Centre of political activity

Close to London's Trafalgar Square, Craven Street runs down the side of Charing Cross Station to the Thames, a quiet thoroughfare graced by tall Georgian terraced houses. Number 36 is probably one of the best-kept secrets in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was here that Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the American Constitution, lived between 1757 and 1775, pursuing his multifarious career of printer, inventor, scientist, philosopher, politician and statesman, and trying to mediate between the American colonies and England. ´´He said that he was 200 years before his time,'' said architect and project chairman Anne Prescott Keigher who - with founding trustee Mary, Countess of Bessborough, and a dedicated board led by Sir Bob Reid - has championed the achievements of Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) in the UK and ensured the home's conservation. The plan to turn the house into a dynamic museum and educational facility is a challenging task which has cost 814,000 pounds sterling in restoration fees and still requires 1.6 million pounds to become fully operational by 2001. After opening it will be called, as it is now, Benjamin Franklin House. Because of its historic significance and special importance to the United States, the UK government bequeathed the house to the trustees in 1987.

CThe Grade One listed building has now been restored with materials used in its original construction in 1730, hiding the steel beams and supports encompassing it. Waiting to be returned to Franklin's 18th-century occupancy, the house has been stripped of its Victorian additions although two black-leaded fire grates of that period have been left in place. The elegant, high-ceiling rooms have been scoured of paint awaiting redecoration with the colours used during Franklin's time. The original staircase balustrade, covings, wood panels, window shutters and doors have all been retained. Boston-born and self-educated, 18-year-old Franklin first arrived in London in 1724 to learn printing. He made the six-week journey back to Pennsylvania two years later to transform the city's failing Gazette into a lively and informative newspaper. He founded the American Philosophical Society and in 1730 he married Deborah Read by whom he had a son and a daughter. A year later he was instrumental in opening Philadelphia's first public library.

During his life in London, Franklin combined statesmanship with scientific and medical studies encompassing health, pollution and technology. He invented an eco-friendly stove that furnished greater heat with reduced fuel; bifocal spectacles; a watertight bulkhead for ships; a 24-hour navigational clock and the lightning conductor. He risked his life to fly metal-tipped kites in thunderstorms near the River Thames to prove that electricity carried a positive and negative charge. Studying the changing climate resulted in his mapping the Gulf Stream. His writings on education led to the establishment in 1751 of the Philadelphia Academy which later b ecame the University of Pennsylvania, and his scholarly research was recognised with honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford, southern England, and St Andrews, Scotland.

Elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly he was sent to England in 1757 to represent the American colonies at Westminster. Although later to become an abolitionist, Franklin arrived with two servants and moved into ´´genteel lodgings'' at 36 Craven Street where widower Margaret Stevenson and her daughter Polly looked after the guests. Occupying four rooms in the house, he was said by Polly to be ´´less a lodger than the head of a household, living in serene comfort and affection''.

Craven Street, which backed on to Hungerford Market, was surrounded by coffee houses frequented by statesmen, writers and inventors who made Franklin's home the centre of political activity. Franklin was an Anglo American, with a father from Northampton and an American mother. In his laboratory he studied the climate, canal construction and steam engines. He invented the ´´glass 'armonica'' which created ethereal music from glass bowls rubbed by wet fingers. Both Mozart and Gluck composed for the instrument. With a great sense of humour he introduced the Craven Street Gazette in which he referred to himself as Dr Fatsides. Franklin's great regret was his failure to negotiate ´´taxation with representation'', although he had succeeded in helping to have the Stamp Act, a type of colonial tax, abolished.

An admirer of England, he was no Republican and worked unceasingly for a democratic union with Britain. Although dismayed by the Boston Tea Party of 1773, he still worked with those such as William Pitt, the Elder, to effect a reconciliation. He left Craven Street for the last time in 1775. When he got back to Philadelphia on 5 May the War of Independence had already begun.

´´With modern technology, we will create that last night in London as a theatrical experience with voices, sounds and visual elements recalling Franklin's departure. Tea will be the metaphor for political tension,'' said Dr Marcia Balisciano, director of Benjamin Franklin House: ´´Starting in the new basement seminar room built over the garden which backed on to Hungerford Market, there will be a 10-minute video introduction, then a knock on the door. It will be an actress playing Polly who will inquire if the visitors are here to see Benjamin Franklin. She will then take them on a tour of the house furnished and decorated as it was in the 18th century. Each room will have its own story evoking Franklin's character, interests and achievements. We have some memorabilia, his wallet, papers and other items, such as the house's original door knocker but the Scholarship Centre will have computers linked with Franklin organisations at Yale, the American Philosophical Society and numerous other academic institutions which have letters and archival material.''

School parties will use the Student Centre for screen-based learning and hands-on experimentation with Franklin's science in London. During the repairs on the house, human remains dating from Franklin's time were found buried in what was once the garden. Many of the bones had been sawn, drilled and cut. The Institute of Archaeology at University College London is cataloguing the bones and has concluded that they were from post-mortem examinations and anatomical dissections carried out by William Hewson, a young surgeon who lived at number 36 for two years during Franklin's time and who married Polly in 1770. It was a period when bodies were sold to advance medical knowledge. It is thought one of the sources could have been bodies dragged from the Thames at the end of the street. Hewson died of septicaemia in 1774. The ever-loyal Polly moved to Philadelphia with her family and was at Franklin's bedside when he died at the age of 84 in 1790.

English Heritage, the National Lottery, UK and US commercial concerns, fund-raising events and private bequests have financed the initial restoration work so far. (http://www.rsa.org.uk/franklin)