Literary Landmarks To Visit In London
Many of history’s greatest writers once called themselves Londoners; living, working, and socialising among the city’s historic streets, they are the figures behind some of the most inspired, creative, and poetic works in British literature. Walk the cobbles they once walked, drink in the pubs in which they formed their ideas, or pay your respects at their final resting places, with our guide to the best of London’s literary landmarks.
The Globe Theatre
Theatre, Architectural Landmark, Historical Landmark, School
Starting with the most obvious, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on Bankside is perhaps the most famous of London’s literary landmarks — and among its most famous buildings. Fashioned in an entirely authentic manner (save for some modern health and safety requirements) and opening in 1997, today’s Globe Theatre is the third incarnation, and aims to replicate the original theatre of Shakespeare’s day — from which it stands only about 200 metres away — which burned down in 1599 before being rebuilt and demolished later in the century. Plays are staged in the theatre throughout the year — in the traditional outdoor space in the summer, and inside in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse during winter — while tours of the theatre and entrance to the Shakespeare exhibition operate year round.
Shakespeare’s Globe|© Martin Pettitt/Flickr
Senate House Library
Building, Library, University
Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey
Church, Memorial
Fitzroy Tavern
Pub, Pub Grub
Peckham Rye
Peckham Rye is perhaps not one of the first places that comes to mind when speaking of the city’s literary history. The grassy space and eponymous road was, of course, immortalised in Muriel Spark’s 1960 novel, The Ballad of Peckham Rye. However, its literary associations go back way beyond this; it was here, some 200 years prior, that seminal romantic poet William Blake claimed to have had one of his first celestial encounters. When walking on the Rye at the age of ten, Blake recalled coming across an oak tree ‘filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars’, with visions forming a large part of his creative process for the remainder of his life. Today, there is a mural on Goose Green, commissioned by the 1993 Dulwich Festival, commemorating Blake’s encounter, while in 2011 Peckham artist John Hartley replanted Blake’s famous angel oak on the Common, using a rescued oak sapling.
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The Old Curiosity Shop
Shop, Store, School
Dr Johnson’s House
Library, Museum
Keats House
Museum
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