Robert Raikes' House In 1772, he moved into the house to live with his family. Robert Raikes was a promoter of the Sunday school movement, he held Sunday school sessions in the houses garden and Roberts wife used to serve plum cake to the children. After his death, it was again used as a merchants house and shop. There were minor alterations made to the building throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1952, the building was grade II listed. In 1973, the Dirty Duck restaurant opened on the site later becoming the Golden Cross public house in 1975. In 2006, Samuel Smiths
Thomas Raikes had four sons and five daughters. Their eldest son Thomas became a noted London diarist; another son, Henry, became a churchman, eventually Chancellor of the Diocese of Chester. One of their daughters, Georgiana (d. 02 December 1861), married Lord William FitzRoy. Thomas Raikes Thomas Raikes ("the Elder") (28 March 1741 – 29 December 1813) was a British merchant particularly trading from London with Russia, a banker and newspaper proprietor. Notably, he was Governor of the Bank of England during the 1797 currency crisis, when the Bank was prohibited by the British Government from paying out in gold. Raikes was born