Historic house
#108
Fenton House
A 17th-century Hampstead merchant’s house with a secret: upstairs sits the Benton Fletcher collection of early keyboard instruments. Add porcelain, needlework, a roofline view and a walled garden, and you get a time-capsule that sounds as good as it looks.
Opening Hours
Sunday: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Monday: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Friday: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
What's not to miss inside?
Keyboard Time Travel
Harpsichords, spinets and virginals show how music lived before the piano age.On some days you’ll hear them played—wood and wire filling small rooms with bright sound.
📍 Music rooms, upper floors
Merchant’s Taste
Porcelain, pictures and stitched panels map aspiration and trade.Collections read like a ledger of status and global connections.
📍 Principal rooms
Garden & Orchard Calm
An oasis with seasonal colour and Hampstead breezes.Box hedges and fruit trees frame city views that feel rural.
📍 Walled garden and lawns
Inspire your Friends
- The early keyboard collection stems from Captain George Benton Fletcher, who donated instruments to the National Trust to be heard, not just seen.
- Parts of the house retain late-17th-century fabric—small-pane sash windows, steep stairs, and thick walls that make music intimate.
- The walled garden includes an orchard—rare this close to central London—and seasonal displays often outshine the interiors.
