Mick Hartley

I don't always head east. This is the North End: the wooded section of Hampstead Heath over to the west of Spaniards Road, where you see just the very occcasional dog-walker, and in summer mountain bikers career up and down and round the dips and bends, in defiance of the No Cycling signs:

Across North End Way, to the right of Jack Straw's Castle – sadly now turned into flats – and hidden away behind Inverforth House, rebuilt by Lord Leverhulme and former home of geneticist R.A.Fisher – again now converted into flats (pdf) – there's one of London's more obscure and lovely little parks, The Hill:

Of course now isn't the best time of year to visit. Best is a summer evening. If you're lucky you may have the whole place to yourself. You can walk up the pergola walk past the wisteria – now bare but in July loaded with lilac flowers:

There may be the odd glimpse of a fellow visitor in the shadows:

But not often. Usually it's deserted.