Gainsborough Gardens is a private road in Hampstead, in the London Borough of Camden. The road is arranged in an oval crescent around a central garden. It was laid out on land that belonged to the Wells and Campden Charity Trust overseen by H.S. Legg, the surveyor of the trust between 1882 and 1895. The creation and aesthetics of Gainsborough Gardens was influenced by the Bedford Park development in Chiswick. The communal garden at the centre of the development is in size and was the site of a bowling green and ornamental pond in former pleasure gardens. Nos. 5, 6, 9a and 14 are individually listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. Nos. 3 and 4, 7 and 8, 9 and 10, and 11, 12, and 13 are listed in their respective groups. No. 4 featured in the 1970 filmThe Railway Children as the location of the family home before the children's move to Yorkshire. The former stables to No. 6 is now known as the Cottage on the Heath and is Grade II listed. It was designed by Legg and built in 1885. The NHLE listing describes the cottage as occupying "a prominent, bastion-like position in Gainsborough Gardens". The lodge building to Gainsborough Crescent at the entrance to Well Walk is listed Grade II. It was built in 1886 by Legg for the gardener of the crescent. 3 and 4 was the first completed building in Gainsborough Gardens, completed in 1884 and designed by E.J. May. 9a was the home of C.E. Maurice, the husband of the sister of Octavia Hill. Hill was the founder of the National Trust and a pioneer of conservation. The family of Gary Osbourne lived in Gainsborough Gardens in the late 1960s. The women's suffrage campaigner Elizabeth Knight lived at No. 7 in 1933. The historian Bernard M. Allen moved to "The Small House" in Gainsborough Gardens in 1904. The house had been built for Horace Field's mother. The average price of a house in Gainsborough Gardens was £7 million in 2019. The garden has been opened to the public on 17 occasions as part of the Open Garden Squares Weekend organised by the London Parks & Gardens Trust.
