History of The House
Darwin purchased a medieval half-timbered building on the west side of the lower courtyard of the Vicars Choral in 1758. From 1758-1759Darwin converted the building into a large Georgian town house of red brick with stucco dressings and Venetian windows.At this time the front of the house was separated from Beacon Street by a narrow deep ditch which once formed the moat of the Cathedral Close. Darwin built a bridge across the ditch descending from his hall door to the street. The ditch was overgrown with tangled bushes, which Darwin cleared and made a terrace on the bank. He planted the ditch with lilacs and rose bushes which screened his terrace from passers by.After Darwin left in 1781 the next owner filled in the ditch to make a driveway from the street to his doorway.
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