My husband and I have had joint NT membership for many years. Yesterday my daughter and I wanted to go into the Orangerie cafe at Ham House. We were asked to buy an entrance ticket for my daughter (£14!) because the cafe is within the Ham House grounds and she wasn't the second adult on the joint membership. Who in their right would pay for going into a cafe?? The ticket lady claimed that they would be "overrun with people" if they allowed an "extra" person in: we only wanted the cafe and, anyway, my daughter would not have been an "extra" because my husband wasn't there and there were still only two of us. In the event we left and went to Petersham Nurseries a few minutes down the road where we had a lovely lunch. Plus I will cancel our NT membership. I have Tate membership which is for me plus one guest and I think it is high time the NT showed some flexibility and introduced the same. They seem to be working on the assumption that people will just pay for an extra ticket: instead they are shooting themselves in the foot. The £60 we spent on the lunch could have been theirs.
