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Ham House on the banks of the Thames, near Richmond, is a masterpiece. The building is a rare survival of 17th-century luxury and taste with large windows in its facade facing the sun.
The architect’s idea was to take advantage of passive heating, a common practice in past centuries during the construction of grand houses. But for the National Trust, the current owner of many of these mansions, the climate emergency has brought a serious headache.
Keith Jones, its climate change specialist, used Ham House as an illustration when he told a conference that during the heatwaves this year, some National Trust properties were forced to close because of the danger to visitors and volunteers posed by temperatures exceeding 40C (104F).
Main rooms at Ham House approached 50C and “were no longer a safe place”, he said. Another badly affected property was Homewood, a glass and concrete modernist house in Esher, Surrey.
Ham’s problems are partly caused by the London heat island effect, whereby temperatures are relatively higher in the capital compared with surrounding rural areas due to, for example, anthropogenic heat sources and urban heat sources. However many other National Trust properties are to be monitored for heat and could close at peak visiting times.
A second problem facing conservators is that valuable paintings are blistering because of excessive temperatures. Even traditional English gardens are likely to be modified to host Mediterranean plants.
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