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Hampstead Heath is a vast green haven with sweeping views that have inspired countless Londoners, including the Romantic poet John Keats. But the views from the heath may be under threat from the size of encroaching mansions, The Times has learnt.

The City of London, which manages the heath, said yesterday that several housing proposals on its fringes posed a threat to its views and tranquillity. The management authority has called for stringent planning guidelines and residents are angered by plans to replace properties with larger buildings.

Times Archive, 1897: Proposal for a Hampstead Heath Protection Society

The people of Hampstead are selfish and do not like to see the people of London get about the Heath freely.

• Building on Hampstead Heath, 1907

• Haggling over rights on Hampstead Heath, 1978

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The actor Terry Jones, who lives in Highgate village, told The Times: “It's turning the borders of the heath into the ghastly ghetto of the super-rich.”

Users of the Ladies' Pond, a quiet sanctuary in the summer, are also unimpressed. Under one of the proposals the Water House would be replaced with a taller mansion with views of the private swimming area.

Bob Hall, the chairman of the City of London's heath management committee, said that mansions could have an impact on the “royal character which people value on the heath”. He added: “It's a piece of countryside in the city, and we must preserve that.”

The redevelopment of Fitzroy Farm, close to the Water House, has caused concern after Camden Council approved proposals for a home nearly three times as large as the existing building. The Heath and Hampstead Society said that the development will not only affect views but remove the tranquillity of nearby narrow country lanes if access is given to construction lorries.

Gordon McLean, the chairman of the planning committee for the society, said: “We feel very defensive about the heath, and in the last couple of years there have been several attempts by developers to nibble away at the edges of it.”

The demolition of Athlone House has also caused controversy. Its proposed replacement, currently going through the planning process, was described by the Highgate Society as a “cross between a Stalinist palace and a Victorian lunatic asylum”.

There is also concern about the impact on the ecology of the area, including underground watercourses, because some of the developments include deep basements.

Mr Hall said that there would be further large-scale development unless action was taken. He plans to lobby Camden, Barnet and Haringey councils, which are responsible for planning permission around the heath, to introduce stricter guidelines.

Although Camden Council adhered to strict planning guidelines about the heath fringes in the 1980s, those had since been abandoned, Mr Hall said. “Just as one can see that somebody wants a property which maximises views over the heath, the owners of that property have got to accept that there is a benefit to people on the heath looking outwards. We must not lose that,” he added.

A spokesman for the Athlone House redevelopment, designed by the architect Robert Adam, said that only a “small proportion” of the building would be seen from the key viewing points on the heath.

THE HEATH'S POET

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmèd darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

From Ode to a Nightingale, written in the garden of Keats's house in Hampstead in 1819

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