The Adelphi, London, and its literary connections

The Adelphi is a small area of London to the south of the Strand, comprising a quadrilateral of streets, namely Adelphi Terrace, John Adam Street, Robert Street and Adam Street. The street names give a strong clue to their origin, given that they refer to the Adams brothers, a family of architects who built the original Adelphi Buildings between 1768 and 1772. There were four brothers, but John and Robert were more active in London than the other two.

“Adelphi” is Greek for “brothers”, and the use of a classical name was appropriate for this terrace of 24 houses built in a neoclassical style. At the time, the terrace would have faced the River Thames directly, but the course of the river was shifted to the south when the Victoria Embankment was built.

The original terrace was demolished in the 1930s to make way for an Art Deco building named the New Adelphi.

During its heyday the Adelphi was a fashionable district, close to the centre of London with its theatres and publishing houses, and attracted a number of well-known actors and writers, including:

David Garrick, the dramatist and actor-manager (1717-89), who spent the last seven years of his life here, receiving visits from Dr Johnson, among others.

The playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) lived here from his marriage in 1899 until 1927, as this was where his wife had been living. He wrote “Man and Superman” (1905) and “Major Barbara” (1906) while living here.

The poet Thomas Hood (1799-1845) lived for a time in in Robert Street, this being his first marital home.

The novelist and playwright John Galsworthy (1867-1933) lived here from 1912 to 1918, a time when he was writing works other than “The Forsyte Saga”.

There is also a link to Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) who, although not a resident here, worked from 1862 to 1867 at the office of an architect in Adelphi Terrace.

© John Welford

Barnes: a London "village" with literary associations

Barnes is one of those districts that confirm the idea that London is not so much a city as an accumulation of villages that have run into one another. This is helped enormously, in the case of Barnes, by the fact that it is largely enclosed by an exaggerated loop of the River Thames that defines the village’s borders on three sides. This is the loop that comprises the “Surrey bend” of the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

Barnes has developed as a somewhat genteel inner London suburb of substantial houses with plenty of green spaces, including the extensive Barnes Common.  It is home to the 100-acre London Wetland Centre that is an amazing refuge for wildlife in an urban setting.

It is not surprising that Barnes has been attractive to several notable writers, including:

Henry Fielding (1707-54), the novelist best known for “Tom Jones”, who lived in a house overlooking Barnes Common for five years towards the end of his life.

Matthew Lewis (1775-1818), who wrote the bestselling gothic horror novel “The Monk” and lived in a cottage near Barnes church from 1798 to 1801.

William Cobbett (1763-1835) leased the home farm of Barn Elms Estate from 1828 to 30, thus enabling him to combine his abiding interest in rural affairs with political campaigning. While living here he continued to edit his “Weekly Political Register” and also prepared his earlier “Rural Rides” for publication.

A more recent resident of Barnes was the novelist Barbara Pym (1913-80), who lived in Nassau Road from 1949 to 1961.

The travel writer Eric Newby (1919-2006), who was born in Barnes, was a pupil of St Paul’s Boys School before it moved to its present location in Barnes. This school was originally founded in the 16^th century, and its alumni have included John Milton, Samuel Pepys, G K Chesterton and Edward Thomas. Among those educated at St Paul’s since its move to Barnes (in 1961) have been Iain Gale, Patrick Marber and Patrick Neate.

© John Welford

Battersea's literary connections

Battersea is a London district on the south side of the River Thames. It is generally regarded as being socially inferior to Chelsea, on the opposite bank, but more upmarket than the adjoining districts of Clapham and Balham.

It is renowned for the massive brick pile of long-disused Battersea Power Station (now being redeveloped) but also for the large open space of Battersea Park and the Royal College of Art.

Battersea’s literary connections include:

G A Henty (1832-1902). He was a popular writer of adventure stories in the 19^th century but is little read today. He served in the Crimean War and became a newspaper war correspondent. These experiences gave his many novels a sense of realism that those of other writers lacked, but his strong support for the British Empire made his work totally unsuitable for reading in a less imperialist age. He lived in Lavender Gardens.

The poet Edward Thomas (1878-1917) was educated at Battersea Grammar School and he and his wife lived in lodgings in Shelgate Road for a short time in 1900. His only novel, “The Happy-Go-Lucky Morgans” (1913) was partly set in the area. He was one of a number of war poets who did not return from the trenches.

The novelist Paul Bailey (born 1937) was born and brought up in Battersea.

However, the best-known literary Battersea resident has to be Graham Greene (1904-91), who lived in Albert Palace Gardens from 1926 to 1931. He was working as a sub-editor on The Times and just beginning his career as a novelist, although his best work was still a long way down the line.

A much greater writer than any of these was William Blake (1757-1827), whose Battersea connection was that he was married at Battersea Parish Church in 1782 due to his wife being the daughter of a local market gardener.

© John Welford

Bayswater's literary connections

Bayswater is a London district to the north of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. The houses were mainly built in Regency and Victorian times to cater for some of the wealthier members of the community. There are long terraces of houses (in streets and garden squares) comprising three, four or five storeys which would originally have had kitchens in the basements and servants quarters in the attics. This is “Upstairs, Downstairs” territory!

Nowadays, many of the houses have been converted into hotels and apartments but they have maintained their overall elegance and this is still an expensive place to live.

It is a district that has attracted a disproportionately large number of literary figures, as well as being the setting for scenes in a number of novels. Some of Bayswater’s past residents are listed below:

The novelist and essayist Harriet Martineau (1802-76) lived for a short time in Westbourne Street, where, in 1849, she met Charlotte Brontë while the latter was in London to visit her publisher, whose office was also in Bayswater.

The novelist William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63) lived for a short time in Albion Street.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) lived in Westbourne Park Villas from 1863 to 1867. This might sound like a posh address but it was at the “wrong” end of Bayswater, in that Hardy’s view was not of Hyde Park but the railway tracks leading to nearby Paddington Station!

Sir James Barrie (1860-1937) lived on Bayswater Road from 1902 to 1909. He had an excellent view of Hyde Park in which he took regular walks. It was on one of these that he met a mother with her young family of boys whom he befriended and told stories to, the end result being the play “Peter Pan” (1904).

Lytton Strachey (1880-1932), the biographer and critic who was a renowned member of the Bloomsbury Group, lived in Lancaster Gate between the ages of four and 29.

The novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884-1969) lived in Leinster Square from 1916 to 1929 and wrote “Pastors and Masters” and “Brothers and Sisters” while so doing.

Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), poet and critic, lived in a shabby top-floor flat in Moscow Road for a short time from 1912, accompanied by her former governess. The unwanted attentions she bestowed on one of her guests, Wyndham Lewis, led to the latter lampooning her in his 1930 novel “The Apes of God”.

Bayswater also witnessed the birth and burial of noted novelists. Monica Dickens (1915-92), a great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens, was born in Chepstow Villas, while a former burial ground off Hyde Park Place was the resting place of both Laurence Sterne (1713-68) and Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823).

© John Welford

Belgravia's literary connections

Belgravia is a district of West London that is generally regarded as “well to do”, lying between Westminster and Kensington. It is composed mainly of elegant garden squares and connecting streets that were largely developed by the Grosvenor family (Dukes of Westminster) in the 19^th century.  This is “Upstairs Downstairs” land, where a typical town house would have its kitchen in the basement, servants’ quarters on the top floor and at least three floors of spacious rooms in between.

Its literary connections have tended to be people who were either born into comfortable circumstances or who made enough money from their literary successes to be able to become “Belgravians”.

Among the former was the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne who was born at an address in Chester Street in 1837. Although he grew up on the Isle of Wight he returned to Belgravia (Grosvenor Place) in 1860 and also lived for a time in Wilton Crescent, although he spent more of his life in other parts of London.

The essayist and journalist Walter Bagehot (1826-77) began and ended his life in Somerset, but spent a number of years in Upper Belgrave St while he was editor of The Economist.

Poet and essayist Matthew Arnold (1822-88) lived in Chester Square from 1858 to 1868. At this time he was earning an income as the government’s chief Inspector of Schools and was also gaining a reputation as a poet of note – he had been elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford University in 1867.

Sir W S Gilbert (1836-1911) lived in Eaton Square towards the end of his life. He could easily afford to do so, having made a fortune from the series of light opera libretti he wrote for Sir Arthur Sullivan. He had also been responsible for financing the reconstruction of the Garrick Theatre on Charing Cross Road.

Novelists George Meredith (1828-1909) and George Moore (1852-1933) lived at one time in Ebury Street, the latter spending his final 22 years there. A better known resident to modern readers was Ian Fleming (1908-64), the creator of James Bond. He lived in Ebury Street from 1936 to 1939. His later wealth enabled him to buy a house in nearby Victoria Square in 1953, although he also spent much of his time at Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica where most of his writing was done.

Another 20^th century novelist who used his success to enjoy a Belgravia lifestyle was C P Snow (1905-80) who lived in Eaton Square – together with his novelist wife Pamela Hansford Johnson (1912-81) – from 1968 until his death.

Playwright and composer Sir Noel Coward (1899-1973) lived in Gerald Road from 1930 to 1956. He wrote several plays (including Cavalcade and This Happy Breed) while living here, as well as two volumes of autobiography.

© John Welford