Autumn at Primrose Hill

courtesy 'Schrollum'

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More photos from 'just.being'

Pathways and Lamp Posts

courtesy 'Schrollum'

The glow on Primrose Hill

above photo courtesy 'poolski'

Regent's Park and Primrose Hill in Literature and Music

Splendid to be on Primrose Hill

At evening when the world is still!

W. H. Auden

Primrose Hill - London

"The View from Primrose Hill comprises not only London, with its masses of houses and hundreds of spires, but also the once rural retreats of Hampstead and Highgate, now almost become portions of the great town itself. Opposite is St. John's Wood, and in the rear of St. John's Wood the graceful spire of Harrow-on-the-Hill; nearer the spectator are the close streets of Portland Town, and the elegant domain of Regent's Park. The eye, after resting upon St. Paul's as the nucleus of the vast city, glances over Islington and Holloway to the undulating hills of Kent and Surrey; and upon, a clear day may be descried the bright roofs of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham."
from Curiosities of London, John Timbs, 1867
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Timbs

"Primrose Hill was purchased by the Crown from Eton College early in the present century as a public resort, and it now rises from the midst of fifty acres of land laid out as a park to the north of Regent's Park. The summit is 206 feet above the Trinity high-water mark of the Thames, and it commands an extensive view of the Metropolis. The London and North-Western Railway constructed a tunnel under the Hill more than sixty years ago, which was thought a great engineering feat at that time and for long afterwards. On the southern slope, in 1864, Phelps, the actor, planted an oak to commemorate the Shakespeare tercentenary. Primrose Hill is much frequented on Bank Holidays, and when toboganning is to be had."
from The Queen's London, 1896

And still is today ... though with snowboards, skis and sleds (Feb. 2009) ...

Picture: (Heathcliff O'Malley)
more photos from The Telegraph

"Primrose Hill is a high mound at the north side of Regent's-pk, whence a good view may be obtained. Only a few years ago Primrose-hill was in the fields, and from the Regent's-pk to Hampstead there was little but open country. Now the hill is the centre of a large new town, and a great population has grown, up around it. It is very popular with holiday makers who are unable to get out of town, although, with the exception of a rather small open-air gymnasium, there is nothing to contribute to the public amusement."
from Charles Dickens Jr. et al, Dickens Dictionary of London, c.1908 edition

John H. Glover - Hayfield near Primrose Hill

Hayfield near Primrose Hill, 1817

From Christie's Lot Notes: "John Glover's bucolic pastoral scene showing farm workers at work and resting after lunch on an English summer afternoon was set in what is now known as Regent's Park in London's inner north. Originally founded by Henry VIII following the dissolution of monasteries throughout the country, the land had subsequently been sold or gifted by The Crown to landholders for farming and pasture use. By 1817, however, the year in which 'Hayfield near Primrose Hill' was painted, Regent's Park had again reverted to The Crown and for five years the construction of terraces, villas and parklands designed by Sir John Nash had been underway.

The intrusion of the urban onto Glover's "celebration of rural life" (D. Hansen, John Glover and the Colonial Picturesque, Hobart, 2003, p.171) is, however, only hinted at in this idyllic scene of the privations and rewards of the honest labourer. The well-fed farm workers show no indication of the distress they must have been experiencing with the introduction of the protectionist Corn Law of 1815, which resulted in the substantial increase in the price of bread, leading to broad political unrest. Nor is there any hint of Nash's comprehensive redevelopment of Regent's Park, and the rapidly industrialising centre of London is only suggested by the grey clouds, chimney-stacks, and the spire of St. Mary's church in New Street, Marylebone, which had been constructed only four years earlier. ..."

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John H. Glover

Born: 18 February 1767 Houghton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, England
worked in Australia 1831-49
Died: 09 December 1849 Deddington, Tasmania

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/tbio?tperson=6492

http://www.artnet.com/library/03/0328/T032888.asp