Craven Street is a pretty Georgian street sandwiched between Charing Cross railway station and Trafalgar Square. There's no real reason to walk down it and its entrance from The Strand has been pavemented across for some time, so I imagine that it largely goes unnoticed by those who walk past it. The fact that it is still here I find surprising, given the amount of development that hast happened in this area over the past 150 years, from the railways and war to urban planning. My experience of Craven Street takes me back a few years when I used to go clubbing at Heaven. At the end of the night one was turfed out, not in the Arches where one came in but rather at the back into Craven Passage which lead on to Craven Street. I always found this discombobulating though my mental state at the time probably had something to do with that.
I've known about the eponymously titled museum for a couple of years and I made it my mission on Saturday to pay it a visit. On arrival, it looked shut up. The front door was closed and I had to ring the bell for attention, indeed I wondered if I'd arrived at the correct address. Tours are scheduled; it's not possible to wonder around the house, due to the way the story of the house is told.
So, with ticket in hand I made my way down the stairs to the basement and waited for the show to begin. A short film provided some historical context for the tour as well as a brief introduction to the family who owned the house at the time that Benjamin Franklin came to live there. Despite having been a hotel and offices in the intervening period, the house has managed to retain the majority of its original features including fire places, paneling, plaster work and kitchen range.
After the film, in comes the daughter of the house Polly Hewson in period costume and sporting a strange looking gray wig that looked a bit like a dead cat. The tour then takes the form of part theatre and part audio visual experience. Clever use of lighting, projection and audio helps to tell the story of Franklin's time in the house in an original and engaging way. Polly interacts with the audio as if she's having a conversation with Franklin himself. She talks about the people who visited him, the scientific work he undertook and we also hear from his children and wife who remained in America during the revolution.
I learned that not only was he a signatory to both the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, he was also a prolific man of letters, invented lightening rods, charted the Gulf Stream and devised a strange harpsichord contraption that used glass bulbs to make music. Enlightenment Man in every sense.
The house has loads a character; worn wooden floorboards and fine fireplaces. That said, it's devoid of furniture and an account of the AV the windows are all shuttered. Because of this, I thought the format was an ingenious way to bring the story of the house to life. As the website says, it really is a little gem of a museum which tells the story of a remarkable man living in extraordinary times. It's a fascinating and imaginative portrayal that's worth taking the detour from the busy pavements of central London.
Footnote added 3/2/11 - coincidentally, I walked up Craven Street this morning heading for Boris bike and noticed a blue plaque detailing that Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, lived at the other end of the street for a year in 1849. Who'd have thought that such an unassuming street had such grand connections with the US!
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