Lamb House

An attractive Georgian house in which Henry James found inspiration for his later novels.

Lamb house was built by the prominent Lamb family in 1723, the same year that James Lamb was elected mayor for this first time. The family retained power in Rye for over 100 years, during which time James was voted mayor 13 times and his son George 20 times. The building's first brush with fame came about when royal ship was driven ashore by bad weather and His Highness George I was forced to seek accommodation with the Lamb's for four days. His first night in the house coincided with the birth of George Lamb - who later became his godson.

However, Lamb House is best known as the home of American novelist Henry James who visited Rye and fell in love with the house in 1898. He was to reside here for the last 18 years of his life and wrote some of his most complex novels (The awkward Age, The Wings of a Dove, The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl) within its walls. James is said to have dictated his novels to a secretary while pacing the floor of the Green Room on the first floor of the house, except in temperate summer months when the great novelist preferred to retire to a charming pavilion in the walled garden.

This was also a favourite retreat of novelist E.F Benson, who took up residence of Lamb House after James' death in 1916 and compiled many of his Mapp and Lucia stories here. Sadly a bomb destroyed the pavilion in 1940, but the rest of Lamb House remains little altered and much of James' original furniture, library and personal affects can still be viewed. The wall panelling and twisted balustrade are characteristic of the Georgian period.

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