[ #4 Hampstead Writers Series ]
The Mousetrap
A group of strangers is stranded in a boarding house during a snow storm, one of whom is a murderer. The suspects include the newly married couple who run the house, and the suspicions in their minds nearly wreck their perfect marriage. Others are a spinster with a curious background, an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef, a retired Army major, a strange little man who claims his car has overturned in a drift, and a jurist who makes life miserable for everyone. Into their midst comes a policeman, traveling on skis. He no sooner arrives, when the jurist is killed. Two down, and one to go.
To get to the rationale of the murderer's pattern, the policeman probes the background of everyone present, and rattles a lot of skeletons. Another famous Agatha Christie switch finish!
Agatha Christie in Hampstead
Agatha Christie is perhaps the most celebrated writer of crime and detective fiction of all time.
Agatha Christie lived at Hampstead's Lawn Road flats – also known as the Isokon building – from 1941 until 1947.
Still a striking structure on Lawn Road, Hampstead, the Isokon Building opened in 1934.
The idea behind it was for forward thinking professional people - who did not want many possessions cluttering their lives - to live in a simple, modern way.
A restaurant and bar - called cleverly the 'Isobar' - came attached to the block of flats, where the varied residents of the buildings could have delicious meals, and socialise, too.
Flats came with what was then impressive technology for saving space and living in a way that banished clutter.
The architecture, inspired by the Bauhaus movement, differs hugely to the traditional Hampstead homes nearby.
White, smooth, curved walls symbolise a futuristic, clean, stripped back ideal.
At the time, there was nowhere like it, and the building soon started attracting all sorts of intelligent characters.
Despite having homes in west London, Oxford and Devon, the famous crime writer and her Sealyham terrier James spent 1941 to 1947 living in a 25 metre square flat in what was advertised as the "safest building in London."
She enjoyed a prolific stage of her career, writing novels, stage plays, a memoir and radio play for Queen Mary's 80th birthday - which later became The Mousetrap - while living in Britain's first apartment block made from steel reinforced concrete.
By day she did her bit for the war with a part time job in University College Hospital's dispensary, then returned to her flat to write, often on two books simultaneously. At night she put a pillow over her head to block out the falling bombs and clutched her "two most treasured possessions" her water bottle and fur coat.
Christie's Devon home Greenway had been requisitioned by the American Navy, her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan posted to Egypt, and in the first week of the blitz, her Holland Park home was bombed.
A bomb map of the area shows there were quite a few in the neighbourhood, a big one fell on the tennis courts at the back of the flats. During raids, residents gathered in the Isobar which had sandbags, but Christie stayed in her flat and continued to write in her fur coat with a pillow over her head.
In letters Christie wrote: “I never found any difficulty writing during the War, as some people did; I suppose because I cut myself off into a different compartment of my mind. I could live in the book amongst the people I was writing about, and mutter their conversations and see them striding about the room I had invented for them."
Over six years Christie moved three times to bigger flats eventually knocking 16 and 17 together. She was also the only resident allowed a dog.
"I think someone gave her special dispensation because she was famous."
But what happened to the Isokon? As with many things, the building fell out of fashion, and until 2001 it was in a bit of a sorry state.
Walk by now though and it looks smart and welcoming. You can get an idea of why the building was such a trendy location.
Not only the flats have been restored. What was the Isobar is now a gallery documenting the history of the site.
About the Cache
In honor of Agatha Christie's work and the period in which the writer lived in Hampstead, we have placed this cache to draw the attention of GeoCachers to this moment in British literary history.
You start your journey in front of former Christie’s flat, at the Isokon building.
To crack this puzzle you will need to answer the following questions in the published coordinates:
- Along the entire road you will see that only residents permit holders can park their cars, from 9.30am - A.B0pm, on Saturdays.
- On the wall, next to the blue heritage plaque (which is not about Agatha Christie), it says Isokon ? ? Flats. C is the sum of the letters of these two mysterious words?
- D = C - A
- On the ground floor, there is a flat with the main door behind the building's stairs. X is the number of this flat. E = X - A
The final location where our cache is located is:
N51 33.ABC W000 09.DED
Check sum for all the digits in the final coordinates = 52.
After solving the puzzle, you’ll be looking for a geocache that appears to be screwed in, but it is a magnet.
Arriving at the final coordinates, the trained eyes of a good geocacher will already be able to see that there is some object that does not belong there, as its placement does not make any sense.
The cache is within eyesight, it is not hidden.
BYOP, the cache has only a log strip for you to sign your find, but no pen/pencil.
About Hampstead_Twins
We are Hampstead locals and have recently discovered GeoCaching activity. As we are delighted with the place where we live and with the stories we find in every corner of this locality, we decided to share some curious facts about our neighbourhood and encourage GeoCaching activity in the region. We hope you enjoy.
If you found any errors, had any ideas for improvement while doing the route or even just want to talk with us and encourage more caches like this one, feel free to send us a message. We will respond to everyone as soon as possible. Let’s get in touch.
What’s Next?
This cache is the fourth in a multi series of seven, known as the Hampstead Writers Series. The series is a tribute to the periods of time that famous writers (British or not) lived and contributed with the Hampstead community.
#1 George Orwell - Animal Farm
#2 Julia Donaldson - Stick Man
#3 Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
#4 Agatha Christie - The Mousetrap
#5 H. G. Wells - Floor Games
#6 D. W. Lawrence - The Rainbow
#7 J. B. Priesley - The Good Companions
So, how about trying to find another cache in the heart of Hampstead? Search for any other cache from this series and have fun!