ListingsUpdated Sat 5 Sep
Hampstead: what's on and things to do
The Heath, the ponds you can swim in all year, and a free Adam house at the top with Rembrandts in it. The one part of this list where the point is the walk.
Saturday
5 September-
Sport From £4.50
Open air swimming at Hampstead Ponds
Until 30 Sep
September is the good month: the water is still warm from August and the summer crowds have gone. Cash or the app at the gate.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Kenwood House
Until 4 Sep
A Robert Adam house at the top of the Heath with a Rembrandt self portrait and a Vermeer in it, and no admission charge. The library is the room people stand in longest.
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Free
Parliament Hill viewpoint
Until 4 Sep
A protected view all the way to the City, which is why nothing is allowed to be built in front of it. Ten minutes up from Gospel Oak and worth doing an hour before sunset.
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Sport Free
Dogs on Hampstead Heath
Until 4 Sep
Eight hundred acres, off lead almost everywhere, and the one swimming pond dogs are allowed in is not one of the bathing ponds. Busiest at the Parliament Hill end on a weekend morning.
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Food and drink From £6
The Spaniards Inn
Until 4 Sep
A 1585 coaching inn at the top of the Heath with a walled garden, a dog wash at the door and a long history of letting them in. Low beams, so mind your head rather than the dog.
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Free
Stargazing on Hampstead Heath
Until 4 Sep
As dark as central London gets, which is not very, but Parliament Hill has the horizon and the local society runs public evenings on the hill through the winter. Take a torch and a coat.
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Talks From £14
Highgate Cemetery: guided tour of the West side
Until 27 Sep
The West side is guided access only, twelve to a group, and the guides are the reason to go. Book ahead; the weekend slots fill a week out.
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Free
A walk through Hampstead village
Until 4 Sep
Lanes that were a hill village before London reached them, and still read like one above the high street. Flask Walk and Holly Mount are the two to take if you only take two.
Thursday
1 October-
Sport From £4.50
Swimming in the Hampstead mixed pond
Until 4 Sep
Open all year, lifeguarded, and colder than you are expecting from about October. The men's and ladies' ponds keep their own hours and their own rules.
Saturday
24 October-
Seasonal From £20
Halloween ghost tour at Highgate Cemetery
Until 1 Nov
Guided after dark on the West side, which is the overgrown Victorian half and is not otherwise open without a guide at any hour. Small groups and it sells out weeks ahead.
