The David Parr House
A working-class Victorian decorator's terraced home, painted by hand in the Arts and Crafts style.
Behind the front door of a terraced house in the streets off Mill Road is a home decorated by hand in the Arts and Crafts style. David Parr earned his living as a decorative artist for the local firm F. R. Leach and Sons. The firm took contracts from prominent Arts and Crafts and Gothic Revival designers, and Parr worked on jobs for Bodley, Morris and Kempe.
A house decorated over forty years
In 1886 Parr bought 186 Gwydir Street. Between then and 1926 he decorated the rooms at home in the manner of the notable interiors he painted at work. He died in 1927, and his widow and later his granddaughter kept the interiors largely as he had left them for the next 87 years. A charity bought the house in 2014 and carried out a major conservation programme, and the first public visitors came in May 2019. It gained Grade II* listing in 2020, when the firm's old showroom in St Mary's Passage was given Grade II status too.
Visiting
The house is open Thursday to Saturday with ticketed entry, and booking is required. Visits take place at 10:00 and 13:30 (£15), and guided tours at 11:30 and 15:00 (£20), with a maximum of six people on each. Group tours run on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays by arrangement. A gallery and shop are open Wednesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 17:00. Come to the door of 184 Gwydir Street and you will be welcomed in; ring the bell if it is closed. The house is not far from the Museum of Cambridge, which covers the wider story of local life.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
