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Primrose Hill
Primrose Hill
Background
Tucked away between St John's Wood, Regent's Park, Camden Town and Chalk Farm lies a small public park with soaring hilltop views over London. On its eastern slopes is a picturesque and prosperous enclave whose residents - many of whom are writers, photographers, actors and musicians - take great pride in the area.
The 'village' of Primrose Hill is tucked in between the main line railway to the East and the Hill to the West. Quiet and scheduled (due mainly to traffic controls on through roads), it commands high prices. This is the most coveted part of the neighborhood, being composed mainly of wide, tree-lined streets and elegant stucco-fronted houses. It boasts a quaint shopping street with a good selection of increasingly smart shops. The green space, which gives the place its name, covers 112 acres, with the Hill itself standing 206 feet high. As one of the loftiest sites in London, on a clear day it provides wonderful views from Canary Wharf and the Millennium Dome in the East to the Post Office Tower and beyond the west.
Together with Regents Park, it formed a hunting forest during Henry VIII's reign. In 1842 the land was bought by the Crown from the Eton Estate and made into a park by an Act of Parliament.
21st century Primrose Hill is a most civilized area with refreshingly unstained pavements. Over the years it has become a highly desirable place to live, popular with families and professional couples alike. The 'village' is considered to comprise the roads sandwiched between Chalk Farm station and the Hill itself - the main road winding between the two being Regent's Park Road.
Primrose Hill has always attracted the artistically inclined. Blue plaques in neighbouring roads commemorate past notable residents, including the poet Sylvia Plath, Sir Henry Wood and WB Yeats among others, and this tradition still continues today.
Local History
The Zoo, as it was affectionately called, opened its doors to the public in 1827. More and more sections of the park followed, starting with the formal Italian style gardens inspired by the grandeur of today's Avenue Gardens. Despite a spirited rearguard action by the residents, most of it, including Primrose Hill was opened to the public by 1841. The process naturally discouraged further building and the public were also anxious that the open landscape should be retained.
Primrose Hill is a sloping meadow dotted with plain cast-iron lampposts. Duels and murder feature in its History, while the medieval seer Mother Shipton prophesied that if ever London grew big enough to surround it, the streets of the city would run with blood. More prosaically, it was bought from Eton College in 1841 and opened to the public to pacify the ordinary folk, who were then denied access to parts of Regent's Park. It has been a favourite leisure spot ever since.
Architecture
Primrose Hill consists of four and five-storey white stucco Victorian houses, mansion blocks of flats, and tall redbrick Victorian terraces. Primrose Hill 'village' which is situated between the mainline railway and Primrose Hill consists mainly of wide tree-lined streets with elegant stucco fronted houses.
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