Local artist Martin Robertson contacted me last week to ask for my – and your – help.

Martin produces screen prints of local areas, based around what makes them great places to live. That’s the usual shops, bars, restaurants, along with anything and everything that people hold dear.

Here you can see what he’s done for Queen’s Park.

Martin needs our help to capture what it is about West Hampstead that we all love. Specifically, he wants to encapsulate the local quirks and personality of an area as the the simple day-to-day places that makes people love the area they live.

I’ll get the ball rolling with some ideas, but please add your comments below so Martin can do more than just draw on what I think!

• train stations (specifically the new Thameslink)
• the strip of shops including Peppecorns which won’t be around much longer
• the view from West End Green down the curve of West End Lane where the majority of cafés are
• The Gallery
• mansion blocks (and the general red brick architecture)
• our situation between Kilburn and Hampstead
• the 139 bus
• longer-established businesses (e.g., La Brocca, Lately’s, The Wet Fish Café, West End Lane Books)
• the newer ones (e.g., Spiga, Ladudu and The Kitchener)
• police horses
• the fire station
• Davids Deli
• the Jester Festival
• and finally – the Twitter community, which is unquestionably the most active and engaged local online group in north London, and quite possibly one of the most lively in the country. For me, nothing captures that like #whampgather.

Those are some of my thoughts, but what, or who, captures the heart of West Hampstead for you?