Why the heath is not an address
Hampstead Heath covers nearly eight hundred acres of grass, woodland, ponds and hills between Hampstead, Highgate and Gospel Oak, and it has no front door. Most of it is unfenced, paths run into it from every road along its edge, and dozens of gaps in hedges and railings serve as entrances that have never had a name. It never closes. It is also, once the sun has gone, almost entirely unlit.
That combination makes it one of the loveliest places in London to begin an evening and one of the worst to arrange to meet in. A companion told to meet you on the heath could reasonably walk in from any of a dozen directions, and in the half light two people can stand a hundred yards apart without seeing each other. A good meeting point on the heath needs three things: a name that a stranger can find on a map, a street lamp, and somewhere to stand that is not the middle of a path. The four below have all three.
South End Green, by Hampstead Heath station
This is the easiest of all. Hampstead Heath station, on the London Overground, stands at South End Green at the bottom of the village, and the heath begins across the road. The green itself is a small triangle where buses turn round, with cafes, shops and pubs around it, so there is light, company and somewhere to wait indoors if the weather turns. From here a path leads straight onto the heath past the first of the Hampstead ponds and on up towards Parliament Hill.
Name the station entrance, or a particular cafe on the green, and nobody can miss it. It suits anybody arriving by Overground from Camden Road or Kentish Town West, or by bus from the middle of town, and it is the one to choose if the evening is heading east across the heath towards the view.
Whitestone Pond, at the top of Heath Street
At the very top of the village, where Heath Street meets Spaniards Road and the roads to Golders Green, a shallow pond sits beside a tall flagstaff on the highest ground for miles. The white weatherboarded building opposite was for many years Jack Straw's Castle, one of the best known inns in north London, and is now flats. It is a busy road junction, well lit, with taxis passing constantly, and it is about seven or eight minutes' walk uphill from Hampstead station.
Say the flagstaff by Whitestone Pond and it is unmistakable. From here the West Heath and the paths towards Kenwood fall away on either side, and in daylight it is the grandest way into the heath there is. After dark it is still a perfectly good place to meet, precisely because it is a road junction and not a path; just do not treat it as the start of a walk into the woods behind it.
Gordon House Road, for Parliament Hill
On the south eastern side, Gordon House Road runs along the foot of the heath from Gospel Oak station, on the London Overground, to the lido near Highgate Road. It is flat, lit and lined with houses on one side, and the paths up Parliament Hill start from it. For a walk up to the view at sunset, meeting outside Gospel Oak station or at the lido end is the obvious arrangement, and the guide to Parliament Hill at dusk sets out the quieter way to the top.
A little further along, where the heath meets the top of Highgate Road, pubs such as the Bull and Last and the Southampton Arms make good places to wait for anybody coming up from Kentish Town; a warm room with a door onto the street is always a better meeting point than a gate.
The Spaniards Inn, from the Highgate side
Across the top of the heath, on Spaniards Road between Hampstead and Highgate, the Spaniards Inn is a pub of great age whose old tollhouse still stands opposite and squeezes the road to a single lane between them. It is easy to find, impossible to confuse with anything else, and a pleasant place to wait with a drink. Kenwood lies just along the road, and in daylight the walk across the heath from here towards the house and the ponds below it is one of the best in London.
It suits anybody coming from Highgate or Golders Green, or arriving by car, since the road is the main route between the two villages. It is a fair walk from any station, so anybody coming by train will want a bus or a car for the last stretch; say so to the desk and the timing will be built around it.
What not to name after dark in winter
From late October to February the light has gone by about four o'clock, and several entrances that are charming in summer become places nobody should be asked to stand alone. Millfield Lane, on the Highgate side, is a narrow, unlit lane running between hedges past the swimming ponds. The Kenwood estate on the northern edge keeps its own opening hours, and its gates are the ones most likely to be locked by the time you reach them. The Vale of Health, a hamlet tucked inside the heath, is reached by a single road that drops off East Heath Road into the trees. And any instruction that begins with by the ponds, on the bench, or just inside the gate is too vague to work in the dark.
In winter, keep to the lit edge: the station at South End Green, the flagstaff by Whitestone Pond, Gordon House Road, or a pub. Then walk as far onto the heath as the light allows and come back to the street while you can still see the path.
Arranging it, and who knows the heath
A meeting on the heath usually opens the unhurried evening, which is meant to feel like a date from the first minute. Two hours at £500 is enough for a walk and a drink; three hours at £700 adds a table in Hampstead or Kentish Town and the walk down afterwards. Send the desk the evening, the entrance you have in mind and roughly where you are coming from, and Verity will confirm the meeting point in so many words. Her fee is handed over in person when you find each other, and then the walk begins.
Jasmin is anchored in Hampstead and, at 160 centimetres, is one of the seven women on the petite page; she likes an afternoon start and knows every lane in the village. Lucy, also petite, is anchored down in Kentish Town and is the natural choice for a meeting at the top of Highgate Road. Nora, in Hampstead, has walked the heath in every season and is happy to start at the flagstaff and see where the evening wanders from there.
Cross filed: most of the names on this sheet also sit in the brunettes drawer of the moodboard.