Past residents of Keats House explored in exhibition

Originally known as Wentworth Place, the house has sheltered an array of interesting characters over its 210-year history.

‘Hidden Histories of Keats House’ is free with a ticket to the Keats Grove museum and tells their life stories as well as exploring the lives of women, animal rights, and disease and accidents in the 19th century.

The house was built between 1814 and 1816 and was originally two semi-detached properties known as Wentworth Place (Image: Keats House Museum)

John Keats lived there with his friend Charles Brown for 17 months from 1818-1820 before leaving for Italy where he died of tuberculosis.

While in residence in one of two semi-detached houses, he wrote many of his famous poems and connected with other literary figures from Leigh Hunt to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

On the other side of the house was Keats' fiancee Fanny Brawne, who lived on there for nine years after his death, and enjoyed many of the activities available to women of her class, including fashion, music, and singing.

Fanny Brawne was John Keats' fiancee who lived on the other side of the house to him and stayed on there for nine years after his death (Image: Wikimedia)

She kept cats, a dog, and pigeons and wrote letters to friends on the difficulties of rearing pets. After leaving Hampstead, she went to France with her sister and aunt, before marrying and having three children.

Charles Brown himself lived there from 1816-1822.

In 1828 John Keats' sister Fanny came to live in the house with her husband and grew close to Fanny Brawne, whose letters provide valuable insights into how women of their class spent their time. Personal items belonging to both women are on display.

Eliza Chester who lived at Wentworth Place from 1838-1848 was a friend of King George IV and a famous actress known for playing Shakespeare roles and appearing in plays by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She was responsible for turning Wentworth Place into one house by knocking through the walls, and adding a space for entertaining.

John Jackson's portrait of actress Eliza Chester who lived in what is now Keats House for a decade and turned the two halves into one property (Image: Keats House Museum)

Dr William Sharpey was a prominent figure in physiology and a friend of Charles Darwin, who was involved with bringing in the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876.

Sarah Hynes lived at the house with her family and afterwards emigrated to Australia where she became a prominent feminist and botanist.

And painter, Henry Courtney Selous who is perhaps best known for ‘The Opening of the Great Exhibition’ (1851), which is on display in the Victoria & Albert Museum was also a past resident.

Next year, Keats House celebrates its 100th anniversary of serving as a museum - now owned by the City of London Corporation. 

Chair of the City of London Corporation’s Culture, Heritage, and Libraries Committee, Munsur Ali, said: "It is clear that there was plenty of life and happy memories made in this beautiful house in the decades following Keats’ untimely death at the age of 25.

“Wentworth Place, as it was known then, was home to individuals who made their mark - mostly, in the arts and science - and visitors will certainly leave knowing far more about their various lives and loves."