As a result of the family's financial problems, Hampden House suffered; cracked brickwork was not repaired but rendered in cement, necessary repairs were not carried out, and general deterioration set in, until in 1938 the family decided to let the house. The first tenants were a private girls' school. The interiors suffered greatly under this regime. The second tenants, Hammer film company, specialising in the making of horror films, no doubt saw the gothic aspects of the house as an attraction as they appeared in many of their films, and notably the 1980 "Hammer House of Horror" UK TV series and 1984s Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.