Place Name
This is thought to be the oldest inhabited part of Hampstead town, on the southern slopes of the heath, near the manor and church and on each side of the road to Hendon, which was later called Hampstead High Street. The name Hampstead itself, which today is much traded upon, was documented even before the Norman Conquest. In the 10thCentury it was mentioned as Hemstede in AD959 and Hamstede in AD978, when King Ethelred confirmed that the manor was being given to Westminster Abbey. The name comes from the Anglo Saxon word hām-stede meaning the homestead. The spelling mutated to Hamestede by the time of the Domesday Book, and in 1258 the “intrusive” p was added to become Hampstede. It wasn’t until the late 17thCentury that the modern spelling was used when the village became a fashionable spa resort. The term High Street is used to denote the principle street of an area.
