Monuments & Ruins

John Keats statue

Keats, who trained as a surgeon at Guy's, sitting in a stone alcove that once stood on old London Bridge.

MemorialsStatuesFree

Also in Literary London.

The alcove is the older thing: one of the covered stone seats added to old London Bridge in the 1760s when the houses were cleared off it, sold when the bridge came down in 1831 and set up in the hospital's courtyard in 1861, where it has been a place to sit for a century and a half. Stuart Williamson's bronze of 2007 put a young man in it - Keats was a dresser at Guy's in 1815 and 1816, qualified as an apothecary and chose poetry instead - with his coat open and a book on his knee, unveiled by Andrew Motion, who wrote his life. Two of the alcove's siblings are in Victoria Park.

Where

Guy's Hospital courtyard, St Thomas Street, SE1 9RT

Nearest station

London Bridge · 2 min walk

NearbyMonuments & Ruins

• Cross Bones Graveyard4 min walk
• Winchester Palace5 min walk
• The Monument9 min walk

NearbyOther Categories

• Gordon Museum of PathologyMuseums1 min walk
• GŎNGCocktails1 min walk
• The View from The ShardWhat’s On2 min walk

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.