Photo: eisenbergalex, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
There are three notable outdoor bathing ponds on the heath. The Men's Pond and Women's Pond are both part of the line of small lakes on the eastern edge of the heath known as Highgate Ponds, and the Mixed Pond is part of Hampstead Ponds on the opposite side. Swimming hours are seasonal, complicated, age-dependent and change frequently, so it is worth checking before making a special trip.
Hampstead Heath Ponds are a series of some thirty bodies of water on or adjacent to Hampstead Heath, a vast open area of woodland and grassland in north London.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Take a guided tour of the overgrown Western Cemetery which gives it a special beauty and charm, or visit the East Cemetery unaccompanied where you will find the grave of Karl Marx. There are at least 850 notable people buried at Highgate, from authors Douglas Adams and George Eliot, to Jean Simmons and Michael Faraday; high society Victorians wouldn't be seen dead anywhere else. It has been said that Highgate has the finest collection of Victorian funerary architecture in the country, and the cemetery certainly has more than its fair share of ghosts. There's even a resident vampire!
A house designed by Erno Goldfinger in 1939 and regarded as an icon of modernist architecture. The contents are just as impressive as the house and include original works by Henry Moore and Max Ernst. Local lore has it that Hampstead resident of the time Ian Fleming objected so strongly to Goldfinger's modernist design that he named his famous Bond villain after him.
A community garden for inner peace next to Hampstead Heath station. No smoking, alcohol or dogs allowed.
A splendid Regency house with enormous gardens and woodlands. The gardens alone are worth the visit and are a superb example of 18th-century landscaping. On show at the house is art by masters such as Rembrandt, Turner, Reynolds and Vermeer, and the gardens have a very notable sculpture by Henry Moore. A regular program of outdoor opera takes place here every summer. Movie buffs will recognise Kenwood from Mansfield Park among other famous films. Administered by English Heritage, separately from the rest of Hampstead Heath.
Small, intimate theatre known for edgy, high quality productions. Located above The Horseshoe pub.
One of London's most notable art house cinemas which offers a high quality experience. You pay for it, but the environment is very classy indeed. Has a sister cinema just down the hill in Belsize Park - The Everyman Belsize Park.