Architectural, Cultural sights in London
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Charterhouse
You need to book nearly a year in advance to see inside this former Carthusian monastery, whose centrepiece is a Tudor hall with a restored hammer-beam roof. Its incredibly popular two-hour guided tours, held from April to August, begin at the 14th-century gatehouse on Charterhouse Sq, before going through to the Preachers’ Court (with three original monks’ cells in the western wall), the Master’s Court, the Great Hall and the Great Chamber, where Queen Elizabeth I stayed on numerous occasions. The monastery was founded in 1371 by the Carthusians, the strictest of all Roman Catholic monastic orders, who refrained from eating meat and took vows of silence, broken only for …
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Apsley House
This stunning house, which contains exhibits devoted to the life and times of the Duke of Wellington, was once the first building to come into view when entering the city from the west and was therefore known as ‘No 1 London’. Still one of London’s finest but overlooking the nightmarish Hyde Park Corner roundabout, Apsley House was designed by Robert Adam for Baron Apsley in the late 18th century, but was later sold to the first Duke of Wellington, who cut Napoleon down to size in the Battle of Waterloo and lived here for 35 years until his death in 1852. In 1947 the house was given to the nation, which must have come as a surprise to the duke’s descendants who still live…
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Chiswick House
This is a fine Palladian pavilion with an octagonal dome and colonnaded portico. It was designed by the third Earl of Burlington (1694–1753) when he returned from his grand tour of Italy, fired up with enthusiasm for all things Roman. Lord Burlington used it to entertain friends and to house his library and art collection. Inside, some of the rooms are so grand as to be almost overpowering. The dome of the main salon has been left ungilded and the walls are decorated with eight enormous paintings. In the Blue Velvet Room look for the portrait of Inigo Jones, the architect much admired by Lord Burlington, over one of the doors. The ceiling paintings are by William Kent, wh…
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Syon House
Just across the Thames from Kew Gardens, Syon House was once a medieval abbey named after Mt Zion. In 1542 Henry VIII dissolved the order of Bridgettine nuns who were peacefully living here and had it rebuilt into a residence. (In 1547, they say, God got his revenge when Henry’s coffin was brought to Syon en route to Windsor for burial and burst open during the night, leaving his body to be set upon by the estate’s dogs.) The house from where Lady Jane Grey ascended the throne for her nine-day reign in 1553 was remodelled in the neoclassical style by Robert Adam in the 18th century and has plenty of Adam furniture and oak panelling. The interior was designed on gender-spe…
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Eltham Palace
The art deco house here was built between 1933 and 1937 by the well-to-do textile merchant Stephen Courtauld (of Courtauld Institute fame) and his wife Virginia; from the impressive entrance hall with its dome and huge circular carpet with geometric shapes, to the black-marble dining room with silver-foil ceiling and burlwood-veneer fireplace, it appears the couple had taste as well as money. They also, rather fashionably for the times, had a pet lemur, and the heated cage, complete with tropical murals and a bamboo ladder leading to the ground floor, for the spoiled (and vicious) ‘Mah-jongg’ is also on view. A royal palace was built on this site in 1305 and was for a tim…
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Dickens House Museum
The great Victorian novelist lived a nomadic life in the big city, moving around London so often that he left behind an unrivalled trail of blue plaques. This handsome four-storey house is his sole surviving residence before he upped and moved to Kent. Not that he stayed here for very long – he lasted a mere 2½ years (1837–39) – but this is where his work really flourished: he dashed off The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist despite worry over debts, deaths and his ever-growing family. The house was saved from demolition and the fascinating museum opened in 1925, showcasing the family drawing room (restored to its original condition) and 10 rooms …
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No 10 Downing St
This has been the official office of British leaders since 1732, when George II presented No 10 to Robert Walpole, and since refurbishment in 1902 it’s also been the PM’s official London residence. As Margaret Thatcher, a grocer’s daughter, famously put it, the PM ‘lives above the shop’ here. For such a famous address, however, No 10 is a small-looking building on a plain-looking street, hardly warranting comparison to the White House, for example. A stoic bobby stands guard outside, but you can’t get too close; the street was cordoned off with a rather large iron gate during Margaret Thatcher’s times. Breaking with tradition when he came to power, Tony Blair and his fami…
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Sutton House
Abandoned and taken over by squatters in the 1980s, what was originally known as Bryk Place when built in 1535 by a prominent courtier of Henry VIII, Sir Ralph Sadleir, could have been tragically lost to history, but it’s since been put under the care of the National Trust and magnificently restored. The first historic room you enter, the Linenfold Parlour, is the highlight, where the Tudor oak panelling on the walls has been carved to resemble draped cloth. Other notable rooms include the panelled Great Chamber, the Victorian study, the Georgian parlour and the intriguing mock-up of a Tudor kitchen. There’s a shop and pleasant cafe on site. West of Sutton House in the re…
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Queen’s House
The first Palladian building by architect Inigo Jones after he returned from Italy, what was at first called the ‘House of Delight’ is indeed far more enticing than the art collection it contains, even though it includes some Turners, Holbeins, Hogarths and Gainsboroughs. The house was begun in 1616 for Anne of Denmark, wife of James I, but was not completed until 1638, when it became the home of Charles I and his queen, Henrietta Maria. The Great Hall is the principal room – a lovely cube shape, with an elaborately tiled floor and the helix-shaped Tulip Staircase (named for the flowers on the wrought-iron balustrade) leading to a gallery on level 2, hung with paint…
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Ham House
Known as ‘Hampton Court in miniature’, Ham House was built in 1610 and became home to the first Earl of Dysart, an unlucky individual who had been employed as ‘whipping boy’ to Charles I, taking the punishment for all the king’s wrongdoings. Inside it’s furnished with grandeur; the Great Staircase is a magnificent example of Stuart woodworking. Look out for ceiling paintings by Antonio Verrio, who also worked at Hampton Court Palace, and for a miniature of Elizabeth I by Nicholas Hilliard. Other notable paintings are by Constable and Reynolds. The grounds of Ham House slope down to the Thames, but there are also pleasant 17th-century formal gardens. Just opposite the Tham…
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Marble Hill House
This is an 18th-century Palladian love nest, originally built for George II’s mistress Henrietta Howard and later occupied by Mrs Fitzherbert, the secret wife of George IV. The poet Alexander Pope had a hand in designing the park, which stretches down to the Thames. Inside you’ll find an exhibition about the life and times of Henrietta, and a collection of early-Georgian furniture. To get there from St Margaret’s station, turn right along St Margaret’s Rd. Then take the right fork along Crown Rd and turn left along Richmond Rd. Turn right along Beaufort Rd and walk across Marble Hill Park to the house. It is also easily accessible by pedestrian ferry from Ham Hous…
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No 2 Willow Rd
Fans of modern architecture will want to swing past this property, the central house in a block of three, designed by the ‘structural rationalist’ Ernö Goldfinger in 1939 as his family home. Although the architect was following Georgian principles in creating it, many people think it looks uncannily like the sort of mundane 1950s architecture you see everywhere. They may look similar now, but 2 Willow Rd was in fact a forerunner; the others were mostly bad imitations. The interior, with its cleverly designed storage space and collection of artworks by Henry Moore, Max Ernst and Bridget Riley, is certainly interesting and accessible to all. Entry is on a tour until 3pm, af…
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Red House
From the outside, this red-brick house built by Victorian designer William Morris in 1859 conjures up a gingerbread house in stone. The nine rooms open to the public bear all the elements of the Arts and Crafts style to which Morris adhered – a bit of Gothic art here, some religious symbolism there, an art nouveau–like sunburst over there. Furniture by Morris and the house’s designer Philip Webb are in evidence, as are paintings and stained glass by Edward Burne-Jones. Entry is by guided tour only, which must be prebooked. The surrounding gardens were designed by Morris ‘to clothe’ the house. Don’t miss the well with a conical roof inspired by the oast houses of nearby Ke…
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Leighton House
Sitting on a quiet street near Holland Park and designed in 1866 by George Aitchison, Leighton House was home to the eponymous Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830–96), a painter belonging to the Olympian movement. The ground floor is decorated in an Orientalist style, with the exquisite Arab Hall added in 1879 and densely covered with blue and green tiles from Rhodes, Cairo, Damascus and Iznik in Turkey; a fountain trickles away in the centre. Even the wooden latticework of the windows and gallery was brought from Damascus. The house, undergoing a £1.3 million restoration at the time of research, contains notable pre-Raphaelite paintings by Burne-Jones, Watts, Millais and Lord …
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Hogarth’s House
Home between 1749 and 1764 to artist and social commentator William Hogarth, this house now diplays his caricatures and engravings, with such works as the haunting Gin Lane, Marriage-à-la-mode and a copy of A Rake’s Progress. Here you’ll also find the private engravings Before and After (1730), commissioned by the Duke of Montagu and bearing Aristotle’s aphorism Omne Animal Post Coitum Triste (Every creature is sad after intercourse). Although the house and grounds are attractive, very little original furniture remains so this is really for ardent Hogarth fans.
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Fenton House
One of the oldest houses in Hampstead, this late-17th-century merchant’s residence has a charming walled garden with roses and an orchard, fine collections of porcelain and keyboard instruments – including a 1612 harpsichord played by Handel – as well as 17th-century needlework pictures and original Georgian furniture. Joint tickets with 2 Willow Rd are available.
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