Well Walk

Hampstead (NW3) "The most celebrated spot in Hampstead, for here flow the famous chalybeate waters, which rivalled those of Bath and Tunbridge Wells, and in their best days drew an amazing army of gay people to the spot. It was at the beginning of the eighteenth century that the waters first became famous. Howitt says they were carried fresh every day for sale to Holborn Bars, Charing Cross, and other central spots. "The famous painter, Constable, lived here in a house then numbered 6, now 10. John Keats and his brothers lodged in Well Walk, next to the 'Wells' Tavern, in 1817; and the seat on which Keats loved to sit under a grove of trees at the most easterly end is still called by his name. Here Howitt found him sobbing his dying breath into a handkerchief." (Hampstead, G. E. Mitton, pp. 17, 20, 21)