Hardy's House Max Gate
Dorchester · UK
Max Gate is the Victorian brick house on the outskirts of Dorchester that Thomas Hardy designed himself and moved into in 1885. He lived here until his death in 1928, and wrote most of his major novels within its rooms — Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Jude the Obscure were all completed here. Hardy also received a stream of celebrated guests, including Virginia Woolf, Robert Louis Stevenson, and George Bernard Shaw.
The house is particularly notable for the combination of Hardy's architectural sensibility and the personal atmosphere of the principal rooms. The garden, which Hardy planted himself, has been restored and provides a pleasing circuit around the house. The influence of the Dorset landscape and the characters Hardy drew from it pervades both the place and the fiction.
Visiting Max Gate in combination with Hardy's Cottage at Higher Bockhampton — his birthplace, a few miles east — makes for a complete Hardy day. Allow an hour to ninety minutes for Max Gate itself.
Reviews
An intimate and moving house. The scale is modest but the sense of Hardy's presence is strong throughout. The guided tour brings the rooms and their literary history to life very well.
Best combined with Hardy's Cottage nearby. Max Gate is where Hardy the famous novelist lived; the Cottage is where Hardy the child grew up. Together they tell a complete story.
Charming house in a lovely garden. The rooms feel personal and the guides are knowledgeable. The Dorset countryside around it — Hardy's landscape — is worth exploring afterwards.
An intimate and moving house. The scale is modest but the sense of Hardy's presence is strong throughout. The guided tour brings the rooms and their literary history to life very well.
