Primrose Hill

Primrose Hill is 64 metres of grass, mud, and one of the best panoramas in London. The summit is one of only six protected viewpoints in the city, meaning no building can ever block the view of the skyline from the top. On the stone at the peak, a line from William Blake is engraved: "I have conversed with the spiritual Sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill." Whether Blake actually saw a vision here or was just having a good day is a matter of scholarly debate.

The hill was once part of Henry VIII's hunting grounds, like so much of north London. The name has been in use since the 15th century, though the primroses that inspired it are mostly gone. In October 1678, the hill was the scene of the mysterious murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, a magistrate whose death sparked the Popish Plot hysteria. Three Catholic labourers named Green, Berry, and Hill were hanged for the crime — their surnames matching the location's name in a coincidence that conspiracy theorists have been chewing on for three centuries.

The neighbourhood around the hill has attracted literary residents like honey attracts wasps. Sylvia Plath lived at 3 Chalcot Square from 1960 with Ted Hughes, and returned to 23 Fitzroy Road in late 1962, where she wrote the poems of Ariel — forty pieces of despair, anger, and love that are considered her greatest work. Her blue plaque marks the Chalcot Square address. Friedrich Engels, W.B. Yeats, and Kingsley Amis also lived here.

Today Primrose Hill is London's village within a city — a tight-knit community of independent shops, cafes, and celebrity residents who pretend not to be famous. The park itself is free, unfenced, and open around the clock.