The only surviving Benjamin Franklin residence is in London, and it is located on Craven Street near the Strand and Embankment. Benjamin Franklin lived in this house as a lodger with a widow and her daughter (and her daughter's husband) for many years. Benjamin Franklin's wife did not like sea travel so never visited in England but raised her family in America. The house on Craven Street is in a terraced row of houses, and we learned about the history of the house and Franklin's time here. The history was played to us in short videos in each room, accompanied by a tour guide in historic dress. The videos focused on Franklin's life as told through letters to his wife and writings in his diary and other publications.
Franklin's parlour on the third floor
We were told that the bust of Franklin in the fireplace is a reproduction and that the original one was lost. And that the building largely remained unaltered, though some time later, the house became a hotel, and the hotel made some slight alterations to the third floor where Franklin lived. Two decades before it became a museum (2006), the building was derelict, and squatters stole threee of the four marble fireplaces, although replicas were produced.
The house dates from approximately 1730. Franklin came to the house from America for sixteen years. He came with two of his slaves, but slavery was not allowed in England so they became servants, and only one of them stayed in the house with him.
William Hewson, the husband of the Stevenson daughter (Polly) whose mother owned the house, was a doctor and had an anatomy school at the home. He would purchase human parts and bodies (ferried in from the Thames, which was easier to access then because the embankment had not been built and the road would have gone straight down to the river's banks) to learn more about the human body. Many of these body parts were buried in the garden and discovered, and they are on show in the house.
The Benjamin Franklin House is open for regular tours from Wedneday to Sunday. If you are interested in Benjamin Franklin and history, have a look at the Hell-Fire Caves in Buckinghamshire, England: A Visit to Hellfire Caves (Buckinghamshire, England).
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