The Flask, Highgate

The pub is believed to have been named after the flasks of Hampstead mineral water that could be purchased here when Hampstead was popular for its wells in the 18th century, and The Flask, Flask Walk, Hampstead, is another pub nearby. Like all good pubs, The Flask has its own legends which may or may not be true. It is said that the highwayman Dick Turpin hid from the law in the stables there, that the artist William Hogarth drank at the bar and even that Karl Marx was a customer. For good measure, the pub is also said by some to have a female ghost. It was also reported in 1736 a 64 year-old man, accompanied by a hairdresser, ran from the Bull's Head in St Giles to The Flask in just 45…

English Heritage note that in the original building (the unexpanded pub), the lower bars, named the "Snug" and "Committee Room" respectively contain 1930s fireplaces and matchboard panelling, and that between these two areas lies a central bar, which is enclosed by sliding sashes with glazing bars, and are "perhaps a mixture of late C18 and 1930s work". Behind this lies a circa 1700 dog-leg stairway "with turned balusters on a closed string".