If I had to pick the most remarkable historic houses in London, Ham House in Richmond would be near the top of that list. This red brick Stuart mansion survived the English Civil War, the turbulent Interregnum and more than four centuries of history whilst retaining almost all of its original 17th-century furnishings and decoration.
Step inside Ham House to discover how one formidable woman saved her family home through espionage and political cunning, and created one of the most lavish interiors in Stuart England.
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My Top Tips for Visiting Ham House
The Murray Women Who Saved Ham House
The story of Ham House is the story of two exceptional women: Catherine Murray and her daughter, Elizabeth.
Built in 1610 by Sir Thomas Vavasour, the house was leased in 1626 to William Murray, a childhood friend of Charles I and Groom of the Bedchamber. Between 1637 and 1639, William and his wife, Catherine, transformed the interiors into something befitting his lofty court position. They employed the finest craftsmen, including Joseph Kinsman, who also worked on Whitehall Palace.
Then came the cataclysm. When the English Civil War broke out in 1642, William had no choice but to fight for his king, leaving Catherine and their daughters to defend Ham House. Parliamentary forces seized the estate, but Catherine fought tenaciously to reclaim it, keeping the house in the family throughout the war despite William’s staunch Royalist sympathies.
After Catherine died in 1649 (the same year Charles I was executed), the burden fell to her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and this is where the story gets really interesting.
Elizabeth played a dangerous double game. She befriended Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarian government whilst simultaneously serving as a member of the Sealed Knot, a covert organisation working to restore the monarchy. In the candlelit privacy of her closet at Ham, she penned coded letters to the exiled Charles II in France.
When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Elizabeth’s gamble paid off spectacularly. Charles II rewarded her loyalty with a pension, and Ham House once again became a centre of court life.
In 1672, after the death of her first husband, Sir Lionel Tollemache, Elizabeth married John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, a powerful member of Charles II’s inner circle. Together they embarked on an extraordinary programme of expansion and decoration. What we see today is essentially Elizabeth’s house, frozen in amber.
Inside Ham House
Ham House offers something astonishingly rare: a window into how a great Stuart house looked when it was new.
At many other London stately homes I’ve visited, the contents were sold to the highest bidder, and the rooms refurnished with sympathetic pieces. Not so with Ham House. Most of its original furniture, textiles, paintings and decorative objects are in the very rooms where they were placed over 340 years ago.
Take this exquisite ivory cabinet in the North Drawing Room, for example. It was recorded in the 1677 inventory.
My visit to Ham House started in the Great Hall. Its original 1610 black-and-white marble floor creates a dramatic chequerboard that immediately sets the tone. Look up and you’ll see the Round Gallery, where Elizabeth and John would have entertained guests who could peer down at dancing couples in the hall below.
Climbing the magnificent Great Stairs, decorated with carved military trophies intended to evoke ancient Rome, I reached the first floor.
Running the length of the house, the Long Gallery is hung with portraits depicting family, royalty and Royalist friends, and is lined with exquisite cabinets and tables from the 1670s. This was where the family would take exercise on rainy days and show off their art collection and important connections.
The adjacent North Drawing Room was reserved for the most important visitors, and was decorated by the German artist, Franz Cleyn, described at the time as the “second Titian”.
Next door, the Green Closet, created by William and Catherine Murray in the 1630s, is the only complete 17th-century closet surviving in Britain. Sadly, it wasn’t open on my last visit – access is subject to volunteer availability – but it famously displays the miniature of the Man Consumed by Flames, painted around 1610 by Huguenot refugee Isaac Oliver.
I sneaked a peek at the Library before descending the staircase to explore the ground-floor rooms. Created in 1670, this was one of England’s earliest purpose-built libraries. Although it does not house the original collection, its books are representative of those that would have been there in the Murrays’ time.
But my favourite rooms were the intimate Private Closet and White Closet. This is where Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale, wrote letters, drank tea and entertained friends.
Antonio Verrio painted the ceilings in both rooms in 1673-74, and they are one of the earliest examples of Baroque illusionism in an English domestic interior. Putti climb over a trompe l’oeil balustrade to reach the figures representing the Liberal Arts, whilst Divine Wisdom floats on clouds, pointing to the all-seeing eye.
Adjacent to these closets is the Volury, whose name relates to a French word for a flock of birds in an aviary. Bird cages were installed outside its windows in the 17th century, filling the room with birdsong.
Stop to examine the surviving fragment of a 1670s wall decoration in the Marble Dining Room, an embossed and gilded leather panel with images of fruit, flowers, birds and dragonflies. Leather was a highly fashionable wall covering in the 17th century, and was perfect for dining rooms as it didn’t absorb food smells like tapestries did.
Back in the day, the family dined at multiple smaller tables, rather than gathering around one large table. This room’s original marble floor was replaced with the parquet floor we see today in the 1740s.
It’s worth exploring Ham House’s cellars purely for the Duchess’s Bathroom. Installed for Elizabeth in the 1670s, this is one of England’s earliest internal bathrooms. And get this: a passageway connected it to her bedchamber on the floor above.
Exploring Ham House Gardens
Ham House’s gardens are equally remarkable survivors. Unlike most 17th-century formal gardens, which were swept away by the 18th-century landscape movement, Ham’s gardens retain their original structure.
The National Trust has painstakingly restored the gardens based on the 1675 painting by Hendrick Danckerts of the Duke and Duchess in their south gardens, along with garden plans and inventories. The Cherry Garden on the east side features box-hedged parterres planted with lavender and enclosed by tunnel arbours and yew hedges. The Wilderness to the south contains meandering paths, summerhouses and original 17th-century statues of Bacchus.
The Kitchen Garden is one of the most productive walled gardens in London, using organic principles and providing produce for the Orangery Café.
There’s also a 17th-century Still House where medicines and cosmetics for the household were made, and an 18th-century dairy.
Why I Love Ham House
What struck me most was how personal it all feels. Unlike houses that have been transformed into museums, Ham House still feels like someone’s home. You can imagine Elizabeth sweeping through these rooms, receiving guests, plotting political intrigue, and building one of the finest art collections in Stuart England.
This is as close as you can get to stepping into Stuart England and experiencing what life was really like for the aristocracy during the reigns of Charles I and Charles II. If you love Stuart history, 17th-century decorative arts, or simply want to experience a historic house where most of what you see is original, Ham House is unmissable.
About Bridget
Bridget Coleman has been a passionate traveller for more than 30 years. She has visited 70+ countries, most as a solo traveller.
Articles on this site reflect her first-hand experiences.
To get in touch, email her at hello@theflashpacker.net or follow her on social media.