The Literary Landmarks to Visit in and around Chelsea

The blue plaques that you see on buildings throughout London are part of a project that started in 1866 with the aim of linking the buildings of the present with the people of the past. You can find out where people were born, lived, worked and died simply by looking up whenever you see a plaque.

Between 1900 and 1905 the Anglo-French poet, essayist and historian Hilaire Belloc used this riverside townhouse as his base as he became one of the most prolific writers in England for his time. President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford in 1906, Belloc’s poetry ranges from comic verses for children to religious poetry. Interestingly, he was very chummy with iconic English writer, G. K. Chesterton.

Hillaire Belloc Plaque, 104 Cheyne Walk, London

Cheyne Walk has been popular with writers over the years. So popular that it was where Mary Anne Evans, better known for her pen name George Eliot, chose for her London abode. Her novel Middlemarch is often touted as a contender for the best in the English language. Yet, as she might have purchased the house anticipating living there for years, she only managed three weeks, dying of flu just before Christmas in 1880.

George Eliot Plaque, 4 Cheyne Walk, London

Not to be confused with Alan Bennett who, in 2017, is still very much alive, Arnold Bennett is perhaps best known is some circles for the wrath he endured at the hands of Virgina Woolf. Woolf’s essay ‘Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown’ famously criticised the author for what she thought of as lazy writing. Bennett was surprisingly more famous in his own time than Viriginia Woolf and write a successful novel every year for twenty years or so, propelling him to great wealth and industry success. He lived here from 1921 until shortly before his death, so it would have been from within this house that he withstood attack from Bloomsbury and Woolf.

Arnold Bennett Plaque, 75 Cadogan Square, London

The oldest inhabitant on this list, novelist Tobias Smollett lived on Lawrence Street from 1750 to 1762. A novelist specialising in the picaresque – think adventures and heroes – his work leads historically and influentially into the work of perhaps the greatest Scottish novelist of all time, Sir Walter Scott.

Tobias Smollett Plaque, 16 Lawrence Street, London

The quote ‘You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think’ might well have been born in this house, alongside a whole universe of wonderful characters and stores that are synonymous with Milne’s work. He moved here in 1919 and owned the house until 1942.

A. A. Milne Plaque, 13 Mallord Street, London