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Pub preservation
Mark Hoile,
Pub Preservation Officer
George Romney (1734-1802) who was one of the most successful British portrait painters, bought several properties to the west of Heath Street Hampstead in 1796. This included for the princely sum of £700, a house known as no.6 The Mount. This property included large gardens, a stables and coach house.
Due to ill health Romney returned to his wife in the Lake District, where he died in 1802. All his Hampstead properties were acquired by the Hampstead assembly rooms, who leased Romney's former stables to a victualler for conversion into a tavern, now the Holly Bush. The grade II listed Holly Bush contains many interesting historical features and has benefited from a sensitive refurbishment and committed new licensee, restoring it to a successful and welcoming inn at the heart of Hampstead's cultural and social life.
The Holly Bush is at 22 Holly Mount, NW3, close to Hampstead tube station (Northern Line).
Mark Hoile
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 9.
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