Fenton House

Over het museum

Fenton House stands in Hampstead and was built in the 1680s by William Eades as a speculative investment. Its square plan, sash windows and sweeping staircase are typical of a late seventeenth-century gentry house on the edge of London. It was known as Ostend House and the Clock House before it was first recorded as Fenton House in 1860, and about twenty owners and tenants lived there over the next two centuries.

The extensive walled garden was laid out by Joshua and Anna Gee in the early 1700s. The kitchen garden and orchard, advertised when the house was sold in 1756, were revived by the National Trust in the 1980s.

In 1936 Katherine, Lady Binning bought the house to display her collections of porcelain and needlework. After years of negotiation the National Trust opened it as a museum-gallery in 1952, together with Major George Benton Fletcher’s collection of early keyboard instruments. In 2006 a third collection was added, a bequest of nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings from the actor Peter Barkworth.

Today the house works like a small art gallery on a domestic scale, where seventeenth-century stumpwork, Chinese and European ceramics and playable historic instruments, the oldest dating from 1540, are shown in the setting of a family home.

Hoogtepunten

• Benton Fletcher collection of early keyboard instruments, some still played
• Seventeenth-century needlework (stumpwork) and ceramics
• Paintings by Walter Sickert, Laura Knight and Duncan Grant
• Walled garden with sunken rose garden, kitchen garden and old orchard
• Music tours on selected Fridays

Vaste collectie

• Benton Fletcher collection of early keyboard instruments – Harpsichords, virginals and other early keyboard instruments, the oldest from 1540, are kept in playing condition and are demonstrated by volunteer musicians on selected open days.
• Ceramics and seventeenth-century needlework – Chinese porcelain, early Meissen figures and Staffordshire ware are shown beside detailed stumpwork pictures made by young women of Stuart households.
• Paintings from the Barkworth bequest – Nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings include works by Walter Sickert, Duncan Grant and John Constable and by other artists of the Camden Town Group.

Opgericht

1952

Beheerder

National Trust

Toegangsprijzen & kortingen

From 2026 there is no pre-booking system: tickets are bought at reception on arrival. National Trust members enter free on presenting a valid membership card. Prices are shown without the optional Gift Aid donation.

Toegankelijkheid

• Deels rolstoeltoegankelijk
• Lift: niet aanwezig
• Aangepast toilet: niet aanwezig
• Gehandicaptenparkeerplaats
• Hulphonden welkom
• Tastmodellen / voelbare objecten: geen informatie
• Rondleidingen in gebarentaal: geen informatie
• Informatie in eenvoudige taal: geen informatie
• Audiodescriptie: geen informatie

The ground floor is reached by a ramp or two steps without a handrail. The upper floors can only be reached by a two-flight staircase and there is no lift; photo albums show the upper-floor rooms. All visitor toilets are on the first floor, reached by stairs, and there is no accessible or ground-floor toilet. Parts of the garden are level, but there are short flights of steps and gravel paths. Limited Blue Badge parking can be reserved by email, and there are steps from the parking area to the house. Cars and taxis can drop visitors at the gate on Hampstead Grove. Large print and braille guides and seating are available. Only assistance dogs are allowed.

Kinderen & gezin

Family tickets are available. The house is a historic building with stairs to the upper floors and no ground-floor toilet.

Bereikbaarheid & parkeren

The house is 0.2 miles uphill from the centre of Hampstead and about a 10-minute walk from Hampstead Heath. Cycle parking is outside the east gate.

Service & horeca

Toilets are on the first floor of the house. Cycle parking is opposite the main gate on Hampstead Grove.

Evenementen & zaalverhuur

Het museum heeft hierover geen informatie gepubliceerd.

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