The Carlyles' House

The house you are approaching at twenty-four Cheyne Row became the epicenter of Victorian intellectual life, yet it began as an act of desperation. In eighteen thirty-four, Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane moved into this modest Georgian building to escape the isolation of their rural Scottish farmstead. Thomas possessed no steady income at the time and chose the residence specifically for its low rent of thirty-five pounds a year. He felt the house was massive and roomy, famously noting it had enough space to hang three dozen hats or cloaks.