Carlyle’s House (National Trust)

Address: | 24 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, SW3 5HL |
---|---|
Phone: | 020-7352 7087 |
Website: | |
Opening times: | Wed–Sun 11:00-16:30 |
How to get there: | Tube: Sloane Square, then bus 11, 19, 22. Bus 239 from Victoria |
Entry fee: | Admission charge |
Additional information: | No disabled access |
Off Cheyne Walk in this sedate corner of old Chelsea is the 1708 Queen Anne terraced house which was the home of the great historian, essayist and social thinker Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), ‘the sage of Chelsea’. Carlyle and his wife Jane (1801–66), known for her beauty, intelligence and wit, moved here from Scotland in 1834; the couple remained here until their deaths. The house is substantially unchanged and, though their highly-charged relationship was often tempestuous, an atmosphere of quiet and dignified simplicity remains. It was here that Carlyle, a difficult, irritable and habitually melancholy man, wrote his epic works: The French Revolution (1837); the influential On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History (1841), in which he outlined his theories on the importance of powerful and conviction-led individuals; and biographies of his personal heroes, Oliver Cromwell (1845) and Frederick the Great (1858–65). The freehold of the house was purchased by public subscription in May 1895, and a trust formed to administer it. In 1936 it passed to the National Trust. The rooms contain much of the original furnishings, including portraits, photographs, books, manuscripts and many other personal relics. Carlyle’s statue (1882) by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm is nearby, in the gardens on the Embankment. |
- 0 Comment(s)
MUSEUMS & GALLERIES OF LONDON
Details below are taken from our Blue Guide Museums and Galleries of London. This is a 2005 title, here generally updated for website address and opening times, with useful comments from some of the museums themselves. More recent information is given in Emily Barber's magisterial new Blue Guide London, "Exceptional update to a classic and useful guide to this amazing city" (Amazon reader review).
FULL LISTING of CURRENT EXHIBITIONS in London from Apollo Magazine »
Emily Barber recommends five major London museums »
Please do share your comments and updates with us via the form below the entry for each museum.
Your comment