Number 2 Polstead Road is a substantial red-brick semi-detached house built about 1890. It has four floors including a basement. It stood in what was then a newly established neighbourhood just to the north of the Colleges of the University.
The area was much favoured by professional men and their families, including many University dons taking advantage of the relatively recent abolition of regulations forbidding College Fellows to marry.
The Lawrence family moved here in 1896. This was Lawrence’s home while he was at school and university, and his only proper home until he finally settled at Clouds Hill after his retirement from the RAF. The small bungalow built for him in the garden still stands, though altered since his time.
Lawrence’s father died in 1919 and his mother sold the house in the early 1920s. There is a blue plaque noting his association with the house. 2 Polstead Road is privately owned and not open to visitors.
‘I expected the family to walk through the door and sit down to dinner.’
Below is a member’s extraordinary account of a stay at the Lawrence house published in Newsletter 42.