Stephen Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time in a villa later replaced by his namesake

The Stephen Hawking Building. Credit: Dan White/ Gonville and Caius Stephen Hawking spent an important period of his life at a Victorian villa at 5 West Road, Cambridge, a property owned by Gonville & Caius College. Hawking and his first wife, Jane, moved there with their children in 1975, after the stairs at their previous home became increasingly difficult for him to manage as his motor neurone disease progressed. Caius adapted the property for wheelchair access, allowing him to continue his academic work while raising his family. The house also became the place where he wrote A Brief History of Time, the 1988 book that introduced complex ideas about cosmology to millions of readers. Years later, the villa was demolished and replaced by the Stephen Hawking Building, creating a lasting physical connection between the Cambridge site and his scientific legacy.Stephen Hawking moved to the West Road villa in 1975Hawking and Jane had bought a townhouse in Cambridge in the late 1960s, but the stairs became increasingly difficult for him to manage as his condition progressed. In 1975, the family moved to 5 West Road, a house owned by Gonville & Caius College. The college adapted ...