Hampstead cruising

My Trip to Hampstead Heath&#;s Gay Cruising Area

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know I love to stroll over Hampstead Heath. It’s such a beautiful place, an oasis of leafy in the middle of a massive city. But as well as its wholesome side – the dog-walkers, joggers and families having fun – the Heath also has a sexy reputation.

Tucked away behind Jack Straws Castle – once a pub, now luxury apartments – is the gay cruising area. I’ve only ever been once, many years ago when I was in my mid-twenties. I went on impulse with a guy I knew from a bar in Camden Town. 

I’d heard about The Heath, and I was curious. It was around midnight but the trees and bushes were alive with men having sex. I sucked off the companion I’d gone with for a while to get us in the mood, and then we split up to see what delights The Heath had to offer.

I’d cherish to tell you I had an incredible experience, getting sucked off by a gorgeous stranger, or fucked from behind while I hugged a plant, but I actually found the experience disconcerting. I didn’t know the etiquette – how you said yes or n

Hampstead Heath's notorious gay cruising spot recreated for London exhibition

Like many of us, the artist Trevor Yeung spent his time during the Covid lockdowns in London taking extended walks. And, perhaps like a smaller number of us, some of those walks turned into gay cruising excursions in the city’s sprawling Hampstead Heath park. But Yeung, it turns out, was using these trips not for pleasure, but analyze.

The fruits of his labour are now on display across the river at Gasworks. For his solo exhibition Soft Ground (until 17 December) he has placed a replica of a tree trunk from the heath, made from soap, horizontally on the floor in the dimly lit main gallery. After adjusting their eyes to the darkness, north London dog walkers and doggers alike might recognise this as resembling the notorious “fuck tree”, the roots of which grow at an angle that positions its trunk very low to the ground, making it highly advantageous for one, two—or even five—people to lounge on top of it. Human intervention has moulded the tree, too: so regularly do amorous heath-goers rub up and down ag

Hampstead Heath Ponds

This has been the busiest & most trendy Gay Cruising ground in London, if not the world. Hampstead Heath is located Northwest of Central London north of Camden. There are 2 separate cruising ground in Hampstead Heath. Gay West Heath - Main cruising ground The west section of north London's Hampstead Heath. It is located just up the hill from Hampstead Tube Station on the Edgware Branch of the Northern Line. Follow Heath street(A) towards north until you reach the artifical Whitestone Pond on the left adjacent to Jack Straws Castle apartments; the main entrance onto the Gay West Heath is from behind the appartments car descent to the cruising area starts there.

Gay West Heath really is, like much of the gay scene, the most mixed of bags: lawyers get it on with barrow boys, multimillionaires with the unemployed - even celebrities with other celebrities. The male only Bathing Pond Hampstead Heath is in summer the hot identify for London boys to swim and cruise around. The Male Only swimming pond (Highgate Bathing Ponds) is to be found east section of the Ha

Invite to The Sodomites Walk &#; March 2nd 12 Noon / Jack Straws Castle, N Complete Way, London NW3 7ES

HOW VERY DARE YOU HAVE SEX IN MY WOODS? GET BACK TO SOFA, GET BACK TO THE HALL, GET BACK TO THE KITCHEN TABLE BABY!

Poster is discussed in The Times Dogwalkers urged to ‘take back’ Hampstead Heath from cruisers

THIS IS NOT A CRUISING GROUND, HOMOSEXUALITY IS LEGAL, USE A HOOK UP APP Fond GRINDR OR SNIFFIES AND GET A ROOM &#; PLS GIVE WEST HEATH BACK TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD’*

 I hear George Michael and his fans are organising a  &#; someone is saying-   ‘SODOMITES WALK’ on March 2nd in response to my poster, OUTRAGEOUS. I will not be there, oh no no no, you will not spot me in the woods that morning, I will be walking my very very expensive pooch in the other acres of Hampstead Heath. 

I hear the meeting point is at Jack Straws Castle at noon and you are ‘MINCING’ until 3pm and asking people to stay overdue, have fun and get cruisy! Totally against TRADITIONAL MORAL VALUES and teaching  people that they have AN INALIENABLE RIGHT TO BE GAY!’