The Madman is a Dreamer Awake
The coordinates are the final home of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and his daughter Anna Freud, a pioneering child psychoanalyst.
Sigmund Freud in Hampstead
In 1938 Sigmund Freud, his wife Martha, and daughter Anna escaped from Austria, fleeing the German invasion. They came to London because Freud's son Ernst was working there as an architect. They briefly stayed in a house on Elsworthy Road before moving to Maresfield Gardens, a relatively recent Queen Anne style house, built in 1920. Freud set up his psychoanalysis practice and completed his manuscript for the book Moses and Monotheism.
Sigmund Freud died after only a year, but Anna Freud lived on at the same house until her death in 1982. Anna expressed the wish that the house be turned into a museum after her death, and her wishes were carried out; the museum opened its doors to the public in 1986.
Anna Freud in Hampstead
Anna Freud was born in Vienna on 3 December 1895. She was the youngest of Sigmund and Martha Freud’s six children. Anna came to London from Vienna with her family when they fled Nazi-occupied Vienna in June 1938. Here, Anna made a new life, practiced psychoanalysis and established a high reputation in her own right as a pioneer of child psychoanalysis.
Anna’s parents, Sigmund and Martha Freud, were near the end of their lives when they came to London, and Freud had even been prepared to remain in Austria despite the Nazis. It was partly to give Anna a new beginning that they uprooted themselves. Like many refugees, Anna threw herself heart and soul into her new life, writing to the American psychoanalyst Clinton McCord: ‘England is indeed a civilised country and I am naturally grateful that we are here. There is no pressure of any kind and there is a great deal of space and freedom.’
Sigmund Freud was suffering from the late stages of oral cancer when he died in his study at 20 Maresfield Gardens on 23 September 1939. Martha, and then Anna, made no changes to Freud’s study and it remains just as it was during his lifetime. The extraordinary atmosphere of Freud’s study, containing the original psychoanalytic couch on which his patients told him their dreams, can be a deeply emotional and inspirational experience for many of the visitors to the Freud family’s final home in London.
Anna lived on this quiet, tree-lined residential street in Hampstead for over 40 years. When not working at her psychoanalytic practice, she could be found busy weaving at her loom. For Anna, weaving was both useful and therapeutic, for it calmed her and helped her to concentrate, perhaps, in much the same way as her father needed cigars to help him work. She even composed lectures at the loom.
Two years before her death in 1982, Anna established a charity and bequeath her home at 20 Maresfield Gardens to the creation of a museum dedicated to her father, Sigmund Freud’s life and work. The opening of the Freud Museum London in 1986 was also made possible thanks to the generosity of a close family friend, Muriel Gardiner, who helped finance the Freud Museum through her family’s charitable foundation (The New Land Foundation).
About the Cache
You’ll be looking for a non magnetic black micro cache and contains only a log strip for you to sign your find. So BYOP.
Please replace the cache at the same location so that the hint can always remain accurate.
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?
Did you like what you saw here? If you haven't already, how about trying to find a small cache in the heart of Hampstead Village? Look for Cannon Lane cache and have fun!