Literary London

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The Wheatsheaf

Dylan Thomas met his wife in this bar in 1936, and proposed with his head in her lap.

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In the spring of 1936 Augustus John brought Caitlin Macnamara here - she was twenty-two, a dancer, and John's lover at the time - and introduced her to Dylan Thomas. Thomas, drunk, put his head in her lap and proposed. They married in Penzance on 11 July the following year, and stayed married until he died.

The pub had a literary set of its own rather than borrowing one: Orwell, Thomas, Edwin Muir and Humphrey Jennings were known for a while as the Wheatsheaf writers, and Julian Maclaren-Ross held court here in dark glasses and a camel coat, taking his post at the bar. Nina Hamnett, Quentin Crisp and Philip O'Connor were among the rest of it. A small dark Younger's house on Rathbone Place, and still a pub.

Where
25 Rathbone Place, W1T 1JB
Nearest station
Tottenham Court Road · 4 min walk

Pub hours

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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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