A Fascinating Visit To Dr Johnson’s House

London is known for its world-class and often vast museums, but it is also full of smaller, lesser-known museums that are also well worth visiting and often give you a much closer connection with London’s past. 

One such place is Dr Johnson’s House at 17 Gough Square. It is a beautiful townhouse located on a secluded courtyard amongst the web of winding alleyways off Fleet Street. 

The Grade I listed house was built in the late 1600s by a wealthy wool merchant called Richard Gough.

It was in the attic rooms of this house that in the mid 1700s the celebrated writer, poet and lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson wrote his famous English dictionary. 

A Brief Biography Of Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield in 1709.

As a baby he contracted scrofula (known as the King’s Evil) and suffered from poor health his whole life, including bad eyesight and hearing. He went on to study at Pembroke College, Oxford but had to leave as he could not pay the fees. 

In 1735 he married the widow of one of his close friends Elizabeth Porter. That same year he set up a school in Edial but it quickly failed.

Penniless, he moved to London with Elizabeth and one of the last remaining pupils, the future theatre star David Garrick, in 1737. 

Johnson became a hack-writer, writing articles for the Gentleman’s magazine. He achieved some success, including for a poem entitled London published in 1738. 

In 1746 though he received the commission of a lifetime: to write a new English dictionary. 

He moved into the house on Gough Square in 1748 to write said dictionary and completed it in 1755. More on the dictionary further down. 

Johnson was a prolific writer throughout his life. He wrote biographies and appraisals of 52 English poets, many essays for various publications and a critical edition of the works of Shakespeare. 

Very much a man about town, he was also a regular in the taverns and coffeehouses of London. He was known as a wit, eminently quotable, with his best-known quote being ‘when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life’. 

The Dictionary

The new dictionary was commissioned in 1746 by a group of booksellers who hoped it would help standardise English spelling/language. 

He was originally contracted to complete the project in just 3 years but in the end it took Johnson just over eight years to complete, with six helpers.

Listing over 40,000 words, it was not the first ever English dictionary but was the first time detailed descriptions had been given, along with quotations to demonstrate the word’s use.

A previous 18th century dictionary for example had described ‘dog’ as ‘an animal well known’ and ‘black’ as ‘a colour’, helpful…

There are over 114,000 quotes, most often from what he considered great works such as Shakespeare and Milton. 

For comparison, the French Dictionairre took 40 scholars, 55 years to complete, giving you an idea of the scale of Johnson’s achievement. 

It was the go-to dictionary until the Oxford English Dictionary was printed in 1884. 

Some Excellent Definitions

Providing good quality definitions did not stop his sense of humour and personality coming through. Here are some my favourite definitions:

Lexicographer: ‘a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words’.

Sock: ‘Something put between the foot and shoe.’

Mouth-friend: ‘One who professes friendship without intending it.’

Jiggumbob: ‘A trinket; a knick-knack; a slight contrivance in machinery.’

Oats: ‘grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people’.

Camelopard: ‘An Abyssinian animal, taller than an elephant, but not so thick. He is so named, because he has a neck and head like a camel; he is spotted like a pard, but his spots are white upon a red ground. The Italians call him giaraffa.’

I also very much enjoyed this succinct and elegant definition of ‘history’.

History: ‘A narration of events and facts delivered with dignity’.

I enjoyed the little cards distributed about the house with various words and definitions relevant to that particular room.

What Not To Miss

In the front room you will find the below portrait, possibly depicting Francis Barber.

Francis Barber was an enslaved Jamaican who arrived at the house, to be Dr Johnson’s servant, in 1752 aged ten.

Johnson showed Barber great affection, paid for his education and also remarkably made him his heir. They were friends really rather than master and servant.

This of course does not sound strange to modern ears but Johnson was way ahead of his time on racial equality. In his Biography of Admiral Drake (1740), for example, he refers to slaves who escaped from the ‘tyranny of their masters’ and ‘asserted their natural right to liberty and independence’. 

There are lots of original features in the house, including lovely wooden floors, a characterfully uneven and rickety staircase that takes you up all four floors and the original front door, with its 18th century anti-burglar device. 

Make sure to also spot, out in Gough Square, the statue of one of Johnson’s cats, his beloved Hodge.

You will find him sitting on a copy of the dictionary and the remains of Hodge’s favourite food: oysters.

Finally, there were wigs and costumes to try on, so naturally I could not resist…

There are not a huge number of artefacts owned by Johnson himself, but I would say it is mainly worth a visit to learn more about this eccentric and endlessly entertaining man, his extraordinary endeavour and leaf through his dictionary in the room that it was written.

The House After Johnson

Johnson lived at 17 Gough Square until 1759 when he moved to Staple Inn in Holborn. He died in 1784 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, considered one of the literary giants of his time. 

In the 19th century the house at 17 Gough Square had various uses as a printshop, hotel and storeroom. 

In 1911 it was purchased by Cecil Harmsworth, a newspaper magnate and politician, who opened it to the public in 1918. 

The house was badly damaged during the Blitz but has subsequently been restored and today is owned by a charitable trust.

How To Visit

Dr Johnson’s House is open on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 – 5pm (last entry 4.30pm). 

There is no need to book in advance, just knock on the door for entry. 

Tickets costs are as follows: 

Adult £9.00, concessions (Student or unemployed) £8.00, child £4 (age 5 – 17).

Find out more here.

Thank you for reading, more amazing historical sites below!