A prime minister's study, left as it was
The first-floor study opened to visitors in 2014 and holds a writing desk that belonged to another prime minister, David Lloyd George, alongside his papers and political mementoes.
Geni — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tim Sheerman-Chase — CC BY 4.0 · Tilman2007 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Michael Garlick — CC BY-SA 2.0
In a quiet house inside Salisbury's Cathedral Close, Sir Edward Heath's Steinway grand still stands in the drawing room where he left it. Heath, British prime minister from 1970 to 1974, lived at Arundells for twenty years until his death in 2005, and the house and everything in it passed to his foundation, which opened it to the public in 2008 unchanged: his pictures on their hooks, gifts from world leaders in the cabinets, and upstairs the desk in his study that once belonged to Lloyd George. The building began as a thirteenth-century canon's house and was refronted in the early eighteenth century, so from the street it looks like a well-mannered English townhouse and gives away nothing. Inside, hand-painted Chinese wallpaper telling the story of the Monkey King climbs the staircase, the rooms hold work by Churchill, Lowry, Sickert, Sargent and John Piper alongside Japanese woodcuts and ceramics, and the gifts on show came from figures as varied as Nixon, Chairman Mao and Fidel Castro. A side gallery carries a long run of political cartoons that mocked the owner and that he kept hanging in his own house anyway. The garden is two acres sloping down to the frontage where the Avon meets the Nadder, with the cathedral spire rising over the trees in one of the loveliest views in the city. In a wooded dell sits the bow of the yacht «Morning Cloud III», set there in memory of two crew lost when she sank in a gale in September 1974, and it tells you half of the man's life outside politics in a single object. Be honest with yourself before booking: this is a small, personal house rather than a grand one, and an hour to ninety minutes covers it. Anyone interested in twentieth-century British politics will leave satisfied; anyone who is not can pay £4 for the garden alone and take a quiet half-hour there before the cathedral next door, or after a day at Stonehenge. The season runs mid-March to early November only, Wednesday is closed, and Tuesday is guided tours and nothing else.
The first-floor study opened to visitors in 2014 and holds a writing desk that belonged to another prime minister, David Lloyd George, alongside his papers and political mementoes.
Two acres run down to where the Avon meets the Nadder, with the cathedral spire above the trees and the bow of «Morning Cloud III» set in a wooded dell.
Paintings by Churchill, Lowry, Sickert and Sargent, hand-painted Chinese wallpaper telling the Monkey King story up the staircase, and a whole gallery of political cartoons.
59 Cathedral Close, Salisbury SP1 2EN
Mompesson HouseThe quiet grey front on Choristers' Green gives nothing away. Behind it are plas2 minutes walk
The Salisbury MuseumIn a case here lies a man buried a few miles from Stonehenge roughly 4,300 years2 minutes walk
Salisbury CathedralSalisbury has the tallest church spire in Britain: 123 metres of tapering stone 3 minutes walk
Poultry CrossMedieval Salisbury had four market crosses, one for each trade: cheese, wool, li5 minutes walkWorth it if you are stopping in Salisbury regardless: Stonehenge is about half an hour away by car and the cathedral is a two-minute walk from the front door. It does not justify a separate trip from London, though. It is a small house that will not fill a day, so treat it as an hour between Stonehenge and the cathedral rather than a destination.
The garden, yes: it is level and accessible to all including wheelchair users, children can roam, and picnicking there is encouraged. The house is harder - five stone steps at the front door with a ramp available for the ground floor, while the upper floor is up stairs and the cartoon corridor is down steps, so neither is wheelchair accessible. Children of all ages are welcome and there is a treasure-hunt quiz for them, but the contents are paintings and political papers, so with small children the garden-only ticket is the more honest buy.