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Please check with garden owners or their website to confirm current dates open
1 Jan - 11 Feb, 11 - 4, every day
12 Feb - 30 Oct, 11 - 5, every day
31 Oct - 18 Dec, 11 - 4, every day
Open Good Friday
Closed 19 - 31 Dec. Last admission 30 minutes before closing
During normal opening hours - 15+ people.
12 Feb - 31 March*, 11.30 - 3.30, Sat - Thur
2 April - 30 Oct, 12 - 4.00, Sat - Thur
31 Oct - 29 Nov*, 11.30 - 3.00, Sat - Tues
*Timed 'Sneak Preview' tours only
9th July
Any time during season.
17th century formal gardens.
Gift Aid Admission (Standard Admission prices in brackets)
House and garden 12 February to 30 October: adult £10.90 (£9.90), child £6.05 (£5.50), family £27.90 (£25.30). House and garden 31 October to 29 November: adult £9.10 (£8.25), child £4.85 (£4.40), family £23.05 (£20.90). Garden only 12 February to 30 October: adult £3.65 (£3.30), child £2.45 (£2.20), family £9.75 (£8.85).
Garden only 1 January to 11 February and 31 October to 16 December (excludes 3 and 4 plus 10 and 11 December): adult £1.85 (£1.65), child £1.25 (£1.10), family £4.90 (£4.45).
Admission to gardens includes outhouses and introductory film
Free Council-owned car park 400 m. Coach parking by prior arrangement. Parking for blue badge holders available. Accessible for visitors with disabilities. 3 manual wheelchairs available to borrow on site. Please call in advance.
Events programme includes Open-Air Theatre, Opera and cinema, guided tours, family events, Special Christmas openings.
Open Garden Squares Weekend 12 June
Sow and Grow garden event 15 May
Home Grown at Ham garden event 11 Sept
please check National Trust website for details www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hamhouse
The unique Cherry Garden, the maze-like Wilderness and a Kitchen Garden producing flowers used in the house and vegetables for the Cafe kitchen. The House features lavish interiors, fine furniture, textiles and paintings.
Many in Richmond and Petersham
As above
Large selection in Richmond Town Centre and by the Thames
Richmond-upon-Thames
Ham is important as one of the few surviving examples of an original 17th century garden layout. Drawings, plans and documentary evidence show us how the gardens looked in the past. Over the years nature encroached on the original garden, hiding the 1670s design. In 1975 the National Trust decided to re-instate its appearance by recreating the Cherry Garden, Plats and Wilderness. For authenticity they only use plant species that were introduced to Britain before 1700. The restoration work continues, with the return of fruit and vegetables to the Kitchen Garden.
After dinner I walked to Ham to see the House and Garden of the Duke of Lauderdale, which is indeed inferior to few of the best Villas in Italy itself; the House furnished like a great Prince's; the Parterres, Flower Gardens, Orangeries, Groves, Avenues, Courts, Statues, Perspectives, Fountains, Aviaries and all this at the banks of the Sweetest River in the World, must needs be surprising.
John Evelyn's description, written in 1678, evokes the splendour of the gardens at Ham at the end of a decade of prodigious expenditure by the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale.
The restoration of the east and south compartments of the garden in 1975 began the process of re-establishing this layout. Work remains to be done to return more of the elaborate features admired by Evelyn, as they appeared in their heyday.
The house is unique in Europe as the most complete survival of 17th century fashion and power. One of a series of palaces and grand houses along the banks of the river Thames, Ham was built in 1610 and greatly enlarged in the 1670s when it was at the heart of Restoration court life. It was then occupied by the same family until 1948 when it was bequeathed to the National Trust. Outbuildings include an Orangery, Ice house, still house and dairy.