Location: 20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SX
Contact: +44 (0)20 7435 2002, info@freud.org.uk
Access: Research is free of charge and by appointment only, contact Bryony Davies bryony@freud.org.uk
Website address: http://www.freud.org.uk/
The Freud Museum, at 20 Maresfield Gardens in Hampstead, was the home of Sigmund Freud and his family when they escaped Austria following the Nazi annexation in 1938. It remained the family home until Anna Freud, the youngest daughter, died in 1982. The centrepiece of the museum is Freud’s study, preserved just as it was during his lifetime. It contains Freud’s remarkable collection of antiquities: Egyptian; Greek; Roman and Oriental. Almost 2,000 items fill cabinets and are arranged on every surface. The walls are lined with shelves containing Freud’s large library. The house is also filled with memories of his daughter, Anna, who lived there for 44 years and continued to develop her pioneering psychoanalytic work, especially with children. Undoubtedly the most famous piece of furniture in all the collection is Freud’s psychoanalytic couch, on which all of his patients reclined.
The Sigmund Freud archive catalogues list around 10,000 letters, 1,600 documents and 1,500 press cuttings (1926-39). The Anna Freud archive has been recently catalogued. This catalogue includes letters, documents, press cuttings and ephemera, and spans Anna Freud’s lifetime (1895-1982). Both catalogues can be searched online. Freud’s Library is also open to serious researchers.
The Freud Museum Photo Library contains historic photographs of Freud and family, his colleagues, his house and collection, and the history of psychoanalysis. The library can be searched and some photographs can be viewed online.