Keats House - Keats Grove, London, UK
N 51° 33.337 W 000° 10.080
30U E 696319 N 5715415
Keats House is where the poet John Keats lived from 1818 to 1820, and is the setting that inspired some of his most memorable poetry. Here, Keats wrote 'Ode to a Nightingale', and fell in love with Fanny Brawne, the girl next door.
Waymark Code: WMFY61
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/16/2012
Views: 4
The Hidden London website [visit link] tells
us:
"John Keats was born in the City of
London in October 1795 and christened at St Botolph’s in Bishopsgate. His father
Thomas managed the livery stables attached to the Swan and Hoop, a large and
thriving inn on Finsbury Pavement owned by John’s maternal grandfather John
Jennings. Whether Keats was born at the stables or at the family’s
unidentified home nearby is still a matter of debate but modern academics
broadly agree that his origins were not as humble as used to be supposed (and
romanticised). Nevertheless, Keats undoubtedly came from a much less
wealthy and high-??bred family than many of the aristocratic poets of the
day and, at the time his verse was first published, he was subjected to mockery
by a few snobs of the London literary set, who accused him of pairing words that
sounded like rhymes only to the ears of cockneys.
At an early age John Keats was sent
away to a boarding school in Enfield, where he first took an interest in
classical literature. In 1803 his father died after a fall from his horse while
(it is said) riding back to London after visiting his son. His mother Frances
died in 1810 and a few months later Keats left school and entered an
apprenticeship with an apothecary-??surgeon in Edmonton. Though he
completed his training (including a year at Guy’s Hospital) and qualified as a
medical professional, he soon decided to devote himself to poetry and began
to achieve wide recognition in 1818. In December of that year Keats went to
lodge with his friend Charles Brown in the smaller of a pair of newly-??built
Hampstead houses then called Wentworth Place. It was here that he wrote many of
his best-??known poems and fell in love with the girl next door, Fanny
Brawne.
In February 1820 Keats began to
exhibit the first symptoms of tuberculosis and was confined to the house
during the months that followed. In Brown’s parlour (shown in the photograph
below) a sofa bed was made up for him so that he could look out of the window at
the garden. When summer waned Keats travelled to Naples and then Rome in the
vain hope that the warmer, drier climate might improve his health. He died at a
villa on the Spanish Steps on 23 February 1821 and was buried in Rome’s
Protestant Cemetery. Fanny Brawne went into mourning when news of her lover’s
death reached her and, according to some sources, she wore widow’s weeds for six
years.
Wentworth Place was opened to the
public as a memorial to John Keats in 1925 and is cared for by the City of
London Corporation. Now called Keats House, its collection of memorabilia
includes books, paintings, letters, keepsakes and the engagement ring Keats gave
to Fanny. Even diehard independent explorers of such places should overcome
their resistance to being herded around and take the guided tour here, to better
appreciate the significance and context of each room, its furnishings and
decor, and the material on display.
Group tours can be booked for days
when the house is closed to the general public. Special events are frequently
arranged, including talks, poetry readings, musical soireés, children’s
storytelling and creative workshops."