Upper Flask

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".

[3] Subsequent residents included Lady Charlotte Rich, daughter of the Earl of Warwick; the writer and practical joker, George Steevens; and the MP for Frome, Thomas Sheppard.

He worked on this in a concentrated effort for about 18 months, commuting each day by foot from Hampstead to Isaac Reed's offices at Staple Inn.

[4] Eventually, the site was donated by Lord Leverhulme for Queen Mary's Maternity Home which was constructed in place of the old building and opened there in 1922.

The building in an engraving by Charles John Smith for his Graphic Illustrations of the Life and Times of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in 1837, when it was known as the residence of Johnson's collaborator, the late George Steevens .
The Upper Flask, about 1800
The building as sketched by Frederick Adcock, around 1912.