The Flask

On the site stood the original Flask Tavern from where the Hampstead mineral water business was run from at least 1700. The distribution of the water, at 3d per flask, was arranged by a London apothecary called Mr Philips, who operated in Fleet Street from the Eagle and Child pub. The advertising claimed that "eminent physicians and many gentry who had previously drunk the Tunbridge waters" now preferred the Hampstead water.

There are four distinct areas. At the front are a public bar and a separate saloon bar. The public bar is more basic and would originally have charged less than the grander saloon. These two bars have original features, but to the rear lies a more modern area for drinking and a conservatory. Historic England comment on the relatively intact nature of the interior, noting the partitions made of glass and mahogany, the bar counter and fittings, the original cast-iron fireplaces and their tiled surrounds, the moulded cornices to the ceilings, the wall tiles and the "Victorian chromolithographs". They also note that during the building of a rear extension in 1990, a vaulted brick-built cellar…