Struggling with ideas for Mother’s Day?
Show her you care with a visit to the Freud Museum.
Located at the south end of Hampstead, the museum – which is dedicated to the life’s work of the founder of psychoanalysis – makes for an interesting stop off on a day out in north London.
The Queen Anne-style house in Hampstead was Sigmund Freud’s final home before he died in 1939, and his daughter Anna continued to live there until her death in 1982 (with the house then being opened to the public in 1986). The museum isn’t massive, mainly because – y’know – it’s a house. So best not to go expecting to find thousands of artefacts: this is more of a “Ah, I’m in Sigmund Freud’s house” type of museum.
On the ground floor you’ll wander through his famous study, preserved as it was complete with the sofa that he asked patients lie on to “free associate” (a process of speaking freely and without censorship to better understand the unconscious mind). Also untouched is his library of over 1,600 books which line the shelves of the study… proving beyond doubt that he preferred TV.
Visit the dining room and you’ll find a gallery of Freud’s collection of paintings, or head upstairs where the landing houses two paintings of him, including the one done by Salvador Dalí. Also upstairs is Anna Freud’s room which contains furniture and documents from her study where she developed her psychoanalytic work with children, as well as some of her own artefacts.
If it all gets a bit stuffy, you can take a break in the well-manicured garden before obviously heading to the gift shop.
Oh, and shhhh – National Trust members can go half price.
Mum’s the word.
NOTE: The Freud Museum is open Wednesday – Monday. Entry costs £14.50 – you can book ahead, and find out more, HERE.
The Freud Museum | 20 Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead, NW3 5SX
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