Benjamin Franklin -

A London home

36, Craven St, WC2

Now a quiet backwater just off the Strand near Charing Cross, Craven Street had then been redeveloped as a fashionable area fit for the gentry.   Enough of the 18th century buildings survive today to give an impression of its former grandeur, although the facades were altered in the Regency period.

While the interior of number 36 remains much as Franklin would have known it, from the outside, the house has nothing extraordinary to show. A plaque set into the front wall simply records his five-year residence there without any ceremony or explanation. 

In fact, Franklin's mission when he came to England in 1757 formed a crucial part of the sequence of events which led to the American War of Independence.  For Franklin, it was something of a Catch 22 situation.  At that time, British colonies in the New World were still loyal to the crown so when the French and Indian Wars broke out, the colonies raised taxes to help fund the British defence.  Pennsylvania, though, was a Quaker stronghold and many refused to pay the tax on religious grounds.   While he had great respect for the Quakers, Franklin suspected that major landholders were simply using this moral stance in order to preserve their profits.   When reasonable argument failed, he found himself dispatched to petition King George II for the right to tax these 'proprietary' lands - that is, lands which had been granted to the founder of the colony, William Penn, seventy years before.

The house at Craven Street, then, was home to Franklin while he pressed and won his case on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly.  His qualities as a statesman were so highly prized, that he was asked to stay on as chief representative of the American colonies. 

Franklin returned to Craven Street - although to number 7, which has since been demolished - in 1764, again as the representative of Pennsylvania. Here he was visited by political leaders including William Pitt the elder and the Earl of Chatham. In one of his letters, he recorded how Chatham called one Sunday morning in 1775 and 'staid with me near two hours, his equipage waiting at the door, and being there while people were at church'.   It was also during this eight-year tour of duty that Franklin was brought before the House of Commons to explain America's objections to the Stamp Act.    Although  the act was finally repealed, there were soon plans for new taxes on the colonies.  He left England in 1775, certain that the result would be war.

• Number 36, Craven Street has been completely refurbished and has now opened as a museum dedicated to Franklin’s life and work. As well as exhibitions and artifacts, the house now contains a Student Science Centre and Scholarship Centre. 

Benjamin Franklin’s house is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am - 5pm.
Nearest tube:   Embankment (District, Circle, Bakerloo & Northern lines) & Charing Cross (Jubilee & Bakerloo).

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© 1997 - 2007 Jan Collie. All rights