From building a proto-computer from old switchboards at secondary school to breaking new ground on the theories surrounding black holes, Professor Stephen Hawking was never one for closing his mind to new ideas.
The theoretical physicist and author of A Brief History of Time grew up in a bright Victorian home in St Albans, having moved there from Highgate, London at the age of eight.
The red-brick exterior of Redcourt, Hawking’s childhood home, dates back to 1888. Its front entrance is framed by a delicate stained-glass replica of a tapestry by Edward Burne-Jones, which hangs in Exeter College, Oxford. Hawking himself went on to complete his undergraduate degree at Oxford University (where he said he found the work “ridiculously easy” and did just an hour of work a day), as had both of his parents.
In Hawking’s Desert Island Discs, he said that his bookish and artistic parents, who were medical researchers, were considered highly eccentric by the standards of the old Roman city. The house comes with its own study and art studio.
The spacious house has seven double bedrooms, enough room for Hawking, his two younger sisters and his adopted brother. The landing, which is lit by a lantern window, leads to a sitting room and kitchen with a range cooker. Outside the house there is a bicycle store and a garden with flowerbeds and mature trees.
Before he was diagnosed with early-onset motor neurone disease, aged just 22, Hawking was known for his love of cycling and the outdoors.
It was during one Christmas when he was skating on the lake at St Albans that Hawking fell and, finding himself unable to get up, was first taken to see a doctor about his condition.
The property is close to many excellent schools. Hawking attended St Albans School, one of the oldest public schools in Britain. He later described his maths teacher, Dikran Tahta, as his main inspiration and said of him “behind every exceptional person, there is an exceptional teacher”.
On his morning walk, he would pass sites such as St Albans Abbey, where the idea for Magna Carta was born. After graduating Hawking, who himself received a grant to fund his secondary school education, regularly helped his alma mater raise funds to offer more bursaries and scholarships.
The city, which the cosmologist described as a “pretty staid place” when his family was living there, is now a buzzing commuter hotspot with an annual food festival and many popular restaurants and bars.
Redcourt is for sale with Strutt & Parker for £2.55million (01727 738298; struttandparker.com).
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