Hampstead’s Village People: Portraits of Cultural Icons

Hampstead's unique qualities have always attracted some of London's most notable intellectual and artistic residents stretching back to Keats and Constable and continuing today with recognisable celebrities including Helena Bonham Carter and Ricky Gervais. As London's reputation as a creative hub has continued to grow around the world so too does this enclave of talent in the north of the city.

To celebrate Hampstead and its residents, the National Trust, in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, is bringing 30 photographs of the neighbourhood’s cultural icons to hang in the equally well-known 17th century Fenton House.

Ivo Dawnay, Director of the National Trust’s London Project comments: “Why is this corner of north London so often the chosen home of Britain’s liberal cultural life? There are clues in the artistic circles and families such as the Freuds and the Huxleys, which the exhibition references, and today’s cultural elites from both film and television.”

Hampstead’s Village People celebrates the people who make it what it is today who are mainly known for their significant contributions to the arts. It includes portraits of musicians as diverse as Edward Elgar and Boy George, writers Edith Sitwell and Alan Hollinghurst, artists Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth and actors Richard Burton and Judi Dench. More of Hampstead’s famous faces will be brought to life and hung on the walls of Fenton House with photographic portraits of Sir John Betjeman by John Gay, Richard Wilson by Trevor Leighton, Helena Bonham Carter, Ricky Gervais, and Martin Amis.

Visitors can also enjoy the merchant house’s own art collections which span 500 years, views across London and an exquisite walled garden. Now, this famous Hampstead house celebrates famous Hampstead icons!