Explore the showrooms at Knole

A historic show house

Knole has been a show house ever since Thomas Sackville first acquired it in 1605, and the incredibly rare collection survives for visitors to explore today. Visitors to Knole have followed the same route around the house for at least the last 400 years.

There's a popular myth (heavily promoted by Vita Sackville-West) that Knole is a calendar house – with 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances and seven courtyards. While a fascinating idea, sadly this isn't the case.

The reality is the house was not designed and built in a single phase but is the accumulation of several stages of construction. The house itself encompasses seven acres of roofs and contains around 400 rooms; some are privately occupied while the showrooms continue to be open to visitors.

For the last 400 years, the showrooms have been open to visitors rather than inhabited regularly as family rooms. Discover fascinating portraits, textiles, furniture and objects including Stuart-era beds, chairs and tapestries. You are welcome to take photos but please don't use flash, tripods or commercial filming equipment.

What to look out for

• Visit the Great Hall, dominated by the immense ornamented oak screen dating from 1605, then journey up the highly decorative Great Staircase which will take you to the showrooms.
• The Spangle Bedroom with its state bed and magnificent textiles embellished with hundreds of silver gilt sequins is a highlight, rivalled only by the James II bed in the Venetian Bedroom.
• Rare silver furniture can be found in the King's Room. Look out for the story behind the 17th-century Kussenkast (the Dutch word for cushion wardrobe, so named because of its shape), discovered in pieces in the attics.
• The famous 17th-century Knole Sofa with its distinctive high back and sides has been conserved by the studio and is displayed in the Leicester Gallery, protected by a glass box.
• The life-size portrait of John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745-1799) in the Reynolds Room. Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) in 1769, the masterpiece was conserved in the onsite Royal Oak Foundation conservation studio. Watch the video below to find out more.

Discover Knole’s attics

The attics at Knole are very different from the rooms you see in the house. Hidden above the grandeur of the showrooms, they give a glimpse into the evolution of grand houses like Knole, reflecting how they were first and foremost family homes as well as show houses.

What's been left behind can tell us as much about the lives of the inhabitants and people who passed through the house as the furniture and portraits displayed downstairs.

Ever-changing spaces

The scale of the attics at Knole might be slightly larger than average and the contents a little older than most. Divided into three large areas, the often-forgotten domestic attics – sometimes lived in but more often used as storage areas – have evolved over the centuries with each generation adapting them to their needs.