Today I want to share my guide to Hampstead museums with you. This north London neighborhood is packed with small museums, and they cover subjects as diverse as historic architecture and modern psychology. If you love London museums, this is a great part of the city to explore.
Hampstead Museums
After spending half of January, half of February, and half of March outside of London, I wanted to spend some good quality time with my home city this weekend.
In order to reacquaint myself with my neighborhood and give myself something more exciting to write than “woke up, sat around the house all day, went to dinner, slept” (sounds like a bad tweet!), I spent this weekend strolling around Hampstead‘s narrow cobbled streets and gorgeous green spaces.
In particular, I visited some Hampstead museums. Embarrassingly, I’ve lived in the neighborhood for a long time and haven’t visited almost any of its museums.
2 Willow Road in Hampstead
That said, a couple months ago I visited 2 Willow Road, a building that I’d walked past a million times without ever noticing.
Designed by architect Erno Goldfinger in 1939, this National Trust London property is a time capsule of a house that embodies the Modernist ideals of architecture.
The home houses original furniture and features a collection of art by artists such as Henry Moore and Bridget Riley.
Fenton House in Hampstead
The other day I continued my tour of Hampstead museums with a trip to Fenton House, a 17th-century home that, like 2 Willow Road, features a red brick facade and is a National Trust property in London.
The similarities end there, though, as Fenton House is wholly different in design and boasts of a beautiful manicured garden bursting with flowers and orchards.
The other noticeable difference between the two houses is the art collection. While 2 Willow Road is pure modern, Fenton House is full of Rococo porcelain figurines, Baroque paintings, and musical instruments.
Following a bequeath, every room in the house features at least one harpsichord, pianoforte, spinet, or other ivory-keyed instrument.
Several of the pianos have recordings one can listen to while gazing out at the garden, as the eager docent who took me under her wing pointed out.
Burgh House Museum in Hampstead
Speaking of being serenaded by pre-recorded music while gazing out at a garden, on Saturday I went with a friend to one of Hampstead’s 18th-century museums, Burgh House. This time, though, I went for lunch.
The Buttery Cafe at Burgh House is one of my favorite places to have lunch in Hampstead when the weather is nice, as it has great outdoor seating in its garden.
While we enjoyed our salad and Parma ham under an unseasonably warm sun, we were serenaded by music from a wedding reception taking place in the Burgh House museum’s upper floors.
The museum itself is full of local history and memorabilia. It’s a great Hampstead museum for getting to know the neighborhood, Hampstead Heath, and the surrounding area.
Kenwood House in Hampstead Heath
Still hungry for more Hampstead museums, I followed my visit to Burgh House with a trip to Kenwood House, the massive mansion in Hampstead Heath that most non-Londoners know from the Hugh Grant movie Notting Hill.
Having walked past Kenwood House many times and attended a summer concert on its grounds, I felt like a trip through its rooms was a bit overdue.
A friend and I made our way to Kenwood House this afternoon following a morning walk through Golders Hill Park and Sunday Roast at the Holly Bush, one of my favorite Hampstead pubs.
The museum, which is an English Heritage site in London, was busy with visitors. But we still had plenty of space to enjoy the gorgeous library, the Suffolk Collection (think portraits), and various paintings by Rembrandt, Turner, Vermeer, and Gainsborough.
And while Kenwood House had more in common with Fenton House and Burgh House than it did with 2 Willow Road, it did have one artistic similarity with the modern museum.
That was its collection of outdoor sculptures, which included some by Henry Moore.
Unfortunately, the day was growing colder by the minute so we didn’t spend much time with the sculptures. However, I was glad to have seen another Hampstead museum.
Freud Museum in Hampstead
On the other side of Hampstead village, The Freud Museum near Belsize Park is dedicated to Sigmund Freud.
The collection is housed in the home where the father of psychoanalysis lived with his family during the last year of his life.
The museum features original furniture, including Freud’s famous psychoanalytic couch. I loved seeing his study and learning about the work of his daughter, Anna Freud, who was a pioneering child psychoanalyst.
Keats House in Hampstead
Over towards South End Green, Keats House is another of the great Hampstead museums.
Once the home of Romantic poet John Keats (he’s said to have written “Ode to a Nightingale” here), this Regency villa is now a museum dedicated to his life and writing.
The Keats House museum, which was originally called Wentworth Place, dates back to the early 19th century and contains paintings, prints, and items belonging to Keats and his contemporaries.
I enjoyed visiting the house and walking in the garden and grounds. It was great to see where such a famous poet spent the end of his life.
Beyond Hampstead Museums
I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide to Hampstead museums. It’s amazing how many unique collections one neighborhood holds, and I hope you get a chance to explore them all someday.
If you want to learn more about London’s museums, you can take a look at my blog posts about the best museums in London, the top small museums in London, and secret museums in London.
I’ve even written a London museums itinerary you can follow for two days. It’s a fun way to explore more of the city’s best galleries. If you can tear yourself away from the Hampstead museums, that is.
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