‘It’s Lyn’s House!’ How we got our name.

For the first year or two of Lyn’s House, our experiment in shared hospitality was carried out from our own homes. At about the time that the idea of residential community emerged, a house became available in Cambridge. When Lyn, a dear friend of two of the founders of the project, died, her daughter wasn’t sure what to do with her house, but we could see that it suited our needs perfectly, and so rented it from her. Lyn had been an artist, and her studio, together with the extended kitchen-dining room and broad passageway, gave us space for large gatherings. We were excited that the house had a beautiful, rather untamed garden.

The house first opened its doors with a tea party one Sunday afternoon. As one of the guests arrived, he suddenly realised he had been there before, when Lyn was alive. He had enjoyed visiting her from time to time with his carer, and walking her dog Philo. ‘It’s Lyn’s House!’, he exclaimed. There was no doubt about it: and from that moment, Lyn’s House was born.

In September 2019 the residential community moved to The Lodge at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Grange, Road, Cambridge (subsequently the property of Queens’ College). But by then the name had established itself, and so we remain ‘Lyn’s House’.