Charlecote - A Victorian home

Discover more about the Lucy family home. Explore the rooms which are open to the public and discover the Victorian interior created by George Hammond Lucy and his wife Mary Elizabeth. Chat to our friendly room guides and look around at your own pace.

New for 2017 (not in handbook)

• During Warwickshire school holidays the house is open for limited hours on a Wednesday, 12 noon until 3.00pm (no tours on these days).
• Please note that on all other Wednesdays the house is open by free guided tour only. Collect a ticket from our Visitor Reception team on your way in. Limited tickets (usually all allocated by midday), not bookable in advance.

Grand designs in Tudor style

Enter the house through the porch built to impress Elizabeth I when she stayed here, and begin your visit in the Great Hall surrounded by 400 years of Lucy family portraits. 

Now find out how the Lucy family lived in Victorian times as you wander at your own pace through the Drawing Room, Library, Billiard Room and Dining Room - all with stories to tell. Make your way upstairs to see the Ebony Bedroom and Orange Bedroom.

Chat to our friendly room guides about the artefacts you see - many of the objects were brought back from the Lucys' European spending spree of the 1840s.

Mary Elizabeth and George Hammond Lucy wanted to make Victorian Charlecote conform to their ideal of ‘Merrie England’ in the reign of ‘Good Queen Bess’. They spared no expense and spent lavishly on items from the Fonthill Abbey sale of items from the dissolute William Beckford.

If you'd like to know more about the paintings and artefacts that you see in the house, why not explore the National Trust Collections site?

For children

Our room guides will help children find all the Cuddly Critters hidden around the house if you can’t spot them all. Follow our new children's trail around the house and print off your own Conservation Champion certificate from the QR code at the end.

Constant conservation

We'll never run out of conservation work! Whatever you find us working on when you visit, do stop and chat to discover more.

Still the Lucy family home

Our visitors sometimes wonder why it’s not possible to see the whole house. This is because the Lucy family still live here in one wing. Many of the items you see are kindly loaned to the National Trust by the family.

Part of the upper floor is also taken up with our self-catering holiday flat, The Turret.  Formerly the servants’ quarters, this is now a delightful place to stay, with glorious views of the Warwickshire countryside.

Please note: Buggies and rucksacks just don’t mix with fragile artefacts and you will be asked to leave these in the porch (limited space on busy days). 

The books in our historic library are prone to mould and damp, due to the house's proximity to the river. We use the funds raised by our second-hand bookshop to help with repairs and conservation work on  the books in our library - if you have any second-hand books to donate, please bring them along and leave them with our friendly Visitor Reception team.