📍Consett, County Durham, UK
1955 – 1968“Rowan Atkinson was born in Consett, County Durham, in January 1955, the youngest of four sons of Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and his wife, Ella May. He grew up in the countryside of the north-east of England, among the hills, farms and old steel towns of the Derwent Valley, on the family's farm. His older brothers, Rodney, who became an economist, and Rupert, were his companions, and the family was comfortable, Anglican and down-to-earth. He was a shy, awkward boy who was teased at school for his looks, but he discovered early that he could make people laugh with his face and body without saying a word. He went to the Durham Chorister School, the prep school for Durham Cathedral's choir, and then to St Bees School in Cumbria, where he did well in science and began performing comic sketches. He was fascinated by cars and machines, and he has said that the north-east countryside gave him a lifelong love of driving. He studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University and then went to Oxford to do a master's degree, where he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Experimental Theatre Club and met the writer Richard Curtis. Not the Nine O'Clock News, Blackadder and Mr Bean, the silent, rubber-faced character who owes much to the shy boy from Consett, made him one of Britain's best-loved comedians, recognised around the world.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today