The David Parr House

The David Parr House is a preserved terraced house in Cambridge with interiors designed in the Arts and Crafts style. David Parr, a working-class Victorian decorative artist, bought the house in 1886 and spent 40 years decorating it himself. He had worked for F. R. Leach & Sons, a firm that supplied leading architects and designers such as George Frederick Bodley, William Morris and Charles Eamer Kempe. The house stands in a quiet street off Mill Road, a short walk from the centre of Cambridge. The house is worth visiting because it shows how a working-class artist transformed his own home into a work of art. Parr’s interiors reflect the styles he helped create for wealthy clients, yet they were made with modest materials and his own hands. After his death in 1927, his widow and later his granddaughter kept the decorations intact for 87 years. In 2014 a charity took over to preserve the house, and it opened to the public in 2019. It is now recognised as a Grade II* listed building. Inside, visitors find walls and ceilings covered with patterned papers, stencils and hand-painted designs in deep reds, greens and golds. The front parlour and upstairs rooms still display Parr’s original work, including wall paintings and stained-glass panels. The small terraced rooms feel intimate, yet every surface tells a story of craftsmanship. The adjoining street, Gwydir Street, is lined with similar houses, giving a sense of the neighbourhood where Parr lived and worked.