The Statesman, the Surgeon and the Bones in the Basement…
A Surprising London Tale
As a London licensed taxi driver, I’ve had my fair share of encounters with the city’s rich history. One such encounter occurred on Craven Street, just a stone’s throw from what is regarded as the centre of London, Charing Cross.
My connection with Craven street began 28 years ago, when I was training to become a London taxi driver, a role that requires memorizing over 25,000 streets and over 50,000 points of interest.
However, what I discovered on Craven Street would prove to be more than just another point on my map.
When exploring Craven Street, I noticed a larger bronze plaque situated on an elegant four storey Georgian house,
The plaque proudly announced, “Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) lived here”
To be honest, my initial reaction was somewhat casual – just another historical fact, just another point ticked off the long list of points of the Knowledge that I have to learn!
A few years after I became a qualified taxi driver, Benjamin Franklin reentered my life in an unexpected way: A fare from Heathrow Airport.
An American tourist posed an intriguing question, “Do you accept Benjamin’s?”
“Benjamin’s”, or bennies, is slang for the American hundred dollar bill, featuring none other than Benjamin Franklin himself, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America.
So why did he live in London during those years?
Benjamin Franklin’s London Connection
Born in Boston in January 1706, Franklin later moved to Philadelphia, where he received an offer to visit London on behalf of the governor of Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith. His mission was to acquire the necessary equipment and knowledge for establishing a newspaper in Philadelphia. Thus, young Benjamin found himself working as a typesetter in London, an experience that would shape his life in ways he couldn’t have imagined.
It turns out, Franklin was a true polymath, excelling in various fields such as writing, science, invention, diplomacy, printing, and political philosophy. His incredible talents knew no bounds.
Benjamin Franklin’s Time on Craven Street
It is essential to note that Benjamin Franklin resided there later in his life, from 1757 to 1775, while serving as an ambassador for the American colonies. Franklin would then go back to become one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, signing the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776.
After that, his time in London was largely forgotten, and the building fell into disrepair over the years.
The Grisly Discovery
But in 1997, a decision was made to restore the property and transform it into a museum dedicated to Benjamin Franklin.
It was during this renovation that the story took a rather grisly turn. Construction worker Jim Field made a shocking discovery in the basement – a thighbone sticking out of a pit, roughly 3 feet deep (that’s 1 meter-ish).
The police were called, launching an investigation and digging an excavation that yielded over 1200 bone fragments. These fragments, it was determined, came from approximately 15 individuals, six of whom were children, and carbon dating placed them around the same time Benjamin Franklin lived in the house, some 225 years ago.
The Mystery Unraveled
The discovery inevitably led to wild speculations and questions. Could Benjamin Franklin be a serial killer?
It turns out the basement held a different secret: there is evidence that a man named William Hewson had opened a school of anatomy in the building’s basement, where he practiced the dissection of bodies for anatomical study. There were signs of surgical procedures on the bones.
Benjamin Franklin had become friends with Hewson after witnessing his demonstration of blood flow in a turtle at the Royal Society, and Hewson had married Mary Stevenson, who was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and the daughter of the landlady at 36 Craven Street.
So why were these bodies hidden in the basement? The answer lies in the scarcity of bodies available for dissection in the 18th century. Legal restrictions limited doctors and surgeons to only 12 bodies per year, most of which came from executions at Tyburn. That was not enough.
This led surgeons to turn to the illegal practice of buying freshly deceased bodies, stolen from the grave by middlemen known as “resurrection men”.
They would unbury fresh cadavers and deliver them discreetly, at the heart of the night, to the service entrances of these fancy residences housing the anatomy schools. A single body was worth six months’ salary to a gravedigger.
As the demand in dead bodies grew, some ‘suppliers’ decided it was not convenient to wait for people to die from natural causes, and would start to resort to murder.
This culminated in London with the infamous affair of the Italian boy murder, which would lead to the anatomy act 1832, which would in-turn provide legal access to cadavers for surgeons.
It is widely believed that Benjamin Franklin had no part in these dissections in the building’s basement, and William Hewson would be remembered as the father of haematology, the study of blood disorders.
Today, you can visit this fascinating building and explore the Benjamin Franklin House to learn more about his life in London.
If you want to discover more hidden links with American history in the heart of London, join us for a tour with Excellent Walks of London and Excellent Taxi Tours of London.
Tony P.
