James Faraday moved his family to London before Michael Faraday was born.
The Faraday family came from Outhgill in Westmorland, where James had trained as an apprentice to the village blacksmith. During the winter of 1790, he moved his wife Margaret and their two older children to London, seeking better prospects. Michael was born at Newington Butts in Surrey in September 1791, making him the third of the couple’s four children.
The move placed the family in the rapidly expanding London area, although they remained poor. James found work connected with the metal trades, while Margaret managed the household. Michael’s birthplace, Newington Butts, is now within the London Borough of Southwark, so the city was not merely a later association in his life—it was his birthplace and the setting of his formative years.
Readers sometimes confuse this move with Faraday’s later travels or with the locations of his scientific work. He worked at the Royal Institution and became closely associated with central London, but the key family relocation before his birth was from rural Westmorland to London. The date is generally given as the winter of 1790, shortly before his birth.