I went during the week for a visit, and it was a nice day out in sunny London. The grounds are magnificent to wander around and have a lot of interesting things to see, including the birds on the long, narrow river.
The house itself has a lot of history and was built as a pleasure palace, but for me it felt oddly constructed. For one adult, you’re paying £13.50, which isn’t that cheap, but then the house needs well over a million pounds to keep itself running each year. The day I turned up, there weren’t many people around. In fact, it felt like there were more staff than visitors.
With your ticket, you’re given a little sound box to listen to the history of the house. You can point and zap at objects to listen to. You’re introduced to a fair amount of information. Will you be able to absorb it, or will it all be in one ear and out the other?
Many of the paintings felt too new, as if they didn’t have any age to them. The rooms felt impressive and large, but functional? The whole place felt off for me. Maybe it’s the Feng shui in me.
When I left the house, I surprisingly felt more comfortable in the gardens. I first walked round to see the sad old dilapidated greenhouse. I felt sorry for it, then I went to the café to have a bite to eat. Maybe I would have been better off bringing my own lunch! What I chose from the hot menu was, let’s just say, a McDonald’s burger could have tasted better!
As I had driven here, I decided to make my way round. I tried to extend my car-parking stay for an extra half an hour, only for the phone app to charge me double! I enjoyed the walk through the gardens, along the river, into the wooded area and back up before leaving.
One thing I didn’t do was visit the kitchen garden. I may have missed out there.
All in all, not a bad place. You can visit the gardens for free, so it’s good for the locals. If they want more people, they really need to advertise better.
I recommend a visit to this place.
