Benjamin's restored home unveiled on 300th birth anniversary

The only surviving home of Benjamin Franklin was being unveiled as a museum Tuesday, the 300th anniversary of the U.S. founding father's birth.

The only surviving home of Benjamin Franklin was being unveiled as a museum Tuesday, the 300th anniversary of the US founding father's birth.

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Franklin lodged in the modest four-storey brick building just off London's Trafalgar Square between 1757 and 1775, acting as a diplomat on behalf of American colonists.

The house which curators call the "first de facto US Embassy" was the site of many of the polymath Franklin's scientific experiments including the invention of bifocal glasses and the creation of an ethereal-sounding musical instrument, the glass armonica.

Conservation groups have spent several years and millions of pounds (dollars, euros) renovating the building, which includes a multimedia "historical experience," an archive of Franklin's papers and a student science centre.

The museum was being launched later Tuesday with a gala dinner at the nearby Banqueting House. It opens fully to the public on February 1