Keats House
Keats Grove London NW3 2RR
Keats House was known as Wentworth Place when the poet John Keats (1795–1821) took up residence in 1818, at the invitation of his friend Charles Brown. It was a smaller and considerably less grand house then – a pair of cottages, set in more or less open countryside, on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Keats lived in the house on and off for two years, writing Ode to a Nightingale in the garden, as well as a series of poems inspired by Fanny Brawne, who lived in the adjoining cottage and with whom he fell in love. The house today is a delightful place and makes for an evocative visit, with several rooms restored to more or less their appearance from Keats’s time, others preserving the Victorian additions. Highlights include Keats’s Parlour, where he worked, and his and Fanny Brawne’s bedrooms, along with a variety of Keats-related material, including a letter to Fanny when he was confined in the cottage with tuberculosis. There are free and worthwhile guided tours and occasional lectures.
