Description

LICHFIELD

SK1109NE BREADMARKET STREET
1094-1/5/65 (South West side)
05/02/52 Johnson Birthplace Museum
(Formerly Listed as:
BREADMARKET STREET
Dr Johnson's House)

GV I

House and book shop, became museum 1901, now with book shop
(1990). c1707. For Michael Johnson.
Timber-frame with brick infill and stucco facades; tile
M-roof, hipped to right end, brick stacks. Double-depth plan.
Georgian style.
3 storeys; 5-window range. 1st floor jettied on 2 Tuscan
columns and one Doric column to centre, all on simple plinths,
frieze and cornice over; giant angle pilasters to upper
floors; top modillioned timber cornice. Paired entrances have
fielded-panel pilaster strips, friezes and cornices over
6-fielded-panel doors; opposed steps with wooden handrails.
Ground floor has 2 windows to left end with 18-pane sashes
with thick glazing bars, ovolo-moulded to interior, one to
right end with 24-pane sash, all with moulded frames; 1st and
2nd floor windows have narrow sills and 18-pane sashes with
thick glazing bars in moulded frames, but 2 to right end of
1st floor are later.
Right return to Market Street has platt bands; entrance with
small-paned overlight to 6-fielded-panel door with iron
railings, with paired projecting windows to right with sill,
entablature and 24-pane sashes; 9-pane sashes to upper
windows, those to 2nd floor with thick glazing bars, and 2
hipped dormers with 9-pane sashes. Left return has exposed
timber frame. Right end has wrought-iron sign bracket. Rear
has 18-pane and 9-pane sashes; 2 gables.
INTERIOR: dogleg staircase has column-on-vase balusters,
square newels and moulded handrails; 1st floor has corner
fireplace with Regency grate, similar fireplace to rear room;
2-panel door with H-L hinges; right end room has cornice,
architraves and seats to windows and fireplace with
overmantel; attic has stick balusters to staircase, exposed
timber-framing and roof trusses.
Dr Samuel Johnson, 1709-84, writer and lexicographer, son of
Michael Johnson the bookseller, lived here until 1735.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London:
1974-: P.194; Wilkinson R: Look at Lichfield: Lichfield:
1976-).

Listing NGR: SK1173009542

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum at Wikipedia
• Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum official website
• Wikidata Q7411865

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)