The older parts of this house pre-date 1780. One of the first known residents was Tomson Warner, a brass founder - his firm was later responsible for the casting of the first bell for the clock tower in the Houses of Parliament (Big Ben). His near neighbour was Dr. Richard Price, whose house became an important meeting place for people such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine; other American politicians such as Ambassador John Quincy Adams, who later became the second president of the United States; British politicians like William Pitt the Elder; and early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft who ran a school nearby.
Other occupants of this house included author and radical bookseller William Hone, whose satirical pamphlets helped define the public reaction to events such as the Peterloo massacre and the Queen Caroline Affair. Later in the 19th century it became a Home and School for Destitute Jewish Children.