Things to see and do in the house at Charlecote Park

Two visitors look upwards at the paintings all around them on the walls in the Great Hall — Take a look at the grand Victorian interiors inside the house. | © National Trust Images/Annapurna Mellor

Overlooking the river Avon on the edge of Shakespeare’s Stratford, the house at Charlecote Park has been home to the Lucy family for over 900 years, and remains their home today. Find out what you can see inside this Victorian family home, and discover an immaculately preserved service courtyard.

November - open and closing information

During November, we’ll be getting the house ready for Christmas. From 6 November the five ground floor rooms of the house will be closed on weekdays and only open on the weekends of:

11 & 12 November
18 & 19 November

The five ground floor rooms of the house will then be closed from 20 November. They will then be open and decorated for Christmas from 2nd December to 1st January. From 2nd January, the house will close for it’s annual conservation clean.

Normal opening times will apply from 10.30am - 2.30pm with timed tickets available on a first come first served basis from the Visitor Welcome Centre. No booking system will be in place this year, so we recommend turning up early, especially on weekends, to guarantee your entry to the house.

Visit a Victorian home

The house at Charlecote Park was the vision of Victorian owners George Hammond Lucy and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, who extended the house and filled it with treasures from their European travels.

The five downstairs rooms have been reinstated while the conservation work to refurbish the Victorian heating system that begun in 2022, moves into the upper levels of the house. This means that the the three upstairs rooms will remain closed for 2023.

To find out more about the conservation work taking place, chat to our friendly volunteers or take a look over the information boards in each room to find out the details.

How to visit the house

The five downstairs rooms of the house are open seven days a week from 10.30am - 2.30pm by timed ticket. These can be collected on a first come first served basis at the Visitor Welcome Centre.

Two visitors with a baby in a pram explore the Laundry Rooms at Charlecote Park, with washing hanging on a line behind them displayed interpretive text — Visitors exploring the Laundry Rooms at Charlecote Park | © National Trust Images/Annapurna Mellor

Immaculately preserved outbuildings

To the side of the house is the service courtyard. Here you’ll find the beautifully preserved laundry and ajoining brewhouse.

Around the corner are three carriage houses containing on of the best, original carriage collections in the National Trust's care. Here you can compare the merits of a phaeton, a barouche or a brougham.

As you explore the service courtyard, don't forget to pop into the second-hand bookshop, located in one of the old stable blocks. See the books carefully stacked up carefully around some of the original fixtures and fittings still in place.

Explore the Victorian kitchen

The last stop on your house visit is the scullery and kitchen. Step through the brown, wooden doors off the service courtyard and immediately right to ascend the steps to the scullery.

This was used for washing huge amounts of vegetables and crockery. Take a look inside the original bread oven as you walk through this space.

The kitchen at Charlecote is one of the best surviving Victorian kitchens in Britain and would once have been the bustling hub of the house.

Today, the kitchen is preserved in time, with the fireplace and historic working table taking centre stage. You can imagine this space being a hive of activity here to prepare to feed the estate.

The kitchen leads into the Servants' Hall shop. As you step through the corridor, look up at the row of bells near the ceiling. The Servants' Hall would have been a bustling space for the service staff to congregate. Take a look at one of the walls to see what their average yearly wage would have been!