Period pieces include fine antique furniture from the 1820 settlers through to early 1900's and oil paintings by Thomas Baines. There's a portrait of Sir John Robinson (first Prime Minister of Natal during the 1890's), whose father and first owner of the house, George, was the founder of the daily morning paper, The Natal Mercury (still in existence today). Other pieces include an old four poster bed used at Overport House, owned by William Hartley when the house was leased as one of the governor's residences, and an old Edison gramophone, in working condition, with tube-like records dating back to 1913.

The house was reconstructed by the city council after World War Two. Many other memorials in the city date from the same period as a lot of South Africans took part, and died, in World War Two. The house is quite simple and visitors should not expect to be overly awed. It is rather a humble testimony to how simple and hard life was like in the early days of the city. The house represents a small bit of a forgotten age surviving in between modern high-rise buildings.