Monk's House NT

Monk's House NT The 17th century country home of Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard. The Woolfs bought Monk's House for the 'shape and fertlity and wildness of the garden'.

Nestled in the heart of rural Sussex, Monk’s House is a tranquil 17th-century weatherboarded cottage inhabited by Leonard and the novelist Virginia Woolf from 1919 until Leonards death in 1969. Get to know Leonard and Virginia Woolf and the wider Bloomsbury Group by visiting Monk's House. Full of their favourite things, the house appears as if they just stepped out for a walk. Today, the lovely cottage garden contains a mix of flowers, vegetables, orchards, lawns and ponds.

Happy National Book Lover’s Day!📚100 years on, Virginia Woolf's 'The Common Reader' still reminds us of why we read; not...
09/08/2026

Happy National Book Lover’s Day!📚

100 years on, Virginia Woolf's 'The Common Reader' still reminds us of why we read; not for analysis or status, but for pleasure, connection, and discovery.

So 📖 Find a friend in a character and see the world through another's eyes. Reading allows us to laugh, argue, wonder, cry and ultimately, reflect.

Maybe the greatest readers are simply those who read because they love to. 📚

✒️ Virginia Woolf, ‘The Common Reader’, 1925.
🎨 Cover art by Vanessa Bell.

Rebuilding more than just a wall…This flint garden wall, nestled within Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s garden, has been ca...
24/07/2026

Rebuilding more than just a wall…

This flint garden wall, nestled within Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s garden, has been carefully restored to preserve the character and history of this remarkable place. The flint walls were key to the Woolf’s initial interest in the property and are one of the most distinctive features of the Monk’s House garden.

“The garden was the kind I like, much subdivided into a kind of patchwork quilt of trees, shrubs, flowers, vegetables, fruit, roses and crocus tending to merge into cabbages and currant bushes.” – Leonard Woolf, ‘Beginning Again’, 1963.

This is why the National Trust matters; conserving special places and investing in their future.

A huge thank you to everyone whose support, membership and donations make projects like this possible. Together, we’re helping keep these treasured places preserved for the next generation. 🍃

10/07/2026

A day in the life as Virginia Woolf at her cottage, Monk’s House. 🍃

“Today it was grey and windy on the walk; yesterday generous and open; and yellow sun on the corn; and heat in the valley. Both days differ greatly; both are among the happiest of my life – I mean among the happy undistinguished days, ripe and sweet and sound; the daily bread; for nothing strange of exalted has happened; only the day has gone rightly and harmoniously.” – Virginia Woolf, 22 August 1929.

It was in the day-to-day, the routine, the almost mundane, that Virginia’s brilliantly creative mind could be free to explore and invent. 📚





🎥 National Trust images 2025 / Hannah Isbister
📷 Virginia Woolf Monk's House Photograph Album. Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
📷 Virginia Woolf by Lady Ottoline Morrell. Vintage snapshot print, June 1926, NPG Ax142598 © National Portrait Gallery, London.
📷 Virginia Woolf and Lord David Cecil by Lady Ottoline Morrell, Vintage snapshot print, June 1923, NPG Ax141310, © National Portrait Gallery, London.

…”and the petals of myriads of flowers flashed their colours into the air “….📕 Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens Did you visit...
09/07/2026

…”and the petals of myriads of flowers flashed their colours into the air “….
📕 Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens

Did you visit yet ? Did you see the glorious flowers throughout the house ?
Blooms grown in Monk’s House cutting garden courtesy of a very dedicated volunteer and all round flower expert. Blooms arranged by a very dedicated member of staff and all round talent. Collection courtesy of VW and LW our esteemed residents, and their circle….

Come and visit and hear about Virginia and Leonard Woolf, and how Monk’s House became, ‘the mongrel that stole their heart’.
The tranquility and inspiration awaits ….

Booking essential, please book via our website.
We are open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 12.30-4.30pm/ garden 5pm …



©️National Trust Images / Bec Garland

Happy Birthday Vanessa Bell! 💐Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell were both founding members of the Bloomsbury Gr...
30/05/2026

Happy Birthday Vanessa Bell! 💐

Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell were both founding members of the Bloomsbury Group, a circle of writers and artists who challenged what they considered to be outmoded Victorian conventions of creative endeavour.

Today we remember her artistic legacy and her impact on Virginia’s work and life. 💕

📷Julian Bell and Vanessa Bell by unknown photographer (1910) Vintage snapshot print, NPG x136462 © National Portrait Gallery, London.
📷Vanessa Bell by Ray Strachey (August 1914) Film negative, NPG x88543 © National Portrait Gallery, London.
🎨Virginia Woolf by Vanessa Bell (circa 1912) Oil on panel, © Monk’s House, National Trust.

10/05/2026

Wisteria hysteria is here! 💜

Monk’s House garden is soaking up all the sunshine and rainbows this time of year 🌞

“Never has the garden been so lovely… dazzling one’s eyes with reds and pinks and purples and mauves” - Virginia Woolf, quoted in Penelope Lively’s ‘Life in the Garden’.



©️National Trust images / Hannah Isbister 2026

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Monk's House, The Street
Rodmell
BN73HF

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+441273474760

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