Gospel Oak, Camden

Gospel Oak is an inner urban area of north London in the London Borough of Camden at the very south of Hampstead Heath. The neighbourhood is positioned between Hampstead to the north-west, Dartmouth Park to the north-east, Kentish Town to the south-east, and Belsize Park to the south-west. Gospel Oak lies across the NW5 and NW3 postcodes and is served by Gospel Oak station on the London Overground. Forest & Ray Private Dentist Camden is very close to Gospel Oak, Camden.

The name Gospel Oak derives from a local oak tree, under which parishioners gathered to hear regular gospel readings when the area was still rural. The oak of Gospel Oak marked the boundary between the parishes of Hampstead and St Pancras, and was said to be situated on the corner of Mansfield Road and Southampton Road. The oak vanished sometime in the 1800s and was last recorded on a map of the area in 1801.

The neighbourhood began serious development in the mid-1800s. Plans were drawn up for elegant streets, but after two railway lines were extended across the area in the 1860s the first buildings were two- and three-story cottages, based around present-day Oak Village. The area was for many years rather remote from the rest of the wider Kentish Town development and streets were not fully completed and the housing stock was regarded as relatively sub-standard.

During this early building period, there was a risk that Parliament Hill Fields (the southernmost part of Hampstead Heath, near Gospel Oak station) would be built over. In the 1840s, there was a proposed building on the fields, but a campaign led to the fields being bought in 1889 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, an extension to the protected Hampstead Heath. The fields now host Parliament Hill itself, an athletics running track, a bandstand, café and various children's playground.

Also in Camden: Camden Town, Gospel Oak, Somers Town, King's Cross, Chalk Farm, Dartmouth Park.

Driving directions from Gospel Oak to Forest & Ray Private Dentist Camden