Ham House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ham House |
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Ham House in 2016, with a statue of Father Thames
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | Stuart |
| Town or city | Ham, London |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 51°26′39″N 00°18′51″W / 51.44417°N 0.31417°W |
| Completed | 1610 |
| Client | Sir Thomas Vavasour |
| Owner | National Trust |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | William Samwell |
| Other information | |
| Parking | Ham Street |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Designated | 10 January 1950 |
| Reference no. | 1080832 |
Ham House is a beautiful 17th-century house with amazing gardens. It sits right by the River Thames in Ham, a part of London. The first house was finished in 1610 by Sir Thomas Vavasour, who worked for King James I.
Later, a close friend of King Charles I, William Murray, leased and then bought the house. During the English Civil War, the house was taken away for a short time. But William's wife, Katherine, got it back. After William died, their daughter Elizabeth became the Countess of Dysart. She managed to keep the house safe during a difficult time when the country was against the King.
Ham House became super important after Elizabeth married John Maitland, who became the Duke of Lauderdale, in 1672. The Lauderdales were very powerful friends of King Charles II. They made the house much bigger and filled it with amazing art, furniture, and tapestries. They also redesigned the gardens to show off their high status.
After Elizabeth died, the house stayed in her family. Over the years, some changes were made, but mostly, the owners worked to keep the house and its collections safe. In 1948, the house was given to the National Trust, a charity that looks after historic places. Since then, Ham House and its gardens have been opened to the public and carefully restored. It's now a popular spot for movies and TV shows because of its old-fashioned look.
The house is made of red brick. It was first built in an "H" shape, which was common back then. Later, the Lauderdales added more rooms, almost doubling its size. Ham House still has many original features and furniture from the 1600s, which is very rare! It's like a "time machine" that takes you back to the fancy world of the 17th century.
Contents
- Who Built and Lived Here?
- Ham House's Design
- Special Recognitions
- Inside Ham House: A Glimpse into the Past
- Gardens and Grounds
- Later Generations of Owners
- Ham House in Movies and TV
- How to Visit Ham House
Who Built and Lived Here?
The First Owners
In the early 1600s, King James I gave the land around Ham to his son, Prince Henry. The first Ham House was finished in 1610 by Sir Thomas Vavasour, who was a Knight Marshal for King James I. The spot by the River Thames was perfect for Vavasour. It allowed him to travel easily between the royal palaces at Richmond, Hampton, London, and Windsor.
The house was originally shaped like an "H" and had three floors. We don't know for sure who designed it. Prince Henry died in 1612, and the land went to James's second son, Charles. After Vavasour died in 1620, the house was given to John Ramsay, 1st Earl of Holderness, until he passed away in 1626.
William Murray: A King's Friend
In 1626, William Murray, a close childhood friend of King Charles I, leased Ham House. William and his wife, Katherine, started making improvements to the house. They hired skilled artists and painters. William made the Great Hall bigger and added a fancy staircase. This staircase created a special path for guests to walk up to the dining room. He also updated the Long Gallery and added the Green Closet, which was inspired by King Charles I's own special room. William was part of the "Whitehall Group," which meant he knew all about the newest art and building styles at court.
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In 1641, as the country headed towards civil war, William signed the house over to Katherine and their four daughters to keep it safe. William became the Earl of Dysart in 1643. Even though the house was taken away for a short time during the war, Katherine bravely fought to keep it. She succeeded, and the house stayed in the family. Katherine died in 1649. The Parliamentarians sold off many royal lands, including Ham House. But William Adams, who worked for William Murray's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, bought it back for her and her husband, Lionel Tollemache. Ham House then became Elizabeth and Lionel's main home.
Elizabeth, Countess of Dysart: A Clever Leader
Elizabeth and Lionel Tollemache got married in 1648. Their family symbols can still be seen above the main entrance to the house. When her father died in 1655, Elizabeth became the 2nd Countess of Dysart. She was very clever and managed to keep the house safe even though her family had been involved with both sides during the Civil War. She even had a close relationship with Oliver Cromwell, the leader of England at the time. This helped her keep the estate.
Between 1649 and 1661, Elizabeth had eleven children, but only five lived to be adults. Elizabeth and Lionel didn't make many big changes to the house during this busy time. When King Charles II came back to power in 1660, he rewarded Elizabeth for her family's service. She kept the titles to the lands around Ham House. Lionel died in 1669, leaving the Ham estate to Elizabeth.
The Lauderdales: Grand Changes
Elizabeth became very close to John Maitland after her husband died. He was already a favorite of the King and became one of the most powerful men in the country. In 1672, Elizabeth and Lauderdale got married. Soon after, he became the Duke of Lauderdale.
As Duchess, Elizabeth was at the top of society. She and the Duke decided to make their home even grander. They hired architects to expand Ham House. They added a new section to the south side of the house with a series of connected rooms. This was a popular design for grand houses, allowing important guests to move through rooms based on their status. They even added a bathroom downstairs, which was very modern for the time!
The Duchess had special "closets" (small, private rooms) where only the most important guests were invited. Her White Closet was for entertaining and had a door to the Cherry Garden. It was decorated in the latest style and even had a special "Indian furnace for tea," which was a luxury because tea was just becoming popular.
Upstairs, they added a State Bedroom. This room was so important that it was called "the Queen's Bedchamber" in 1674, suggesting that Queen Catherine of Braganza, a friend of Elizabeth's, had stayed there. The changes also created secret passages and staircases for servants, so they could move around without disturbing guests.
The Lauderdales' grand years began to fade when the Duke had a stroke in 1680. He died in 1682, leaving Ham House to Elizabeth. This made sure the house stayed with her family. Elizabeth continued to live at Ham House until she died in 1698 at 72.
Ham House's Design
Ham House is a brick building with three floors. It shows two very different building styles. The first part, built in 1610, faces the River Thames. It's in the early Jacobean style and was shaped like an "H." The original entrance had a tower and turrets, which were later removed.
The second big change happened in 1672 when the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale expanded the house. They filled in the "H" shape on the garden side, almost doubling the house's size. This was one of the first times in England that a house was designed with special "state rooms" for royal visitors. The Lauderdales hired William Samwell for this work.
The north side of the house still has its old Jacobean arches and many marble and lead statues. The south side, built later, has a more classical style. At the time, people thought the Lauderdales' changes were very impressive. The house even got some of the first sash windows in England, which were a French invention.
Special Recognitions
Ham House is a Grade I listed building, which means it's considered to be of "exceptional interest." It also has "Accredited Museum" status, showing it meets high standards for museums. Its park and formal gardens are also specially listed. Many other parts of the estate, like the gates and the Orangery, are also listed as important historic features.
Inside Ham House: A Glimpse into the Past
Ham House is special because it still has so much of its original 17th-century decoration. It's like stepping back in time to see how people lived during the reigns of King Charles I and King Charles II. The rooms are filled with paintings, furniture, and tapestries collected by the families who lived here.
The Great Hall
This room is part of the original 1610 house. It has a unique black and white checkered marble floor that is also from the original building. The Great Hall was used for dining and entertaining. It has several large and famous paintings, including portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds and copies by John Constable.
The Chapel
This room used to be a sitting room but was changed into a chapel in the 1670s. It was decorated with rich velvet and damask fabrics. To protect these rare 17th-century fabrics, the lights in the chapel are kept very dim.
The Great Staircase
The Great Staircase is truly amazing! It was built for William Murray in 1638–39. It was designed to be a grand path leading up to the important State Apartments on the first floor. The staircase has beautifully carved wooden panels showing battle scenes, weapons, and even fantastical creatures. These carvings are very detailed and unique for their time.
The staircase walls also display copies of famous paintings from the 17th century.
The Round Gallery
This room used to be the Great Dining Room. It has a beautiful white plaster ceiling with designs of fruit, flowers, and ribbons. You can see paintings by Peter Lely here, including a portrait of Elizabeth and a double portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale.
The North Drawing Room
After dinner, guests would come to this room to talk and relax. It also has a beautiful plaster ceiling with fruit and flower designs. A special piece of furniture here is the ivory cabinet, which is covered in shiny ivory panels. It has many hidden drawers and is thought to be one of the most impressive pieces of furniture in the house.
The room also has colorful tapestries showing the four seasons. These tapestries were made in London and were very expensive and important for showing off wealth.
The Long Gallery
The Long Gallery is part of the original 1610 house and was updated by William Murray. It was used for exercise and to display portraits of family members and important royal friends. Some notable paintings include:
- A portrait of Sir John Maitland, which an X-ray later showed had an unfinished portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots underneath!
- A painting of King Charles I by Anthony van Dyck, given by the King to William Murray.
- Eleven portraits by the famous painter Peter Lely.
The room also has amazing furniture, like a cabinet decorated with flowers made from different types of wood. There's also a Japanese lacquered cabinet from 1650 and a Chinese lacquered chest, showing how popular Asian furniture was back then.
The Green Closet
This small room was used to display miniature paintings and smaller furniture. It's a rare example of a room from King Charles I's time. The ceiling paintings are by Francis Cleyn and are some of his best work. Today, it holds 87 items, including a painting of Queen Elizabeth I by Nicholas Hilliard.
The Library
The Library was added when the house was made bigger in 1672–74. It's probably the oldest country house library still around! The Duke of Lauderdale loved to read and collected many books. After he died, many books were sold, but later family members rebuilt the collection. Today, you can see two old globes with rare leather covers and two fire screens.
The Queen's Apartments
This set of three rooms was created for Queen Catherine of Braganza when the house was expanded in 1673. They show the latest styles from France, where royalty would meet important visitors in their bedchamber. The rooms become more and more splendid as you go through them.
Antechamber
This was the first room where visitors would wait to see the Queen. It has a beautiful ceiling and a special oak floor from France. The blue velvet wall hangings are very rare survivors from the 1670s.
Queen's Bedchamber
This room was designed for receiving guests. The State Bed used to stand on a raised platform at one end. The floor around the bed has a special design with the initials of the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale. The ceiling has the richest plaster decoration in the house. The room was later changed into a sitting room, and new tapestries were added.
Queen's Closet
This was the smallest and most private room, designed for the Queen's personal use. It's been kept almost perfectly, showing how rooms were decorated in the late 1600s. The floor has the same special design as the Bedchamber. The ceiling painting shows Ganymede and the Eagle. The fireplace is made of a special material called scagliola, which looks like marble.
The Duchess's Private Closet
This was the Duchess's most private room, where she would read, write, and entertain close friends. The ceiling painting, by Antonio Verrio, shows a figure surrounded by angels holding symbols of time, death, and eternity. The room also has a miniature portrait of Catherine Bruce, William Murray's wife.
The White Closet
This glamorous room, next to the Private Closet, was used by the Duchess for relaxing and entertaining. It has a double-glazed door leading to the Cherry Garden. The ceiling painting, also by Verrio, creates an amazing illusion of figures climbing over a balcony. It shows "Divine Wisdom" watching over the "Liberal Arts."
Notable items here include a painting of Ham House from the south, showing the Duke and Duchess in the gardens. There's also a beautiful writing desk made of expensive kingwood.
The Marble Dining Room
Since 1675, the walls of this room have been covered with leather panels. The room is named after its original black and white marble floor. The leather panels had colorful designs of fruits, flowers, birds, and butterflies. In 1756, the marble floor was replaced with a fancy wooden floor, and new leather wall hangings were added. Leather walls were popular for dining rooms because they didn't absorb food smells like fabric.
The Withdrawing Room
After dinner, guests would move to this room for entertainment. A special piece of furniture here is the ebony and tortoiseshell cabinet. It looks plain on the outside, but when you open its doors, it reveals a detailed, theatrical scene with mirrors and golden pillars.
The Duchess's Bedchamber
This room was originally the Duke's bedchamber. The ceiling above the bed shows the goddess Flora with angels. The room also has four paintings of ships by Willem van de Velde the Younger.
The Back Parlour
This room was where the senior male staff of the house would eat and relax. It has a painting of Elizabeth Murray with her first husband and sister, painted by their friend and neighbor Joan Carlile.
Gardens and Grounds
The gardens and grounds at Ham House cover about 12 hectares (about 30 acres). They are designed with long paths leading out from the house. The north side of the estate faces the River Thames. The gardens are listed as Grade II*, meaning they are very important historically. Early drawings from 1609 show that the garden design was just as important as the house itself. The original plan included many walled gardens, each with different formal designs, plus an orchard and vegetable garden.
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When the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale renovated the house in 1671, they also made big plans for the garden. Many features from their design, like the Orangery, the Cherry Garden, and the Wilderness, still exist today. The new rooms they added to the house were designed to look out over these formal gardens, which was a very modern idea at the time. The Duchess also ordered special iron gates for the north entrance, which are still there.
Later owners continued to care for the gardens. In the early 1800s, the wall separating the house from the river was taken down and replaced with a "ha-ha" (a hidden ditch). A statue of the river god, Father Thames, was also added in front of the house.
By 1972, the gardens had become very overgrown. In 1975, work began to restore the gardens to their 17th-century design. A model of Ham House and its gardens, shown in an exhibition, helped guide this restoration. The 1675 painting by Henry Danckaerts also helped decide where to place furniture and statues.
The "cherry garden" on the east side of the house was also restored, even though later studies showed there might not have been a formal garden there before the 20th century. The National Trust decided to keep it, but they make sure visitors know its history. Since 2000, the focus has been on restoring the walled kitchen garden. It now grows fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers that are used in the Orangery cafe and to decorate the house.
Later Generations of Owners
The Tollemache Family
After Elizabeth, Countess of Dysart, died in 1698, her eldest son, Lionel, became the 3rd Earl of Dysart and inherited Ham House. He didn't spend much time at Ham, but he did keep the garden nice.
His grandson, also named Lionel, became the 4th Earl in 1727. He started repairing the house and buying new furniture. He made three big changes inside: the Queen's Bedchamber became a main drawing room, another room became a drawing room with special seating, and the Dining Room got a new wooden floor and gilded leather walls.
The 5th Earl, also named Lionel, took over in 1770. He was a quiet person who preferred to stay on his estates. He even refused a request from King George III to visit Ham House! He continued to collect fine furniture.
The 6th Earl and Beyond
Wilbraham, the 6th Earl, inherited the title in 1799. He had the wall separating Ham House from the river taken down and replaced it with a "ha-ha." He also added the statue of Father Thames, pictured here, in front of the house. He became a supporter of the artist John Constable.
When Wilbraham died in 1821, his sister, Lady Louisa, became the 7th Countess. She was also a patron of John Constable, who often visited Ham House.
The 8th Earl, Lionel William John Tollemache, inherited the title in 1840. He became very private. His grandson, William John Manners Tollemache, became the 9th Earl in 1878. He undertook a big renovation of the house and its contents. By the early 1900s, the house even had electricity and central heating! He was the last Earl of Dysart to live at Ham House.
The National Trust Takes Over
After the 9th Earl died in 1935, the house went to his cousin, Lyonel. During World War II, it was hard to keep up the house, and many of its valuable items were moved for safety.
In 1943, Sir Lyonel invited the National Trust to see the house. Even though it was neglected, its historical importance was clear. After long talks, Sir Lyonel and his son gave the house and its grounds to the National Trust in 1948. The government bought the contents of the house and gave them to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).
By 1950, Ham House was open to the public. Since then, a lot of research and restoration work has been done to bring the house back to its former glory. The V&A transferred the collections fully to the National Trust in 2002. The National Trust continues to restore the house and its interiors, making it a wonderful place to visit and learn about history. In 2018/2019, Ham House welcomed over 127,000 visitors!
Ham House in Movies and TV
Ham House is a popular place for filming movies and TV shows. Its historic rooms and gardens make it perfect for period dramas.
- Films: Left Right and Centre (1959), Spice World (1997), The Young Victoria (2009), Never Let Me Go (2010), Anna Karenina (2012), John Carter (2012), A Little Chaos (2014), Victoria and Abdul (2017), The Last Vermeer (2019), and Rebecca (2020).
- TV Shows: Steptoe and Son (1964), Sense and Sensibility (2008), Taboo (2017), Bodyguard (2018), Belgravia (2020), The Great (2020), and the Antiques Roadshow (2021).
How to Visit Ham House
You can get to Ham House by public transport. It's in London's travel zone 4. From Richmond station (London), you can take the 65 bus to Petersham Road or the 371 bus to Sandy Lane. There's also a free car park nearby. You can also reach the house by walking or cycling along the Thames Path.
