Jewish refugees were well integrated into German life and didn’t try to leave until after the annexation of Austria and devastating consequences of the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938.

They found England very strange, but for some the faded grandeur of Belsize Park and Swiss Cottage was reminiscent of the cities they’d left.  Forming a community here, they could share memories and reactions to English customs, humour and behaviour.  

The Cosmo restaurant in Finchley Road serving continental food was a favourite meeting place.  Organisations sprung up to provide advice and social contact and promote German and Austrian culture.    

As the refugees couldn’t follow anglicised services at local synagogues, they organised their own services in the German Liberale tradition.  This started in one room in a boarding house in Belsize Park, but over time became the Belsize Square Synagogue in buildings linked to the old vicarage of St Peter’s Church.

To find out more about Belsize between 1900 and 1945 join our walk on Sunday 13 April at 11.00 am  or  2.30 pm.

Welcome to the November BelSoc Newsletter.

It was great to see many of you at events over the summer. The summer party was in a lovely setting and we’re grateful to the hosts. Averil Nottage introduced us to the three architects that shaped the Belsize area in a historic walk on a dry and sometimes sunny October Sunday. We report on these two events.

This Newsletter contains an invitation to Belsize residents. You’re being asked to contribute to Camden Council’s Sustainability Team’s Strategy Room. You have to apply and be selected to sit on a “citizen’s jury”, judging the policy options available and helping Camden as they design their climate action plans. Following on from that, we also have a piece about retrofitting, covering insulation and heat pumps.

We have a review of Peter Darley’s new book that explores the Chalk Farm Railway Lands, a maze of railway lines, canals, depots, tunnels and bridges. Averil’s review also lists the seven wonders of this area.

Regal developers recently took on the development of the 100 Avenue Road site. The Newsletter includes a report of their consultation as they plan next steps.

We were pleased to host, with the Friends of the Belsize Library, a wonderful talk by Lester Hillman covering numerous weather events over the centuries. The Friends have also let us know about their events over the winter and we cover the Gathering Leaves Hong Kong Book Library, which operates from the Belsize Library.

We hope that you can join us to sing carols in Belsize Village and enjoy the Newsletter.

Local historian Averil Nottage writes:

Peter Darley has just published the Chalk Farm Railway Lands: a guided tour from 1830 to 2030 about a significant aspect of our local heritage.  You couldn’t wish for a better guide.  Peter’s knowledge and long-standing enthusiasm for his subject shines through.  

In 1830 it was proposed to build the London to Birmingham Railway through the fields alongside the planned Adelaide Road.  It was the first inter-city railway to London and brought goods from England’s industrial heartlands.  Robert Stephenson, as the Chief Engineer, faced many challenges, including digging the Primrose Hill tunnel through stiff clay and creating an underground Winding Engine House to pull engines by rope up the incline from Euston.

The company’s London goods depot was between Chalk Farm and the Regent’s Canal where Camden Station opened.  The depot housed the goods yard, locomotive sheds, warehouses, and stables.  The Roundhouse was built in 1847 to cope with large numbers of goods engines.  From 1851 trains transported goods directly to and from London Docks making the Roundhouse redundant, and it became a store.  At its peak, 800 horses transported goods from the station by road.  Horses continued to be used until the 1950s.  The last steam trains were in 1962 and, around then, commercial traffic on the canal ceased.  

Boat trips started on the canal in 1951 and the towpaths opened in 1972.  The first market stalls opened in 1973 and by the 1980s Camden Lock had a fully-fledged market.  The Camden Goods Station closed around 1980.  From 1966 the Roundhouse became an iconic rock venue, closing in 1983 before reopening in 1996 as a centre for the performing arts.

Peter ends the book by describing his dream that by 2030 the seven wonders of the Chalk Farm Railway Lands will all be publicly accessible. These are:

• the Stationary Winding Engine Vaults, only accessible under Network Rail supervision
• Primrose Hill Tunnel East Portal, now only partly visible
• the Roundhouse, open for events but with the hub and undercroft not usually open
• the Stables complex, largely accessible in the Stables Market
• vaults, horse tunnels and catacombs, parts are incorporated into the market, but much is inaccessible
• the Interchange Warehouse, now offices with no access to the historically significant basement and canal basin 
• Hampstead Road Locks and the Regent’s Canal Information Centre which are publicly accessible.

The book costs £25 and can be obtained by from Peter, emailing BelSoc at membership@belsize.org.uk for more details.  

Gathering Leaves Hong Kong is a Hong Kong Books Library located in the Belsize Community Library since 2022. The mission is to preserve Hong Kong Language and culture, and to connect Hongkongers to the local community.

Gathering Leaves have collected 1000 books, they are books written by Hongkongers or books about Hong Kong. The HK Books Library is open every Saturday from 3 to 7pm. Other than regular Saturday sessions that welcome everyone, it also hosts a regular Qi Kung class on Monday afternoons, all free for the community.

The group have been hosting a variety of events to celebrate HK culture ranging from poetry readings, book talks, movie screenings, music and live performances. Their webpage is https://www.glhk.org.

An air source heat pump is big, about twice the size of an air conditioner, and is mounted externally, which might mean that it will require planning permission in our conservation area.  Heated water is distributed through radiators or underfloor. It doesn’t provide cooling, ventilation or domestic hot water.

If you live in a house or a ground floor flat you can probably position one on the rear wall or in the garden.  If you live in an upper floor flat it is unlikely that you will be able to fit one.

You might find an air source heat pump combi of interest.They are more expensive, and at the moment don’t qualify for a government grant (but hopefully that will change).  They are quite large and heavy to install.  However, they do have the advantage that they are fitted internally, so don’t require planning permission.  Heated air is distributed through duct work and grilles in the floor or ceiling.

Pichler and Viessmann combis both provide heating, cooling, ventilation and hot water all in one unit.Insulation is the top priority in retrofit.  Ideally 10 cms of wood fibre should be fitted to the external walls, probably internally, with as much as possible in the ceiling and floor.  Any draughts should be stopped.  The next priority is double glazing.  Both of these should be carried out before a heat pump is installed.  One or two electric heaters can be added if needed.

There is some support offered to residents. Camden lists the energy efficiency grants available at https://www.camden.gov.uk/energy-efficiency-grants.

Stay in touch on retrofit@belsize.org.uk.

Giving us a flavour of BelSoc’s autumn guided walk, Averil Nottage writes:

When you see the stuccoed houses of Belsize Park, or St Peter’s Church, or the shops in England’s Lane, do you ever wonder who made the decisions that shaped our area?

From the end of the 15th century Belsize House and Park was a country estate for the gentry.  But in the early 1850s, when London was edging northwards, the leaseholder decided to pull Belsize House down and replace it with an exclusive estate within the old park walls.  The main builder was Daniel Tidey and, because he took the financial risks, he decided what houses to build and where.

When Tidey came to Belsize in 1856 he had already built Italianate houses in Chelsea and North Kensington.  Although by then Classical styles were out of fashion, Tidey was convinced that his large ornate stuccoed houses would still appeal to the wealthy middle classes.  He added his trademark curved rear bay windows using the latest glass technology.  The reception rooms were especially impressive with lavish plaster ceiling decorations and massive doors that could accommodate wide crinolines.

Tidey started building in Buckland Crescent and moved on to Belsize Park, Belsize Square and Belsize Terrace. He offered to build a public garden by Buckland Villas but as residents wouldn’t agree to maintain it, he decided against creating a public garden in Belsize Square.  When Tidey got approval to build on fields to the south-east of the park, he pulled down the old walls to create Belsize Park Gardens and Lambolle Road.  In total he built about 250 classical stuccoed houses.

No respectable estate was complete without a church.  St Peter’s Church was consecrated in 1859 and its first vicar, the Rev Francis Tremlett, made a significant contribution to its cost.  A man of strong convictions, he was a passionate supporter of the Confederates in the American Civil War, believing that slaves and their masters lived in harmony. He strongly opposed vivisection, Socialism, Atheism and all sorts of depravity.  He attracted such a large congregation that the church was extended in 1875.  He preached for the last time in 1913 aged 92.

The respectable middle classes didn’t want their estates sullied by lower class people, so shops and mews were confined to their boundaries.  From the mid-1860s Tidey built a pub and a row of shops on Belsize estate land on the north side of England’s Lane and Samuel Cuming built shops on Chalcots estate land opposite them.  At that time both estates were still quite separate, but as more houses were built, they merged together with the shops as a focal point.

Local shops were important because before refrigeration perishable goods had to be bought daily.  Middle-class customers could be very demanding as they expected high levels of service but sometimes used credit to live beyond their means.  The first shopkeepers appeared to flourish.  By the late 1880s Thomas Gurney Randall, the butcher, was a purveyor of meat to Her Majesty the Queen.  Barratts still trade from the butchers’ shop that Randall opened, although there is no longer an abattoir in the mews behind.  Tesco is in a shop that has been a grocer for over 150 years.

In the late 1860s Daniel Tidey struggled to sell his classical Italianate houses and went bankrupt.  Other builders stepped in, the most influential being William Willett and his son.  Already established in Kensington, in 1876 Willett started building houses in Belsize Crescent and shops in Belsize Terrace. He donated land to create a village green where the pedestrianised area is now.

From the early 1880s the Willetts built substantial red brick houses in Lyndhurst Gardens, Eton Avenue and Strathray Gardens.  With a reputation for comfort and elegance, each house was unique, drawing on an eclectic range of architectural styles.  By the late 1890s the Willetts were competing with developers in more spacious suburbs.  They responded by building houses that were wider and lower, with horizontal windows, large halls, fine timber staircases, elegant rooms, and separate and well-equipped domestic facilities.  They also had front gardens with privet hedges.  These houses can be seen in the middle of Eton Avenue and in Elsworthy Road and Wadhurst Gardens.

Two other significant local builders were Thomas Batterbury and W.F Huxley who identified a demand for artists’ studios.  The Mall Studios off Parkhill Road and Steele’s Studios off Haverstock Hill were single story workspaces for artists.  At 35-39 Steele’s Road they built grand houses with north facing studios for eminent painters.  We owe our local artistic heritage to them.     

If you are interested in finding out more about Victorians who shaped Belsize, Averil will be leading a local history walk on 29 September at 11.00 am and again at 2.30 pm.  Tickets are available from Eventbrite, links are on our website.