Admiral's House

Admiral's House in Hampstead, London, is a 1700 townhouse famous for inspiring the ship-shaped home of Admiral Boom in P. L. Travers's 1934 book Mary Poppins. Built by Charles Keys, the house was modified in 1775 by naval Lieutenant Fountain North, who added a rooftop quarterdeck. Despite its name, no admiral ever lived here. The building was painted by John Constable and inhabited by architect Sir George Gilbert Scott from 1856 to 1865.

London Β· from the walk β€œHampstead Uncovered: Village Secrets & Heath Legends” Β· audio ~3 min Β· Generated

Admiral's Walk, Hampstead, London NW3 6RS

What connection does Admiral's House in Hampstead have to the book Mary Poppins?

Look up at this tall, white-washed house with its peculiar roofline... and let me tell you a story of mistaken identity, eccentric sailors, and a little literary magic.......... This house was built in seventeen hundred by a man named Charles Keys. Nothing nautical about him at all. In fact, the house was originally called "Golden Spikes," likely named after the Masonic Lodge that met here between seventeen thirty and seventeen forty-five. A landlocked building with a very landlocked name.......... But then, in seventeen seventy-five... everything changed. Lieutenant Fountain North bought the house and renamed it "The Grove." Now, Fountain North was a retired naval captain who desperately missed the sea. So what did he do? He added a Quarterdeck to the roof... then bulwarks and portholes to the property. He essentially turned a Hampstead townhouse into a landlocked warship! And from that rooftop quarterdeck, he is reputed to have fired Cannons to celebrate naval victories and royal birthdays. Imagine the neighbours' reaction.......... Now here's where the story gets wonderfully tangled. In the late eighteenth century, the house was mistaken as belonging to Admiral Matthew Barton... because a print of The Grove was incorrectly entitled "Admiral Barton's Hampstead." The cannons were actually Barton's doing, fired from his Own roof nearby β€” but everyone muddled the two eccentrics together. And so the house became known as Admiral's House... though no admiral has Ever lived here.......... The painter John Constable adored this building. He painted it from the upper window of his own house at two Lower Terrace, just nearby. Ten years later, Constable exhibited a painting of this subject titled "A Romantic House at Hampstead." You can see his paintings of this very house at both the V and A and the National Gallery.......... The great Gothic Revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott lived here between eighteen fifty-six and eighteen sixty-five β€” this is the man who designed the Albert Memorial and the Midland Grand Hotel at Saint Pancras. But his wife Caroline found the place rather cold and the location isolated β€” the Hampstead Underground wouldn't open for another forty years!......... And then there's the most famous connection of all. This house inspired the similarly eccentric home of Admiral Boom in P. L. Travers's "Mary Poppins," published in nineteen thirty-four. In the books, a retired naval officer called Admiral Boom lives next door to the Banks family, in a house shaped like a ship, and fires his cannon every once in a while.......... And one last delicious detail β€” according to legend, through the garden ran a tunnel which was said to communicate with the Heath, and was allegedly the escape route of highwayman Dick Turpin. Almost certainly fiction... but then again, truth has never been this house's strongest suit.

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