Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Home to Mrs Gaskell, an English novelist, biographer and short story writer.
84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester, M13 9LW
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House welcomes visitors with physical, sensory and learning disabilities. The team will do all they can to ensure that your visit is both comfortable and enjoyable.
If you have questions regarding your visit or would like more specific information please email enquiries@elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House and Garden are 100% physically accessible to visitors
There are lift to all floors
Access ramp at the side of the House to avoid the front stepped entrance
Wheelchairs, mobility scooters and other walking aids can be used within the building and in the garden
Accessible toilets on the ground and first floor
Limited parking for blue badge holders on site. Please phone us 0161 273 2215 to reserve or to make general enquiries about access
Registered careers may visit free of charged with a paying visitor
Assistance Dogs welcome throughout the House including the Tea Room (Drinking water for assistant dogs isn’t supplied as standard so please ask if any is required)
Braille copy of the House guide book is available on request at the welcome desk and we can also provide large print copies of most of the reading material – please ask.
Recommended quiet times to visit are Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, outside of school holidays.
The majority of the collection and furnishing in the house can be touched and chairs sat on – our volunteers will advise
Volunteers provide verbal interpretation in most of the rooms. Please let them know if you need any special accommodations ( E.g. If would like them to speak louder/quieter, more slowly or if you would like to visually describe objects.)
The House’s Accessibility statement provides detailed information on the physical layout of the House. This can be found on the Elizabeth Gaskell’s House website under the accessibility section.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is the former home of the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), who lived here with her family from 1850 until her death in 1865.
Elizabeth wrote nearly all her best-loved works while living here, including Cranford (1851-1853), North and South (1854-1855) and the biography of her friend The Life ofCharlotte Brontë (1857). The House was built around 1838, as part of a new development in a leafy suburb on the edge of Manchester, away from the noise and pollution of the factories and mills yet within easy reach of the city centre. Elizabeth and her husband William, along with their four daughters, moved into the
House in 1850. It was their third Manchester home, and the rent was considered expensive at £150 a year.
After Elizabeth’s death in 1865, members of her family continued to live in the House until 1913. The contents were auctioned in 1914 and the House was sold to
the Harper family, who lived here until the late 1960s. Manchester University then bought it to use as a centre for international students.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is now run by Manchester Historic Buildings Trust, an independent charity set up in 2000 to save the House. After a £2.5 million refurbishment project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and others, the House opened to the public in October 2014.
The main Victorian rooms have been restored to how they would have looked in around 1857. Elizabeth’s letters and our own research have enabled the trust to present the
rooms as we think they were. The fireplaces, sourced locally, date from around 1840, when the House and the light fittings have all been converted from gas to electricity. Research identified the original paint colours and the styles of the wallpapers. Original items belonging to the family on display include Elizabeth’s wedding veil,
Paisley shawls, several paintings and books. Many are on loan from her descendants.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House welcomes visitors with physical, sensory and learning disabilities. The team will do all they can to ensure that your visit is both comfortable and enjoyable.
If you have questions regarding your visit or would like more specific information please email enquiries@elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House and Garden are 100% physically accessible to visitors
There are lift to all floors
Access ramp at the side of the House to avoid the front stepped entrance
Wheelchairs, mobility scooters and other walking aids can be used within the building and in the garden
Accessible toilets on the ground and first floor
Limited parking for blue badge holders on site. Please phone us 0161 273 2215 to reserve or to make general enquiries about access
Registered careers may visit free of charged with a paying visitor
Assistance Dogs welcome throughout the House including the Tea Room (Drinking water for assistant dogs isn’t supplied as standard so please ask if any is required)
Braille copy of the House guide book is available on request at the welcome desk and we can also provide large print copies of most of the reading material – please ask.
Recommended quiet times to visit are Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, outside of school holidays.
The majority of the collection and furnishing in the house can be touched and chairs sat on – our volunteers will advise
Volunteers provide verbal interpretation in most of the rooms. Please let them know if you need any special accommodations ( E.g. If would like them to speak louder/quieter, more slowly or if you would like to visually describe objects.)
The House’s Accessibility statement provides detailed information on the physical layout of the House. This can be found on the Elizabeth Gaskell’s House website under the accessibility section.