Literary & Musical Landmarks
Besides the homes of the authors and composers listed here, you can visit the abodes of other celebrated Londoners, including Apsley House, the former mansion of the Duke of Wellington. The homes of John Keats and Sigmund Freud are also open to the public; both are north of London in Hampstead. Finally, the fascinating home of legendary architect Sir John Soane is open to the public and houses a museum about Soane.
A Neighborhood of One's Own: The Homes of Virginia Woolf
Born in London in 1882, author and essayist Virginia Woolf used the city as the setting for many of her novels, including Jacob's Room (1922). The daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen and his wife, Julia Duckworth, Virginia spent her formative years at 22 Hyde Park Gate, off Kensington Road, west of Royal Albert Hall. Her mother died in 1895 and her father in 1904.
After the death of their father, Virginia and her sister Vanessa left Kensington for Bloomsbury, settling near the British Museum. It was an interesting move, as Bloomsbury was a neighborhood that upper-class Victorians didn't view as "respectable." But Virginia was to make it her own, and in the process, make the district world-famous as the hub of literary London. From 1905, the Stephens lived at 46 Gordon Sq., east of Gower Street and University College. It was here that the celebrated literary and artistic circle known as the "Bloomsbury Group" came into being. In time, the group would embrace art critic Clive Bell and author Leonard Woolf, future husbands of Vanessa and Virginia, respectively. Later, Virginia went to live at 29 Fitzroy Sq., west of Tottenham Court Road, in a house once occupied by George Bernard Shaw.
During the next 2 decades, Virginia resided at several more Bloomsbury addresses, including Brunswick Square, Tavistock Square, and Mecklenburg Square. These homes have disappeared or been altered beyond recognition. During this time, the Bloomsbury Group reached out to include the artists Roger Fry and Duncan Grant, and Virginia became a friend of economist John Maynard Keynes and author E. M. Forster (A Passage to India). At Tavistock Square (1924-39) and at Mecklenburg Square (1939-40), she operated the Hogarth Press with Leonard. She published her own early work here, as well as T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.
