Located at 20 Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead in North London, the Freud Museum is housed in the home of Sigmund Freud and his family. They originated in Austria but escaped from there in 1938 when the Nazis annexed the country. Sigmund Freud died in September the following year but his family continued living in the house until 1982 when Anna Freud, his youngest daughter, died.

Perhaps the most important and interesting room in the house is Freud's study and library, preserved just as it had been when he finished his books there, Moses and Monotheism and An Outline of Psychoanalysis, in the final year of his life.

The room is lined with bookcases filled with his reference books. During his lifetime, Freud was a keen collector of Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Oriental antiquities and these are also still displayed in the study.

Visitors to the museum can also get a flavour of what Freud's Austrian home had been like as the family had brought their furniture and household effects with them. Lovers of fine antique furniture can see Biedermeier chests, tables and cupboards, and a fine collection of 18th and 19th-century Austrian painted country furniture as well as that most famous of psychoanalytic props - the couch.

The museum isn't only devoted to Sigmund Freud. He only lived there for about a year while his daughter Anna lived in the house for 44 years and made her impression on it. She continued in her father's footsteps with pioneering psychoanalytic work, especially with children.

Anna Freud wanted the house to be turned into a museum to honour her father. As a consequence there is a comprehensive archive of photographs, family and professional papers. The museum also has an education service which organises seminars, conferences and special visits to the museum.

Quick Facts

Name: The Freud Museum

Address: 20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SX

Telephone: 020 7435-2002 or 020 7434-5167

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