The site was bought in 1896 by William Gaddum, a silk merchant from Manchester, looking for somewhere to escape the smoke of the mill towns and breathe Lakeland air. He commissioned the house from the architect Dan Gibson in 1897; the building was completed and the family moved in by 1899. For the surrounding grounds Gaddum hired Thomas Hayton Mawson - the great Arts and Crafts garden designer who would later work on Holker Hall - to lay out terraced gardens running down toward the water. Mawson and Gibson had collaborated before, at Graythwaite Hall further down the lake. Brockhole was a private summer retreat in the most fashionable garden style of its time. Among Gaddum's frequent visitors was Beatrix Potter, who refers to the house in her Journals.

William Gaddum died in 1946, and the house was sold. In 1948 it was converted into a convalescent home - one of many large country houses pressed into post-war medical service. That role lasted less than two decades. In 1966 the Lake District National Park Authority bought the house and its grounds, and after three years of preparation reopened the building on 22 May 1969 as the UK's first National Park Visitor Centre. The idea was simple: a single place where visitors could learn about the landscape, find their bearings, eat lunch, and choose what to see next. The model worked. Britain's other national parks followed suit through the 1970s and 1980s.

Brockhole occupies thirty acres, ten of which are formal gardens still recognisably descended from Mawson's original plan. The remainder is woodland, meadow, and lakeshore. An adventure playground threads through the trees. Over the decades the centre added orienteering routes, kayak rentals, open-water swimming sessions, and a year-round programme of exhibitions and events. Entrance to the grounds is free; parking incurs a charge. Sweeping lawns drop down to the water. From the lakeside terrace the long view runs north up Windermere toward Ambleside, with the Langdale Pikes pencilled in on the horizon beyond.

The jetty below the house has always been part of Brockhole's appeal. Between March and October, Windermere Lake Cruises operates three boat services that call here. A passenger launch runs from Ambleside, swings into Brockhole, and returns north via Wray Castle on the opposite shore. A second service runs from Bowness-on-Windermere, calling at Brockhole on its way and back. The third - the Bike Boat, on a vessel adapted to carry cycles - shuttles across the lake to and from Bark Barn in Claife. For decades arriving at Brockhole by boat has been the most pleasing way to do it. The walk up the lawn from the jetty to the house, lake at your back, garden ahead, has the feel of something that ought to be repeated as often as possible.

Then, in March 2025, the Visitor Centre and its café were permanently closed by the National Park Authority - a casualty of the financial pressures squeezing public services across Britain. The grounds remain open. The gardens are still cared for. The boats still call. Brockhole today is in a strange in-between state: a national landmark whose original purpose has paused, but whose underlying gift - access to a beautiful slice of Windermere shore - is still freely given. The first national park visitor centre in the country is now a national park visitor garden. Some of its most enthusiastic visitors arrived in canoes long before anyone needed an exhibition to explain what they were looking at, and they will keep arriving regardless of whether the doors of the house are open.