Walker’s House, now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum, is in Grape Lane close to the Swing Bridge, and backs onto the harbour.   The main building (Grade 1 listed) dates from the 17^th century - a plaque records it was built in 1688.  The young James Cook came here in 1746 to be apprenticed to Captain John Walker and lodged with his master’s other apprentices in the attic.    

  Walker’s father bought the house in 1729, and from here developed a successful shipping business.   Recent archaeology revealed a slipway below the present courtyard, dating to that period.   A huddle of outbuildings stood beside the slipway.

 As was the practice of the times, the house served both business and domestic purposes, providing space for stores for the ships, room to carry out repairs, accommodation for the apprentices, and a home for the shipmaster.   The main house today is much as it was in Cook’s time.   Internally we know how the house was furnished.   Answering to an inventory of 1755, the ground floor rooms have been restored with period furniture in Quaker fashion.