Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Despite appearances, Dr Johnson's House is the only authentic eighteenth-century building
on Gough Square. It was here the great savant, writer and lexicographer lived from 1747 to
1759 whilst compiling the 41,000 entries for the first dictionary of the English language.
The grey-panelled rooms of the house are peppered with period furniture and lined with por-
traits and etchings, including one of Johnson's servant Francis Barber. Two first-edition cop-
ies of the great
Dictionary
are on display, while the open-plan attic, in which Johnson and
his six helpers put the tome together, is now lined with explanatory panels on lexicography.
