Literary London

Where the books were written, set, sold, printed and buried: from the Globe to the graves, the bookshops to the presses.

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Carlyle's House

Thomas and Jane Carlyle's Chelsea house, kept almost as they left it, from the soundproof attic down.

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The Carlyles lived at 5 Cheyne Row from 1834 until Jane's death in 1866 and Thomas's in 1881, and the house drew Dickens, Tennyson, Ruskin, George Eliot and Chopin, who played the piano that is still in the drawing room. Thomas wrote The French Revolution here twice, after John Stuart Mill's housemaid burned the only manuscript of the first volume, and had an attic study built with double walls against the noise of Chelsea's cockerels, which did not work. Jane's letters, some of the best in the language, describe the house and its trials; her sofa and his hat are where they were.

Where
24 Cheyne Row, SW3 5HL
Nearest station
South Kensington · 14 min walk

Wednesdays, by pre-booked timed entry

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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