Where Virginia Woolf Lived in London

  • 25 January 1882 to May 1904
    22 Hyde Park Gate, W8
    Blue plaque (erected 1960): SIR | LESLIE | STEPHEN | 1832-1904 | Scholar | and writer | lived here
  • January 1905 to March 1907
    46 Gordon Square, WC1
    Blue plaque (erected 1975): JOHN | MAYNARD | KEYNES | 1883-1946 | Economist | lived here | 1916-1946
  • April 1907 to November 1911
    29 Fitzroy Square, W1
    Blue plaque: GEORGE BERNARD SHAW | LIVED IN THIS HOUSE | FROM 1887 TO 1898 | | “FROM THE COFFERS OF HIS GENIUS | HE ENRICHED THE WORLD Blue plaque (erected 1974): Virginia | Stephen | (VIRGINIA WOOLF) | 1882-1941 | Novelist and Critic | lived here | 1907-1911
  • 20 November 1911 to 29 October 1912
    38 Brunswick Square, WC1
    North side of square: demolished in about 1936 and replaced by the School of Pharmacy of the University of London
  • 30 October 1912 to September 1913
    13 Clifford’s Inn, between Chancery Lane, WC2, and Fetter Lane, EC4
    Demolished in 1934 and replaced by offices and flats also called Clifford’s Inn
  • 16 October 1914 to 25 March 1915
    17 The Green, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey
  • 1 April 1915 to 13 March 1924
    Hogarth House (right-hand side of the building; the Woolfs bought the whole building in December 1919), Richmond upon Thames, Surrey
    Blue plaque: In this house | LEONARD and | VIRGINIA WOOLF | lived | 1915-1924 | and founded the | Hogarth Press | 1917
  • 15 March 1924 to August 1939
    52 Tavistock Square, WC1
    South side of square: bombed in October 1940 and replaced by the Tavistock Hotel in 1951
  • 13 October 1939 to 27 August 1940
    37 Mecklenburgh Square, WC1
    North side of square: bombed in 1940 and replaced by William Goodenough House in 1957

    Other plaques relevant to the Bloomsbury Group
  • 50 Gordon Square, WC1
    Brown plaque (London Borough of Camden): HERE AND | IN NEIGHBOURING | HOUSES DURING | THE FIRST HALF OF | THE 20th CENTURY | THERE LIVED SEVERAL | MEMBERS OF THE | BLOOMSBURY GROUP | INCLUDING | VIRGINIA WOOLF | CLIVE BELL AND | THE STRACHEYS
  • 51 Gordon Square, WC1
    Blue plaque (erected 1971 – see Holroyd): LYTTON | STRACHEY | 1880-1932 | Critic and | Biographer | lived here
  • Thornhaugh Street (23-24 Russell Square), WC1
    Brown plaque (London Borough of Camden): T. S. | ELIOT | POET AND | PUBLISHER | WORKED HERE FOR | FABER & FABER | 1925-1965
  • 10 Gower Street, WC1
    Blue plaque: LADY | OTTOLINE | MORRELL | 1873-1938 | Literary Hostess | and | Patron of the Arts | lived here
  • 11 Edwardes Square, W8
    Blue plaque (erected 1956 by private subscribers): THIS | WAS THE | LONDON HOME | OF | G. LOWES DICKINSON | Author and Humanist. | HE WAS BORN 1862 | AND DIED | 1932.
  • 9 Arlington Park Mansions, Turnham Green Terrace, W4
    Blue plaque: E.M. | FORSTER | 1879-1970 | Novelist | lived here
  • 182 Ebury Street, SW1
    Brown plaque (erected 1993 – see Anon.): HAROLD | NICOLSON | 1886-1968 | VITA SACKVILLE-WEST | 1892-1962 | Writers and Gardeners | lived here
  • 32 Elder Street, E1
    Blue plaque (erected 1964): MARK | GERTLER | 1891-1939 | Painter | lived here
  • 17 East Heath Road, NW3
    Blue plaque (erected 1969): KATHERINE | MANSFIELD | 1888-1923 | WRITER, | and her husband | JOHN MIDDLETON | MURRY | 1889-1957 | CRITIC | lived here

A note on blue plaques

English Heritage is now responsible for the (usually) blue plaques previously erected by the Greater London Council (1965-1986), the London County Council (1903-1965) and the Royal Society of Arts (1875-1900). The criteria for the erection of plaques have changed over the years, but I believe the following summary is still correct. For a plaque to be associated with a person, his/her name must be known to the well-informed passer-by, but no plaque will be erected until a person has been dead for 20 years or until the centenary of their birth (whichever is the earlier) and plaques will not be erected on the sites of former houses.

Stuart N. Clarke
August 1999

References

• Anon, ‘Plaque Tribute to a Most Unconventional Novelist Evening Standard, 29 March 1993.

• Clarke, Jennifer (photographs by Joanna Parkin), In Our Grandmother’s Footsteps: A Virago Guide to London, Virago, London, 1984.

• GLC Public Information Branch, Blue Plaques on Houses of Historical Interest, London, n.d. (c. 1976).

• Holroyd, Michael, ‘A Plaque on All Your Houses!, Unreceived Opinions, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1976, pp. 42-6.

• Palis, L. M., The Blue Plaques of London, Equation (Thorsons Publishing Group), Wellingborough, Northants, 1989.

• Wilson, Jean Moorcroft, Virginia Woolf: Life and LondonA Biography of Place, Cecil Woolf, London, 1987.

copyright© S. N. Clarke & VWSGB 1999-2000