Newnham Grange
A riverside house of 1793 where the Darwin family lived, now the heart of Darwin College.
Newnham Grange stands on Silver Street beside the River Cam, with the Backs just across the water. It is a Grade II listed house, and since 1962 it has belonged to Darwin College, whose first buildings grew up around it. It is a college building, so most people meet it from the street or the river path.
A merchant's house, then the Darwins'
The Beales family had it built: Patrick Beales dealt in corn and coal and held the mayoralty of Cambridge twice, and the house dates from 1793. The Darwins arrived in 1885, when George and his wife Maud took it over, altered it substantially and brought up five children within its walls. George Darwin died in 1912, and Maud lived on in the house until her death there in 1947.
Period Piece
The best-known portrait of the house is by their daughter, the artist Gwen Raverat. Her book of childhood recollections, Period Piece (subtitled A Cambridge Childhood), gives the house a chapter, flooding from the river included. A blue plaque marking her and the book was unveiled at the house in 2003.
After the death of the Darwins' son Sir Charles Galton Darwin in 1962, the family gave the house to found a new graduate college, and Darwin College was established in 1964.
Practical notes
Look at the house from Silver Street Bridge or from the riverside; the grounds belong to the college, so check with Darwin College before planning to go in.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
