Freud Museum

The House and Its History

Sigmund Freud arrived in London in June 1938, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Vienna. He was 82, already suffering from the oral cancer that would end his life the following year, but he was determined to bring his world with him. His son Ernst, an architect already living in London, helped the family settle first on Elsworthy Road before moving to 20 Maresfield Gardens — a red-brick Queen Anne style house built in 1920.

Freud's Viennese study was recreated in the ground-floor rooms with extraordinary fidelity. Every book, every figurine, every piece of furniture was unpacked and placed as it had been at Berggasse 19. He continued to write and receive patients here until weeks before his death on 23 September 1939.

Anna Freud, his youngest daughter, remained in the house for the next four decades, building an international reputation in child psychoanalysis. After her death in 1982, the house was opened as a museum in July 1986, fulfilling her wish that her father's legacy be preserved and shared.

What to See

The ground floor is the heart of the museum. Freud's study and consulting room occupy the rear of the house, every surface crowded with antiquities — small bronze figures, Egyptian amulets, Greek vases and Chinese jade pieces arranged exactly as he kept them. The famous couch sits against one wall, covered in its Iranian rug and cushions. Behind it, the shelves hold over 1,600 volumes spanning psychoanalysis, archaeology, literature and art.

The dining room and conservatory, now converted into the museum shop, complete the ground floor. Upstairs, a dedicated room explores Anna Freud's career and contributions, with personal effects, photographs and documents. A video room screens archive footage, and a temporary exhibition space hosts rotating shows that connect psychoanalytic ideas with contemporary art and culture.

Nearby and Practical Tips

The museum sits in a quiet residential street between Swiss Cottage and Hampstead Village. After your visit, Hampstead High Street is a ten-minute walk north, with independent cafes, bookshops and pubs. Hampstead Heath, one of London's largest open spaces, is a fifteen-minute walk and offers panoramic views from Parliament Hill.

Keats House, the Regency villa where the poet John Keats lived, is a short walk away in the same neighbourhood. For a longer afternoon, combine the Freud Museum with a stroll across the Heath to Kenwood House, a grand neoclassical villa housing a fine collection of old master paintings, free to enter.