Benjamin Franklin House

36 Craven Street in London is the former residence of Benjamin Franklin from 1757 to 1775, where over 1,200 human bones from an 18th-century anatomy school were discovered in 1998. While living at the property, Franklin invented the glass armonica in 1761, and anatomist William Hewson later used the basement to dissect illegally acquired cadavers for medical research.

London Β· from the walk β€œLondon's Best-Kept Secrets” Β· audio ~3 min Β· Generated

36 Craven Street, London WC2N 5NF

Why were over 1,200 human bones discovered at 36 Craven Street in London?

Look at this unassuming Georgian townhouse... just steps from Trafalgar Square, tucked away on quiet Craven Street. It looks perfectly respectable. But this building holds one of the most extraordinary double lives in London's history.......... For nearly sixteen years between seventeen fifty-seven and seventeen seventy-five, Doctor Benjamin Franklin... scientist, diplomat, philosopher, inventor, and Founding Father of the United States... lived right here, at thirty-six Craven Street. During his time in London, this house served as the first de facto American Embassy, earning it a special place in Anglo-American history.......... Franklin arrived as a colonial agent for Pennsylvania, tasked with negotiating with the British government. He became such a star witness before Parliament that the controversial Stamp Act was duly repealed. But politics was only Half of what went on inside these walls.......... Upstairs, Franklin was inventing. He created the glass Armonica... right here in London, in seventeen sixty-one. Thirty-seven glass bowls of varying sizes, threaded on an iron spindle, turned by a foot pedal. You played it by touching the spinning glass with wet fingers. Franklin later said, "Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction." Mozart and Beethoven would later compose music for it.......... But now... let's go downstairs. In nineteen ninety-eight, during renovations, a worker noticed something strange... a thigh bone sticking out of a pit in the basement, about three feet by three feet wide. Police were called. From that pit, over twelve hundred pieces of bone were retrieved. They belonged to at least fifteen people, some of whom had been children.......... A murder house? Not quite. The bones are the remnants of an anatomy school run from the house by William Hewson, son-in-law of Franklin's landlady, Margaret Stevenson. Hewson is best known for his research on blood and the lymphatic system. He opened his own anatomy school here in September seventeen seventy-two.......... Here's the dark twist. There were strict laws about cadaver usage. The Only dead bodies educators could legally use were those of criminals who'd been hanged at the gallows. That was nowhere near enough. So pioneers like Hewson had to turn to grave robbing... either paying professional "resurrection men" to procure cadavers, or digging them up themselves. Thirty-six Craven Street was the Perfect location... Hewson was married to the landlady's daughter, Franklin was a trusted friend, and the house lay between two sources of material.......... Key evidence linking the bones to Hewson's school is a portion of a turtle spine and mercury found in the pit. In seventeen seventy, Hewson had demonstrated the flow of mercury through a turtle at the Royal Society to highlight the lymphatic system. A smoking gun... from a dead turtle.......... Tragically, anatomy was a hazardous area of study. During a dissection in seventeen seventy-four, Hewson contracted septicaemia and died, aged just thirty-four. Franklin was devastated. And within months, Franklin himself fled London as relations between Britain and the colonies collapsed beyond repair. He never returned.......... So next time you see someone on the hundred-dollar bill... remember that behind that famous face lies a London address with twelve hundred bones buried in the garden... and the ghost of a brilliant young surgeon who gave his life to science.

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