In the 1700s when the area was open fields, parishioners would gather under the great tree to hear Bible readings.
The oak marked the boundary between the parishes of Hampstead and St Pancras and is thought to have been sited on the corner of Mansfield Road and Southampton Road.
Wesleyan Place, off Highgate Road, once boasted an early Methodist chapel connected with the tree – which was last recorded on a map in 1801.
It must have died or been felled sometime after – perhaps around the time when local landowners Lord Mansfield, Lord Southampton and Lord Lisburne drew up plans to develop the area.
But the two railway lines which cut through it in the 1860s scuppered their grand development and brought only the pretty two-storey cottages which now make up Oak Village.
In 1861 a stretch of track near the station witnessed a terrible train crash when a passenger train and goods train collided leaving 16 dead.
Today the area bounded by Belsize Park, Hampstead Heath and Kentish Town is considered a more down to earth patch of north London than the heights of Hampstead village.
With its mix of Victorian terraces, housing estates and artisan cottages it’s also more affordable.
Its most famous long-standing resident is globe-trotting former Monty Python star Michael Palin who has lived in Oak Village since the 1960s and loves its sense of community and closeness to Hampstead Heath.
On the other side of Mansfield Road the streets around Estelle Road, Savernake Road and Roderick Road have drawn artists, musicians such as Pogues frontman Shane McGowan and media folk including spin doctor turned podcaster Alastair Campbell.
Coldplay have long had a base in Fleet Road renting a former bakery which they converted into a recording studio and management offices – where they recorded albums such as Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.
The band are now based in a former church hall a few doors up called The Beehive but frontman Chris Martin has been spotted in cosy 40-seat bistro Ravel’s where Palin and Katie Melua have also dined.
Another Fleet Road restaurant – Aroma Spice – bears a plaque marking the day in 1969 when the Pythons first gathered together over a curry to thrash out their new TV series.
The area’s primary schools – and three secondary schools along Highgate Road are all rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.
In the 1960s Camden Council architect Neave Brown built the now Grade II listed modernist Dunboyne Road Estate and made it his home.
In Victorian times a threat to develop what is now the southern end of Hampstead Heath was fended off, and the fields were bought in 1889 by the Metropolitan Board of Works as an extension to the green space.
They now house playgrounds, a paddling pool, children’s play club, Parliament Hill running rack and 1930s Parly Hill lido which are just a buggy push or jog over the railway bridge on Savernake Road or from the Gospel Oak entrance on Mansfield Road.
Parly Hill Lido Cafe is currently the subject of a bitter row over its future as part of the Daisy Green cafe chain.
Pubs-wise, the 1950s-built The Old Oak is in the heart of the area – or a short stroll away is much-loved ale house The Southampton Arms or the recently refurbished The Stag in Fleet Road.
The grand All Hallows Church in Savernake Road is a venue that hosts regular choral concerts, but sadly the Kristin Baybars’ Toy Emporium in Mansfield Road – known for its beautifully hand-crafted doll’s house furniture and old-fashioned toys – closed permanently in 2024.
