Kenwood House

About Kenwood House

Art museum and historic house in Hampstead, London

Kenwood House, also known as the Iveagh Bequest, is a stately home on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath in north London. The present house was built in the late 17th century and remodelled in the 18th century by the Scottish architect Robert Adam for William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield and Lord Chief Justice of England, who added the celebrated library with its decorated barrel-vaulted ceiling, one of the finest interiors in English architecture; it served as a residence for the Earls of Mansfield until the 20th century. Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, bought the house and part of the grounds from the 6th Earl in 1925 and donated them to the nation in 1927 together with his fine art collection; the whole estate passed to the London County Council and was open to the public by the end of the 1920s, and it is now administered by English Heritage separately from the rest of Hampstead Heath. Its rooms show works by masters including Rembrandt (a famous self-portrait), Vermeer, Turner, Reynolds and Gainsborough, and the extensive gardens, lawns and woodland are a superb example of 18th-century landscaping, with a notable sculpture by Henry Moore and a view over a lake with a sham bridge. Open-air concerts take place in the grounds every summer, film lovers will recognise the house from Mansfield Park among other films, and together with Hampstead Heath it is one of the loveliest quiet excursions in north London.

Where:

London, United Kingdom