Hodgkin donated the house to the Royal Victoria Home in 1894, and bequeathed the gardens and grounds to the people of Newcastle as a public park.

[2] His primary interest was historical research and his fame largely drives from his 8-volume history, Italy and her Invaders, published between 1880 and 1899.

[3] In the 1860s, Hodgkin settled in the West End of Newcastle Upon Tyne, in the suburb of Benwell, and commissioned Alfred Waterhouse to build him a house.

[4] Waterhouse had already undertaken work in Newcastle and elsewhere for the Pease family, fellow Quakers and partners in Hodgkin's bank.

[7] The house subsequently became the Royal Victoria School for the Blind which remained at Benwell for 90 years until its closure in 1985.