Architecture

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Charlton House

London's one complete Jacobean mansion, built in 1607 for the tutor of James I's heir, with the most exuberant plasterwork in the style, and free to walk into.

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Photo by Bencherlite, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sir Adam Newton, tutor and then secretary to Henry, Prince of Wales, built it between 1607 and 1612, probably to designs by John Thorpe, and the prince for whom it was half intended died of typhoid at eighteen in the year it was finished, leaving the throne to his brother Charles. It is red brick with stone dressings on an H-plan, and the inside is the point: oak staircases, panelled rooms, chimneypieces carved to the ceiling and plaster ceilings that Pevsner called the most exuberant decoration of any Jacobean interior, with the Prince of Wales's feathers and the King's monogram worked in wherever there was room. In the garden are a summer house attributed to Inigo Jones and a mulberry tree reputedly planted in 1608, when James I was urging the country to grow silk. The Maryon-Wilson family had the house for two centuries, the council bought it in 1925, and it is a library, café and community centre run by the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, which lets anyone in to look.

Where
Charlton Road, SE7 8RE
Nearest station
Charlton · 10 min walk

Hours

Monday09:30 – 15:30
Tuesday09:30 – 15:30
Wednesday09:30 – 15:30
Thursday09:30 – 15:30
Friday09:30 – 15:30
Saturday09:30 – 15:00
SundayClosed

Hours from the page that lists them, checked 8 September 2026.

The gardens are open 10:00 to 16:00; closed on Sundays.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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