The Bull & Last
Haute hostelry
Hanging by the Heath
You’re not short of storied locals at the Bull & Last, a much-loved Hampstead inn close to the Heath. There’s the slave daughter turned heiress of nearby Kenwood House, father of electricity Michael Faraday, and tragic murderess Ruth Ellis, locals who’ve been paid tribute in the inn’s beautifully conceived rooms. And, there are more characters downstairs where food rises well above the ‘gastro’ suffix, London-based brews are poured, and oenophiles agonise over the wine list.
Facilities
Rooms
Seven rooms.
Checkout
11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm, latest, 11pm.
More Details
Rates are room-only.
Also
Nothing makes us want to belt out ‘food, glorious food’ like a musical urchin more than the menu at the Bull. Do we dare try such culinary wizardry ourselves? Well, armed with the Bull & Last’s trusty cookbook, we’ll give smoked-haddock macaroni, banana sticky-toffee pudding, pheasant schnitzel club sandwiches and even those gooey-in-the-middle Scotch eggs (don’t worry, if it goes wrong the book contains a voucher for one in the pub too). You can also buy a tote bag to show off on the Heath and the bespoke Woodsome toiletries, named for the road the inn sits on and created in much the same way they devise their dreamy menu.
Hotel Closed
The pub and hotel close from the 24 to 26 December.
Free Internet Access
On-Site Restaurant
Room Service
At the Hotel
Pub, dining room, seasonal outdoor seating, free-to-hire tennis rackets and pétanque kits, Brompton bikes to hire (plus a helmet and lock) for an extra charge, and free WiFi. In rooms: 32-inch LG TV, Roberts radio, Nespresso machine and Volcano coffee from Brixton, Tea Drop tea, minibar filled with gourmet treats from indie producers and pre-mixed cocktails from the pub, cocktail-making kit, free WiFi, air-conditioning and bespoke Woodsome skincare products.
Our Favourite Rooms
We love the way each room lets you in on a little local history in the subtlest of ways, say a certain Farrow & Ball colour, a visual clue in the artwork or a certain material. Keats’ lonely wanderings over Hampstead Heath may be well documented and the room dedicated to him has a framed book of poetry, but it’s some of the lesser-told stories that are all the more engaging. Say, that of slave daughter turned heiress Dido Belle who grew up in Kenwood House; or that of Ruth Ellis who was the last woman hanged in Britain for shooting her husband dead, which happened just down the road at the Magdala Tavern. And, there’s artwork with special meaning to the pub or from local creatives hanging in each, so, whichever you stay in you’ll experience some of Hampstead’s colour. Keats might be smaller, but it’s light and bright with a sense of the poet’s romantic nature. And, large attic rooms Faraday and Mansfield are among our favourites for their freestanding Catchpole & Rye bath tubs.
Packing Tips
With London’s notoriously capricious weather, you might think that a swimsuit is simply a waste of suitcase space. But, there are a surprising number of swimmable areas close to the pub: the lido and the Heath’s bathing ponds (which poet Shelley once sailed paper boats over). Locals dip even when the weather’s brisk, so pack your Speedos and take the plunge. The rooms at the pub have ingenious ways of storing things, say hooks for coats and bags and a space under the bed for stashing suitcases – there’s room for those 270mm in height, so give yours a measure before you leave.
Also
Leave your thoughts in the Bull & Last cookbook in your room, which acts as a guestbook.
Children
In each room except Ellis and Keats, a baby cot can be added for an additional £15 a day. Faraday and Mansfield have the most space for families, and children are welcome in the downstairs pub (there’s a stash of highchairs if needed).
Gallery
Food & Drink
Top Table
On a good day, there’s more people-watching opportunities at the bank of outdoor tables. When rain chases you indoors, sit by the fireplace.
Dress Code
Town and country: you’ll feel at home whether you’re wearing your most well-to-do looks or mud-flecked wellies after a knockabout the Heath.
Hotel Restaurant
The Bull & Last’s reputation is largely built on feeding its customers very well indeed (so, book ahead because the locals are very proactive when it comes to securing tables). There’s passion by the plate-load and nattering with the owners will fire you up for food: they have a beef farm in the family, work with local foragers and get charmingly excited about new dishes. As such, the menu changes frequently, depending on the whims of the chef (a Corrigan’s alumnus), fresh-that-day produce and season, but a mere ‘gastro’ tag would be doing the kitchen a disservice. Dishes such as London-cured lomo with truffled cream; smoked-eel and Alsace bacon tagliatelle with Berkswell cheese; and roast cod with pickled mussels, Cornish mids potatoes and samphire, give it the eloquent edge over pubs peddling slightly fancier burgers and such. Having said that, they also offer foods as comforting as a duvet hug on a rainy day: mustardy roast-pork sandwiches, beer-battered haddock, Béarnaise-slathered shorthorn prime rib to share. And, on Sundays the roast tradition is religiously followed, with Gloucester Old Spot pork belly or roast sirloin of shorthorn beef.
Hotel Bar
A lot of consideration has gone into the hotel’s drinks lists. Wines range from Kentish sparkling to Euro pet-nat roses to organic orange wines from Italy. Or just close your eyes and point to any one of the old and new world wines they have in stock – you can’t go wrong. It’s only polite to sip a pint of So Solid Brew, the hotel’s own pale ale, made in collaboration with Hackney’s Five Points brewery, or a G&T with the Bull’s own gin (crafted with Victory London Distillery). And it rubs shoulders with other high-risers in the Brit brewing scene: Tottenham’s Bohem, Dalston Sunrise, Gipsy Hill pale ale. The cocktail list is succinct yet seductive, with a gimlet, martinis, an old fashioned – but make ours the Yorkshire Rhubarb Collins. Prop yourself on a stool and pair with their beloved buttermilk-fried chicken or whichever sandwich the chef has dreamed up for the day.
Last Orders
Lunch is from 12 noon to 3pm (from 12.30pm to 4pm on weekends) and dine from 6pm to 10pm (till 9pm on Sundays). Drinks run till 11pm Monday to Thursday, and midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Room Service
Want to give the buttermilk chicken sandwich, triple-cooked chips or Ferrero Rocher ice-cream the wanton messy scoffing they deserve? During dining hours you can go to town on the menu in the privacy of your own room (a 12.5 % service charge applies).
Planes
The pub is just an hour’s drive from three of London’s major airports: Heathrow (via the M25 and A40), Luton (via the M1) and Stansted (via the M11). Gatwick is the furthest, a two-hour drive away.
Trains
There are excellent public-transport links nearby, with Gospel Oak overground (your link to Hackney to the east and the likes of Kensington and Richmond to the west), and both Kentish Town and Tufnell Park tube stations, served by the Northern Line, on which you can easily ride into central London. If you take the Heathrow Express into town, you’ll arrive at Paddington; from there, take the Circle Line to King’s Cross and the Northern Line to Kentish Town. The Gatwick Express pulls in at Victoria, from which you can get the Tube straight up to Euston then switch to the Northern.
Automobiles
The pub’s outside the Congestion Charge zone, but there’s little need for a car with all the overground and Tube links you have close by – if you hire one (which you can from any airport), you’ll likely spend your time cursing at the M25 or playing ‘spot the parking space’.
Worth Getting Out of Bed For
Historically, the east side of Hampstead Heath has been thought of as slightly more déclassé in comparison to the Dickensian whimsy (quite literally – he loved a pint in the Spaniards Inn) of Hampstead Village in the west. But, nowadays anyone within strolling distance of the Heath is living a Londoners’ dream. You see, our love for this – the largest of the capital’s green patches – has softened our stiff upper lips for centuries; whether we’re escaping plagues old and new on the Vale of Heath, splashing about in its bathing ponds in the rain (if you visit in summer be sure to book a ticket well in advance), stomping through its pin-drop-peaceful meadows or gazing out at the group portrait of London’s landmarks from atop the city’s most spectacular viewpoint: Parliament Hill. The Heath offers a pastoral fantasy less than five miles from Soho. And, the Bull & Last happens to be just across the street from it. A simple stroll through may prove fertile ground for inspiration. Countless creatives have chased the muse here: the frilly-bloused bunch of the 18th-century Kit Kat Club (Alexander Pope, John Keats, Percy Shelley et al) gathered close by; it allegedly sparked the idea for CS Lewis’s Narnia; and Karl Marx enjoyed flaunting his rakish revolutionary rep as he picknicked with his family there. The hotel can hook you up with a stylish Brompton bike if you’d like to explore on two wheels, and they have pétanque kits and tennis rackets to hand (courts need to be booked in advance). Or familiarise yourself with some of the characters the Bull’s rooms are named after at Kenwood House, the exceedingly grand home of the Earl of Mansfield and Dido Belle. Uphill from the pub is Highgate Cemetery; its famous interments will fascinate (from Henry Moore to Douglas Adams, from Christina Rosetti to Jeremy Beadle), but it’s also an immensely peaceful place to while away an afternoon. Marx’s head appears in a lot of selfies, but our favourite is artist Patrick Caulfield’s grave, which simply, eloquently has the word ‘dead’ carved into it. Waterlow Park is another lovely picnicking spot and in Golders Hill Park wild deer roam. Keats’ surprisingly modest house lies on the other side of the Heath on a road now named for the poet, and it’s been turned into a museum about his short, somewhat turbulent life. Hampstead Village is a cascade of designer and indie boutiques; we especially love rummaging in the Antique & Craft Emporium for vintage treasures. And to the south, the greenery and toytown villages give way to Camden and Kentish Town’s grungy gig scene. The O2 Forum, the Underworld, Electric Ballroom and Roundhouse all have legendary status, but it’s worth checking out smaller spaces such as folky Green Note or former Winehouse haunt the Dublin Castle.
Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt
This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .
