Growing up in Hampstead, London in the 70’s and 80's

As published in The Hampstead Village Voice, London

New publication by Sophie Duncan about France see below.

Almost fresh off the Dun Laoghaire ferry, I arrived in Hampstead as a four year old in 1969.

Hampstead was in full celebration of a new wave of cosmopolitan and bohemian lifestyles, nourished from overseas via the more ‘out-there’ Notting Hill. Beatniks still skulked in and out of basement flats around Willow and Willoughby Road, where we were fortunate enough to live for a time. Bearded intellectuals and artists partied and shifted in and out of each other’s homes and sometimes each other’s beds. It was a beautiful world. Rationing was long over and sex for mutual pleasure was becoming acceptable. Football teams were topping the charts and British music was giving Yankee rock a good pasting.

From my child’s eye view, all that was background noise to an almost idyllic Mary Poppins village atmosphere which stole the limelight, for me at least. The tramps were important fixtures. East Enders that came to Hampstead to sell flowers and clean windows hinted at a wider world. Beneath the multifaceted break out of rock, media, and fashion, the Hampstead that captured my childish attention was of its strongly rooted trustful, progressive tradition.