Ham House

Ham House is one of the most remarkable houses in Britain — a lavishly decorated late 17th-century mansion on the Thames that preserves its Stuart interiors with astonishing completeness, offering an almost unparalleled window into the taste, ambition and social world of Restoration England.

Built in 1610 and extended and redecorated in the 1670s by the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale — two of the most powerful and fashion-conscious figures at the court of Charles II — Ham House presents its late 17th-century character with exceptional integrity. While many great houses have been remodelled repeatedly over the centuries, Ham retains the furnishings, textiles, paintings and decorative schemes that the Lauderdales created, making it one of the best-preserved examples of Restoration taste anywhere in Europe.

Elizabeth Murray, Duchess of Lauderdale, was one of the most formidable women of the 17th century — intelligent, politically connected, and possessed of extraordinary ambition. Together with her second husband John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale (the 'L' in Charles II's 'Cabal' ministry), she transformed Ham into a palace of magnificence designed to reflect their position at the pinnacle of Restoration society. The result was a house of extraordinary completeness: state rooms hung with original textiles, furnished with original pieces, and decorated with paintings that have never left the building.

The interiors include some of the finest 17th-century craftsmanship to survive in England. The marble dining room, the queen's bedchamber, the library and the long gallery are among the set-piece rooms, each preserving textiles, furniture and paintings that would be priceless individually but together create something even more extraordinary — a coherent artistic statement from a specific cultural moment, preserved essentially intact.

The formal 17th-century garden, restored by the National Trust to its Lauderdale-period layout with box parterre, cherry walk and wilderness, provides a setting that extends the historical experience beyond the house itself. Ham House sits on the Thames between Richmond and Twickenham, and the river walk to Marble Hill and Orleans House adds further Georgian pleasures to what is already an exceptional historic destination.