Kenwood House

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By Laura Porter, About.com Guide

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Kenwood House is a former stately home on Hampstead Heath. Its art collection includes Rembrandt, Turner, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Vermeer, and it's free to visit.

Kenwood House - What To See

Kenwood House itself is a stunning neoclassical white villa with spacious rooms. The Adam Library is considered one of the most important rooms designed by Robert Adam in the country.

Go upstairs to see the full length Elizabethan portraits of the Suffolk Collection and examine the amazing costume details.

Kenwood House sits high on the northern edge of Hampstead Heath and overlooks a lake making it the ideal location for summer concerts.

An English Stately Home

Actually no. Kenwood House has never been owned by an Englishman. A Scottish family owned it for over two centuries and it is now owned by an Irishman (Earl Iveagh). Kenwood House is managed by English Heritage.

The architect Robert Adam gave Kenwood House its neoclassical look when he renovated in the 1760s and the gardens were laid out by Humphry Repton in the 1790s.

Edward Cecil Guinness, the first Earl of Iveagh, bought Kenwood House and 74 acres of parkland in 1925. The house's contents had been auctioned so the large empty rooms provided the perfect place for the Guinness brewery magnate to display his art collection to the public, while also ensuring the future of this exceptional building.

Suggested Visit Duration

Spend at least an hour at Kenwood House as you've still got the gardens to see, the shop to browse and tea and cakes to be had in the garden. The Brew House cafe serve hot and cold meals so you can come for lunch or you can buy sandwiches and picnic on the lawn.

Kenwood House Gardens

Do explore the pathways and woodlands around Kenwood House as well as the extensive lakeside gardens. Look out for sculptures by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.