Upper Flask

The Upper Flask was a tavern near the top of Hampstead hill in the 18th century which sold flasks of water from the Hampstead spa. It was the summer meeting place of the great literary and political figures of the Kit-Kat Club such as Pope and Walpole. The tavern business ceased in the 1750s and the grand house subsequently became the private residence of ladies and gentlemen such as Lady Charlotte Rich, George Steevens and Thomas Sheppard.

It took its name from the flasks of spring water which were sold there, like the Lower Flask and The Flask in nearby Highgate. The Upper Flask was the most select of these, being in a grand Jacobean house near the summit of Hampstead hill, where it commanded good views of London and the surrounding villages. It was patronised by Whig grandees and literati who attended the famous Kit-Kat Club and removed its summer meetings to the "Upper FlasK". At first, these included Alexander Pope, Dr Arbuthnot and Sir Richard Steele. Later, the company included John Keats, Leigh Hunt and Percy Bysshe Shelley. They would drink their ale under an old mulberry tree in the grounds and one of the members, Sir Richard Blackmore, wrote:

Or when, Apollo-like, thou'st pleased to lead
Thy sons to feast on Hampstead's airy head:
Hampstead, that, towering in superior sky,
Now with Parnassus does in honour vie.

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Wikipedia