Benjamin Franklin House Circle

In 2026, we will celebrate momentous anniversaries: Benjamin Franklin’s 320th birthday, the 20th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin House opening to the public for the first time, and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

To mark these very special occasions, we are working on a number of important things:

• Establishing a Franklin Forum, with key partners, to cultivate future leaders across disciplines – ranging from diplomats, professionals, scholars, technologists, musicians, artists and scientists – drawn primarily from the US, UK and Europe, with demonstrated potential to benefit their local and global communities!

• Updating our ‘museum as theatre’ Historical Experience show, which uses live performance, sound and visual projection to immerse visitors in the excitement and complexity of Franklin’s London. It is a feat of engineering Franklin would have appreciated. Our Grade I listing means we can’t put any nails in any of our 18th century walls so the technology must run under floorboards and through chimney passes and behind panelling, but technological innovation can now make possible an even more immersive Historical Experience!

• Bringing more history and science to more children free of charge. We have served more than 50,000 school children in our Student Science Centre and in the classroom and community at no cost to ensure everyone can benefit from our offerings, with a 200% increase in the number of children who took part in our outreach activities in the last school year, but with greater resource we know we could reach even more children!

• Constructing a new Visitors Centre in our courtyard space. Benjamin Franklin House is a work-a-day Georgian terrace house and visitors traverse an exterior courtyard space to get to our Box Office bracing against the elements and tracking the weather into the historic building. Creating a retractable roof would create a more useable space and a more pleasant experience for anyone who comes to 36 Craven Street!