Return to main shop menu

A History of the House
By Cecil, Lord Harmsworth
£3 + P&P

17 Gough Square, in which Dr Johnson lived and wrote his Dictionary of the English Language in the late 1740s and 1750s, was due to be demolished in the late nineteenth century. In 1911, Cecil Harmsworth bought the building and saved it from destruction. 'At the time of my purchase of the house in April, 1911,' he writes, 'it presented every appearance of squalor and decay. ... The roof leaked disastrously ... the staircase and several of the floors were unsafe; every part of the interior was thick with dust and grime. It is doubtful whether in the whole of London there existed a more forlorn or dilapidated tenement.'

This fascinating little booklet tells briefly of Johnson's life in the house, of its subsequent purchase and restoration, its amazing survival during World War II and more.

Published by Dr Johnson's House Trust, 1996
15 x 21cm
Paperback, 23 pages, colour illustrations
ISBN: 1 899284 04 4