Dragged out of Retirement

...is the address of "Benjamin Franklin's House".  Following our visit to the Courtald Gallery, and a spot of lunch, we arrived in time for a tour of the house.  It's the only remaining home of Mr Franklin  in the world, and he spent a number of his VERY busy years of life lodging here. Apparently he was "close" to his landlady, whereas his wife, unwilling to travel, didn't see too much of him !

There was only a couple of other visitors for the tour, we'd picked our day and time well.  First stop, once we were in the house and shown down to the basement for the start of the visit, were the loos. Sheila came out of the "Ladies" saying "Oooh, lots of people here" meaning "lots of spirits". In fact the ladies loo is located in part of the old kitchen and still houses a very impressive "range" - The gentlemen on the tour were allowed a peek ! Then we progressed into the basement room at the rear of the house to see a display of bones.... there is glass covering a square metre of the floor which had been dug up for repairs in the 1990's and in which the builders found bones belonging to approximately 13 people. It turns out they were all from a time when the building also housed an Anatomy School in the late 18th century.  Our guide, a very sweet young lady informed us that the skulls, or their parts, were quite unusual as they still held the teeth..... apparently they were acquired from a reasonably good source, as lesser grave-robbers of the time usually knocked them all out for re-sale to other interested parties !

The house is rather bare, but much of the original timber panelling, one fireplace and floors boards remain giving the building a Grade 1 listing, the further up the house you go the more the floors slope to one side....some Victorian "hotelier" removed a supporting beam in the building's time as a hotel, and the house has "sort-of" settled into a lob-sided existence ever since.

In a top floor room there is a Glass Armonica (invented by Franklin), which was brought to life and we were invited to "play".... it reminded me of Sandra Bullock's character in Miss Congeniality and her "talent - the glass harp", the sound was very similar too......

We finished our afternoon "al-fresco" in the Embankment gardens enjoying a hot chocolate, with (London's)  Cleopatra's Needle just behind us. (there, through the trees!)

The Gardens also contain what looks like a Folly, but is in fact the Italianate old water-gate to York House, one of the large mansions that originally stood on the riverbank between the City and the Palace of Westminster, it was created by Inigo Jones in 1626 for the then Duke of Buckingham, his coat of arms is still visible, and would have stood at the edge of the Thames before the Embankment was constructed in the Victorian era and the river was contained.