The outside of Apsley House

Apsley House

Top choice in Kensington & Hyde Park


This stunning house, containing exhibits about the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, was once the first building to appear when entering London from the west and was therefore known as 'No 1 London'. Wellington memorabilia, including the Duke's death mask, fills the basement gallery, while an astonishing collection of china and silver, and paintings by Velasquez, Rubens, Van Dyck, Brueghel, Murillo and Goya awaits in the 1st-floor Waterloo Gallery, which runs the length of the building's west flank.

The stairwell is dominated by Antonio Canova’s staggering 3.4m-high statue of a fig-leafed Napoleon with titanic shoulders, adjudged by the subject as ‘too athletic’. Another highlight is the elaborate Portuguese silver service, presented to Wellington in honour of his triumph over le petit caporal.

Still one of London’s finest buildings, Apsley House was designed by Robert Adam for Baron Apsley in the late 18th century, but later sold to the first Duke of Wellington, who lived here until he died in 1852.

Grab one of the handy and informative multimedia touchscreen guides, included in the ticket price (a British Sign Language version is also available).

Transportation

  • underground: Hyde Park Corner

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Kensington & Hyde Park attractions

1. Wellington Arch

0.08 MILES

Dominating the green space throttled by the Hyde Park Corner roundabout, this imposing neoclassical 1826 Corinthian arch originally faced the Hyde Park…

2. Rose Garden

0.16 MILES

Beautifully landscaped gardens in Hyde Park, with flowers year-round. It's an ideal place in which to sit and contemplate for a while.

3. Holocaust Memorial Garden

0.31 MILES

This simple marker of stones in a grove of birch trees, a short distance east of the Serpentine in Hyde Park, is a quiet commemoration of those who died…

4. Green Park

0.41 MILES

At 19 hectares, Green Park is the smallest of the eight royal parks. It has huge plane and oak trees and undulating meadows, and it’s never as crowded as…

5. Buckingham Palace

0.42 MILES

Built in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham, Buckingham Palace replaced St James's Palace as the monarch's official London residence in 1837. Queen Elizabeth…

6. Changing the Guard

0.46 MILES

The full-on pageantry of soldiers in bright-red uniforms and bearskin hats parading down the Mall and into Buckingham Palace is madly popular with…

7. Queen’s Gallery

0.47 MILES

Since the reign of King Charles I in the early 17th century, the Royal Family has amassed a priceless collection of paintings, sculpture, ceramics,…

8. Royal Mews

0.48 MILES

The Royal Mews is a working stable housing the Royal Family's immaculately groomed horses, along with plush vehicles used for transport. The Queen is…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "england/london/kensington-and-hyde-park/attractions/apsley-house/a/poi-sig/371211/1324204",
      "destination": "Kensington-&-Hyde-Park",
      "continent": "Europe",
      "country": "England",
      "city": "London",
      "neighborhood": "Kensington-&-Hyde-Park",
      "position": "superzone"
    }