The English Romantic painter John Constable was inspired by Hampstead Heath while he lived there – and now, you can buy his old house.
Situated on Well Walk, the Grade II-listed property that Constable called home for a decade is for sale with Marcus Parfitt for £4,995,000.
Famous for his landscape paintings, Constable lived in the Georgian house, just 200 metres from the Heath, between 1827 and 1837.
Born in East Bergholt, Suffolk, Constable entered the Royal Academy of Art in 1800, aged 24, and divided his time between London and Suffolk.
He married his childhood sweetheart, Maria Bicknell, in 1816, and, from 1819 onwards, they began to spend their summers in Hampstead.
They rented several properties around the Heath, including Albion Cottage, 2 Lower Terrace and Stamford Lodge on Heath Street, hoping that Hampstead’s clean air would improve Maria’s health.
The couple and their children took up more permanent residence at 40 Well Walk in 1827, renting the property for £52 per year and letting their other property on Charlotte Street.
“We are at length fixed in our comfortable little house in Well Walk, Hampstead, and are once more enjoying our own furniture and sleeping in our own beds,” Constable wrote in a letter to his friend Archdeacon Fisher in 1827.
“This house is to my wife’s heart’s content…our little drawing room commands a view unsurpassed in Europe, from Westminster Abbey to Gravesend.”
Hampstead became a prominent subject of Constable’s work, both in his studies of cloud formations and oil paintings of the green, rolling views.
His painting, The Salt Box, for example, depicts the north westerly view from Albion Cottage, which the Constables rented in 1819. Last year, immortalised by Constable’s paintings, Branch Hill Pond was recreated after having dried up in the 1880s.
“Hampstead, sweet Hampstead,” Constable described it in a 1928 letter. He later wrote: “I shall now call Hampstead my home, Charlotte Street my office.”
Maria died from tuberculosis in 1828, shortly after the move to Hampstead and the birth of their seventh child.
Constable, who purportedly wore black for the rest of his life, remained at the house with the children until his own sudden death in 1837, aged 60. He is buried in St John’s Church, Hampstead.
Today, at 2,398 sq ft, the Grade II-listed property is no longer what most of us would describe as a “little house”. Spread over five storeys, there are three reception rooms and three bedrooms, with two each occupying their own floor.
Other features include a guest cloakroom, summer kitchen (doubling up as a utility room), a wine store and a 40-ft, southeast-facing walled garden.
Built in the early 19th century, the house retains much of its period charm, with high ceilings, Georgian windows and cast-iron fireplaces. Constable is commemorated with a blue plaque outside, erected in 1923.
“It’s a little step back in time,” says agent Marcus Parfitt. “The back of the house faces due south and overlooks Gainsborough Gardens, which is the only private garden in the middle of Hampstead village.
"You’re elevated from the upper floors straight over town. The light is wonderful. It feels warm – it ticks so many boxes for a lovely village home.”
40 Well Walk was last sold for £3.44 million in 2018, after 30 years with the previous owners.
The current owners have undertaken a “back to brick” restoration, according to Parfitt, including rewiring and replumbing the building and upgrading the kitchen and bathrooms.
“A lot of houses come up in the village, but they need refurbishment,” he says. “To actually get a turnkey Georgian house is quite rare.”
In its short time on the market, Parfitt says that the property has had a lot of interest, including from locals looking to downsize from larger houses in Hampstead, as well as young professionals.
“It’s a super, super home,” he says. “It’s quintessential Hampstead – it doesn’t get better.”
