On a beautiful, early spring day in late March, a group of us from the American Women's Club spent a day at Ham House. Our day began with a delightful walk along the Thames from the town of Richmond. We walked about two miles along the river with scenic views in all directions.
Along the way we passed homes that were perfectly situated and must have had histories
of their own to explore.
We also saw an early morning crew team. They were rowing, but they also were frantically bailing water soon after I snapped this picture. I'm not sure this boat would have won in the Oxford/Cambridge race held on April 7.
As we walked up from the river, it was not hard to see the grandeur of this house. The brochure for Ham House says that it is one of London's best kept secrets.
An atmospheric Stuart mansion nestling on a bend in the river in leafy Richmond upon Thames; imagine a sleeping beauty, virtually unchanged for 400 years.
Ham House was built in 1610 and in 1626 William Murray moved into the house. William was a whipping boy which is a young boy assigned to a prince. The whipping boy was was punished when the prince misbehaved. He was a whipping boy for Charles I. He then went on to earn his living at court and remained close friends with the King. He and Charles I shared similar tastes for art and interior decoration and William made Ham House a luxurious residence.
Ham House and Garden has been featured in many film and television productions. For all of the Downton Abbey fans, this is a picture of the soup kitchen from the Downton Abbey series.
These are pictures of the beautifully carved staircases which were featured in the film, Young Victoria.
The staircases were built to impress the visitors and led to luxurious rooms on the upper floors. The carved trophies of arms are very unusual and the posts are capped with baskets of fruit.
This is a view from the back of the house to the Wilderness which is behind the tall hedges on either side of the grassed paths. The hedges are completely enclosed and are planted with various flowers or shrubs that gives it a less formal look than the Cherry Garden.
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| Ham House from the front |
Ham House was built in 1610 and in 1626 William Murray moved into the house. William was a whipping boy which is a young boy assigned to a prince. The whipping boy was was punished when the prince misbehaved. He was a whipping boy for Charles I. He then went on to earn his living at court and remained close friends with the King. He and Charles I shared similar tastes for art and interior decoration and William made Ham House a luxurious residence.
original kitchen table
The staircases were built to impress the visitors and led to luxurious rooms on the upper floors. The carved trophies of arms are very unusual and the posts are capped with baskets of fruit.
We walked through room after room of lavishly decorated tapestries, paintings and furniture. This room is the Queen's bedchamber and was prepared in expectation of a visit from Charles II's consort, Queen Catherine of Braganza. It was converted to a drawing room in 1744.
The marble fireplace dates from the 1630's but the twisted columns were originally in the Great Dining Room.
North Drawing Room
The Green Closet was designed to display both cabinet pictures and miniatures on an intimate scale. It was a small room and this is a picture of the door and a painting above the door. In 1655 the room was hung with "greene stuffe" and the present silk damask are copies of the green damask. 
Green Closet
back of Ham House
If you compare this picture with the picture of the front of the house, you will see that this picture is less busy and cluttered than the front of the house.
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| view of the front from inside the house |
After we toured Ham House, we visited the gardens. Cherry Garden at Ham House is a Parterre Garden. Parterre Gardens are formal gardens that are planted in a pattern and the pattern itself is an ornament. You can see these patterns in these pictures. Tightly clipped hedges are mixed with pathways and lavender. Parterre gardening was developed in France but was overtaken by the naturalistic English landscaping garden in the 1720's. It was revived in the 19th century.
This picture of a painting is thought to show William Murray's daughter Elizabeth with her second husband walking in the Wilderness.
Visiting houses such as Ham House always brings alive small glimpses of what life must have been like in the storied days of England's past. It amazed me to think that this house was not a king's castle but only a house for a friend of the king.
Our day concluded with a walk back to the Richmond tube station and a quick ride back to London.
Visiting houses such as Ham House always brings alive small glimpses of what life must have been like in the storied days of England's past. It amazed me to think that this house was not a king's castle but only a house for a friend of the king.
Our day concluded with a walk back to the Richmond tube station and a quick ride back to London.
