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D.H Lawrence's House, and Durban House Heritage Centre

8a Victoria Street, Eastwood, Nottingham is the house where D.H Lawrence was born in 1885. Here he was born into the fraught domestic environment described in the largely autobiographical Sons And Lovers. His mother never forgave his father for being a miner, and his father was equally resentful of this snobbery.

When D.H Lawrence first entered the literary scene in London, after having four poems published by Ford Maddox Ford, his "ordinariness" as the son of a miner was a source of interest. Lawrence had started out his career as a school teacher, teaching botany, and he was an admirer of Darwin. The old scientific order of fixed species in the animal kingdom was reflected in a generally fixed social order in the human world. There were special people and places, and there were ordinary people and places. Since Darwin published The Origin Of Species the divisions were to become progressively less clear. Thomas Hardy, the son of a stone mason, had read the first edition of The Origin of Species in 1859, and went on to write Tess of the D'Urbervilles, where the heroine is a milkmaid. D.H Lawrence was similarly influenced, and the fact that he was a miner's son, and a renowned novelist, illustrated the new sort of world which was emerging. The little house where he was born, an ordinary miner's cottage, became a literary monument.

View down Victoria Street

The interior of the house has been recreated to appear as it would have done in Lawrence's time there. An adjoining building shows a video on Lawrence's life, and some personal items. Perhaps most interesting of these is his travelling trunk. Lawrence was a great traveller, and the endless search of his travelling is reflected in the restlessness of characters in his books. There are also a few of Lawrence's paintings on display.

Opening Times: April to October 10am - 5pm. November to March 10am - 4pm.

 

 

Directions: Leave the M1 at junction 26 and follow the A610 to Eastwood. Parking is difficult at both the D.H.Lawrence's birth place. Use town centre cars parks and follow brown signs. There is limited parking at the Durban House Heritage Centre. Click here for an interactive map centred on D.H.Lawrence's Birth Place.

Access: the ground floor is partially accessible to wheelchair users, but only with assistance. Lighting levels are low, as is often the case with historic properties.

Contact:

phone: 01773 717353

web site: http://www.emms.org.uk/notts.htm

 

Five minutes walk from Lawrence's house is the Durban House Heritage Centre in Mansfield Road, Eastwood. This building was once the offices of local coal owners Barber Walker and Co. Young D.H Lawrence used to pick up his father's wages here. The building is now a heritage centre where the early life of Lawrence can be explored. There is also an art gallery, and a restaurant. Details will be available for the Blue Line trail, a walk which will take you around the four Eastwood properties Lawrence lived in, and other places of interest.

Opening Times: are as for D.H Lawrence's birthplace.

Access: Durban House is fully accessible to wheelchair users.

 

Contact: As for Lawrence's birthplace.