Museum Lates at Dr Johnson's House

Dr Johnson's House is opening late on Thursday 29 October, from 5.30pm to 7pm, for an evening session in the home of Samuel Johnson. It's a chance to walk through the house after the usual visiting hours, and since it's a preserved home rather than a curated gallery, you're seeing the place as it was when he lived there.

If you've never been, the house is at 17 Gough Square in Holborn. It's a five-storey townhouse dating from the 1690s, and it's often called the 'Cradle of the English Language' because this is where Johnson wrote his Dictionary of the English Language, which laid the foundation for modern English. The house is a bit of a time capsule from the Age of Enlightenment, and it's survived a fair few things over the centuries — it was still the tallest building in the area during the Second World War and made it through the Blitz. It's also been a home to children since 1752, when eight-year-old Francis Barber came to live with Johnson.

Inside, you'll find the garret where Johnson composed the Dictionary in 1755, and the house still holds the memory of Hodge, his 'very fine cat'. It was a hub of Enlightenment society, too, and Johnson met the Bluestockings here — female intellectuals like Elizabeth Carter and Elizabeth Montagu. So, when you're walking through, you're in the same rooms where some of the biggest literary and intellectual figures of the 18th century crossed paths.

It's a standard ticket at £14, and the session runs from 5.30pm to 7pm on Thursday 29 October at Dr Johnson's House, 17 Gough Square, London EC4A 3DE.