Carlyle's House

#153

A preserved Victorian writers’ home where Thomas and Jane Carlyle lived, wrote and hosted London’s literary and scientific circles. Domestic rooms, portraits and manuscripts create a time-capsule context for 19th-century ideas.

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Opening Hours

Daily: 11:00 – 16:30

Admissions

Adult £33.00

Child £16.50

Concession £29.70

What's not to miss inside?

Drawing Room

A salon in a terrace house

A modest room that welcomed Dickens, Darwin and friends—conversation as a creative engine.

Stand by the mantel and picture a winter evening guest list.

📍 First-floor front

Carlyle’s Study

Work in a small space

Desk, chair and books show how big histories were drafted amid city noise and tight rooms.

Count the steps from bed to desk; think ‘routine > inspiration’.

📍 Upper floor

Jane’s Letters

Two authors, one address

Sharp, witty correspondence restores Jane Welsh Carlyle as a writer and social observer, not just a hostess.

Read one extract aloud; note tone and subtext.

📍 Rooms with manuscripts and portraits

Walled Garden

A quiet counterpoint

Simple beds and paths suggest how short outdoor breaks punctuated long writing days.

Sit a minute; list the city sounds that still seep in.

📍 Rear of house

🤓 Fun Facts

A contemporary painting of the drawing room guides today’s arrangement, helping curators restore objects to documented positions.

Visitors included Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin, placing the household at a crossroads of literature and science.

The interiors are preserved close to how the Carlyles left them, creating one of London’s few intact Victorian literary homes.

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