Well Walk & John Constable's House

Why is it significant?

Well Walk in London's Hampstead neighborhood is an elegant historic street famous as the residence of landscape painter John Constable from 1827 until 1837. Constable moved to Well Walk to seek clean air for his terminally ill wife, painting scientific cloud studies from the hillside until his death. The street also operated as a popular chalybeate spa resort after John Duffield developed the land in 1701.

Key Facts

What to look for?

• In 1698, the Earl of Gainsborough and his mother granted six acres around Well Walk to benefit local poor.
• John Duffield began constructing assembly rooms, a pump room, and gardens on Well Walk on June 2, 1701.
• Landscape painter John Constable was elected a full Royal Academician on February 10, 1829, by a single vote.
• Despite his fame today, John Constable only sold about 20 paintings in England during his entire lifetime.

Listen · 3:57

Why did painter John Constable move to Well Walk in London?

Welcome to Well Walk... one of Hampstead's most elegant streets, and a place with two extraordinary stories woven into its cobblestones. One is about water. The other is about sky. Let's start with the water. The chalybeate springs of Hampstead were generally agreed to have started being used around sixteen ninety-eight. Chalybeate... that's a fancy word meaning the water was rich in iron. In that year, the infant Earl of Gainsborough and his mother, the Countess, gave six acres of land around the well to benefit the poor of Hampstead. But what happened next was anything But charitable. On the second of June, seventeen oh one, a man named John Duffield was granted possession of the land... and he immediately started building. A Great Room, Assembly Rooms, a Pump Room. Soon came a tavern, a chapel, shops, formal gardens, and even a bowling green. This quiet street was once a Buzzing Georgian spa resort, rivaling Tunbridge Wells! The waters were bottled right on the site of the pub called The Flask, on Flask Walk, which leads directly into Well Walk. But here's the twist. It wasn't until nineteen oh two that doctors finally announced that drinking chalybeate water was actually Harmful to your health... two centuries of supposed miracle cures, debunked in a single announcement. Now. Look for the blue plaque on the Georgian townhouse across the way. The English landscape painter John Constable lived in this house from eighteen twenty-seven to eighteen thirty-seven, and it retains many original features from his time, including high ceilings and tall sash windows. But why did he come here? Constable moved from central London to take advantage of the clean air and spa water for his wife, who suffered from tuberculosis. It was a race against time... and he knew it. The house on Well Walk offered a splendid view over London. He wrote that the little drawing room commanded "a view unequalled in Europe... the dome of Saint Paul's in the air." And from this hillside, something remarkable happened. Constable made a series of oil sketches of the sky alone, each one marked with the date, time, and a short description of the conditions. His interest in clouds was influenced partly by the work of the scientist Luke Howard, who had in eighteen oh three written a pioneering study classifying different types of cloud. He didn't just paint pretty pictures. He was conducting a scientific investigation of the atmosphere... with a paintbrush. He regarded the sky as, in his own words, the chief "organ of sentiment" in landscape. Sadly, his wife had been fighting a long battle with tuberculosis and died in eighteen twenty-eight. Constable was finally elected a full Royal Academician on February tenth, eighteen twenty-nine... by a single vote. His wife had died just three months before. He never remarried. He stayed right here on Well Walk, caring for seven children, painting these skies until his death in eighteen thirty-seven. And here's a detail most people miss. He had only managed to sell about twenty paintings in his lifetime in England! The man we now call one of Britain's greatest landscape painters... was barely recognized in his own country. So next time you look up at the clouds over Hampstead Heath... remember. Constable saw them first.