Heath Mount was started as a boarding school in 1796 for the schooling of ‘boys and young gentlemen'. The first Headmaster, Reverend John Hunter, rented a house on Heath Street in Hampstead. The school was named Heath Mount because the site was close to the summit of Hampstead Heath. In 1875, Mr Bush, the fifth headmaster, moved to a school he established in the early 1860s at New End in Hampstead.