Primrose Hill

Primrose Hill is a public park in London’s Camden borough, opened in 1842 just north of Regent’s Park. Its namesake hill rises 64 metres and offers wide views across central London, Hampstead and Belsize Park. The summit bears an engraved line from William Blake. The park sits where three old parishes once met, and its surrounding district took the same name. The Royal Parks now manage the green space. The hill’s past includes a royal chase under Henry VIII and a 17th-century murder that briefly gave it the nickname Greenberry Hill. In 1792 Iolo Morganwg founded a Welsh bardic gathering here on the summer solstice. A plaque marks that event, unveiled by Huw Edwards in 2009. The Regent’s Canal, finished in 1816, runs nearby, and the first London railway tunnel opened under the hill in 1838. By the 1840s the land became public open space after an Act of Parliament. Visitors find an outdoor gym called the Hill Trim Trail and a children’s playground on the south side. Primrose Hill bridge links to London Zoo and Regent’s Park. The district east of the park contains modernist houses by Douglas Streeter on Elliott Square. Seven English Heritage blue plaques recall former residents such as Friedrich Engels, Sylvia Plath and William Butler Yeats. The hill also appears in novels, films and songs, from H. G. Wells to The Rolling Stones.