Short History of the Redington and Frognal Ward by Dudley Leigh
Camden’s Redington and Frognal Conservation Area is part of the Frognal and Fitzjohns electoral ward. It lies on the immediate periphery of the older, central ‘village’ area of Hampstead which, with the Heath, is the main historical attraction for visitors. However, the Redington Frognal area has its own recorded history and is a most pleasant area to walk and explore.
A 15th century tenement (house) was recorded and later rebuilt in the area and, in 1792, Frognal was praised for its “salubrity of air and soil in the neighbourhood of pleasure and business”- precisely the heritage that Redfrog exists to conserve.
Look first at ‘British History Online’, possibly no further, for a detailed account of the growth of the area. Much substantial, high-grade housing was created during the 1870s and 1880s in the whole area of Frognal & Fitzjohns. 20-30 years later, the area north west of Frognal (over to Finchley Road) was also developed as what we today would regard as leisurely plots of land. Almost all of this housing remains and is treasured, maintained and preserved as having sheltered the history of the people and their activities and their influence - local, national and global.
Hampstead in general has long been known as a residence of the intelligentsia, including writers, composers, ballerinas, intellectuals, actors, artists and architects — many of whom created a bohemian community in the late 19th century. After 1917, and again in the 1930s, it became base to a community of avant garde artists and writers and was host to a number of émigrés and exiles from the Russian Revolution and Nazi Europe.
A major list of historical notables who lived in the whole Hampstead area can be seen on the Wikipedia site ‘Hampstead History’. Some of these will have lived outside the central area after the 1870s to early-1900s and some more recent, prominent people are also part of our history and social development.
Several of the people on the list of residents, including John Constable, Eleanor Farjeon and Hugh Gaitskell, are buried in the churchyard of St John-at-Hampstead.
A 15th century tenement (house) was recorded and later rebuilt in the area and, in 1792, Frognal was praised for its “salubrity of air and soil in the neighbourhood of pleasure and business”- precisely the heritage that Redfrog exists to conserve.
Look first at ‘British History Online’, possibly no further, for a detailed account of the growth of the area. Much substantial, high-grade housing was created during the 1870s and 1880s in the whole area of Frognal & Fitzjohns. 20-30 years later, the area north west of Frognal (over to Finchley Road) was also developed as what we today would regard as leisurely plots of land. Almost all of this housing remains and is treasured, maintained and preserved as having sheltered the history of the people and their activities and their influence - local, national and global.
Hampstead in general has long been known as a residence of the intelligentsia, including writers, composers, ballerinas, intellectuals, actors, artists and architects — many of whom created a bohemian community in the late 19th century. After 1917, and again in the 1930s, it became base to a community of avant garde artists and writers and was host to a number of émigrés and exiles from the Russian Revolution and Nazi Europe.
A major list of historical notables who lived in the whole Hampstead area can be seen on the Wikipedia site ‘Hampstead History’. Some of these will have lived outside the central area after the 1870s to early-1900s and some more recent, prominent people are also part of our history and social development.
Several of the people on the list of residents, including John Constable, Eleanor Farjeon and Hugh Gaitskell, are buried in the churchyard of St John-at-Hampstead.
