Chartwell House

Chartwell: Churchill’s Home and a More Interesting Visit Than You Might Expect

Churchill bought Chartwell in 1922 against his wife Clementine’s wishes. She found the house impractical and the grounds too expensive to maintain. He bought it anyway, sight unseen, for £5,000, and within days of the purchase was writing to tell her that it was the finest view in Kent. The tension this created – between Churchill’s impulsive attachment to the place and Clementine’s pragmatic reservations – ran through their ownership of the house for decades. When financial pressure forced a potential sale in 1938, a group of Churchill’s friends quietly purchased Chartwell and held it for him until his circumstances improved. You can see this history in the rooms; it is not the sanitised version.

Chartwell is in the Kent countryside near Westerham, managed by the National Trust, and open seasonally from roughly April through October. National Trust members enter free; non-members pay around £17 for adults.

The House

The interior preserves the house much as it was during Churchill’s occupation. His study, where he wrote most of his major works including “The Second World War” (6 volumes, a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953), has the standing desk he used – Churchill wrote most of the morning standing up, which reportedly startled visitors. The map room has the situation maps used for briefings during the war years. The dining room walls hold photographs of dinners that included Roosevelt, Montgomery, and Eisenhower.

The art is the most surprising element. Churchill took up painting in 1915 after his forced resignation from the Admiralty following Gallipoli, and produced over 500 paintings over his lifetime – mostly landscapes, often of Chartwell itself, many of them technically competent. A selection hangs throughout the house and in the dedicated studio. Whether these are good paintings or important paintings because Churchill painted them is a reasonable question to ask; the answer is probably both.

The Gardens

The grounds cover about 25 acres and include the kitchen garden, the rose garden, the swimming pool Churchill used into his eighties, and the brick wall that Churchill built himself over many years – bricklaying was his stress relief, and he became a member of the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers in 1928. The views south over the Weald of Kent from the garden terrace are excellent.

Getting There

The nearest rail station is Sevenoaks, about 4 miles from the house. Local bus services and taxis cover the connection. From London Victoria, Sevenoaks is about 35 minutes by train. If driving, the house is 26 miles south of London off the B2026. Parking is available on site.

The town of Westerham, 2 miles east, has a pub lunch option at The George and Dragon and a statue of Churchill on the village green. Combining the two into a half-day is the standard approach. The Ontario Farmhouse in Westerham village was Wolfe’s birthplace – General James Wolfe, who died taking Quebec in 1759 – making Westerham unexpectedly dense with British military history per square mile.