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Kenwood House Review

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Kenwood House

Address: Hampstead La., Hampstead, London, NW3 7JR | Map It
Phone: 020/8348-1286
www.english-heritage.org.uk

Category: Houses/Mansions
Location: Regent's Park and Hampstead

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Fodor's Review:

This gracious Georgian villa was first built in 1616 and remodeled by Robert Adam between 1764 and 1779. Adam refaced most of the exterior and added the splendid library, which, with its curved painted ceiling, rather garish coloring, and gilded detailing, is the sole highlight of the house for decorative arts and interior design buffs. What is unmissable here is the Iveagh Bequest, a collection of paintings that the Earl of Iveagh gave the nation in 1927, including a wonderful Rembrandt self-portrait and works by Reynolds, Van Dyck, Hals, Gainsborough, and Turner. Top billing goes to Vermeer's Guitar Player, one of the most beautiful paintings in the world. In front of the house, a graceful lawn slopes down to a little lake crossed by a trompe-l'oeil bridge—all in perfect 18th-century upper-class taste. The rest of the grounds are skirted by Hampstead Heath. In summer the grounds host a series of popular and classical concerts, culminating in fireworks on the last night. A popular café, the Brew House, is part of the old coach house, and has outdoor tables in the courtyard and terraced garden.

Cost: Free
Open: House daily except Dec. 24-26 and Jan.1, 11:30-4. Gardens daily dawn-dusk
Tube: Golders Green, then Bus 210

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