Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books: A quick guide
Six centuries of Chiswick poets: from John Donne, the metaphysical poet, to James Berry, the Windrush poet
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As Chiswick celebrates its Nobel Prize-winning poet WB Yeats, the Chiswick Book Festival is delighted to add six more acclaimed poets to its Writers Trail, which features novelists, playwrights and poets with strong links to Chiswick.
They are the metaphysical poet John Donne, who was the Prebendary of Chiswick in the 16th century; William Morris, the writer, designer and father of the Arts & Crafts movement; two pioneering women poets, Lady Mary Sidney and Elizabeth Moody; Reverend Henry Francis Cary, who is buried in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey; and Sir John (JC) Squire, poet, man of letters and editor of the New Statesman and London Mercury.
In May 2022, we added Dylan Thomas, who lived at the Vicarage in St Paul’s Grove Park, and James Berry, who lived in Bedford Park. The original Trail, created in 2018, featured: WB Yeats, who was brought up in Bedford Park; Alexander Pope, who has a blue plaque in Chiswick; Sir John Betjeman, who campaigned to save Bedford Park from developers; Ugo Foscolo, the Italian poet and patriot; GK Chesterton and Anthony Burgess, both well-known poets as well as novelists.
16th Century
John Donne (1572-1631). Poet, priest, Prebend of Chiswick 1621-31. The Flea, Death Be Not Proud, The Sun Rising. Sermons on the Psalms and Gospels. As prebend, Donne ‘doubtless’ visited Chiswick from St Paul’s Cathedral, where he was Dean, staying in College House, the prebendal mansion house on Chiswick Mall.
College House, Chiswick Mall (demolished)
Lady Mary Sidney (1561-1621). Poet and literary patron. Sidney Psalter. Turned Wilton House, Wiltshire, into a “paradise for poets”. Daughter of Elizabeth I’s confidante – also named Lady Mary Sidney, nee Dudley – who lived behind Strand on the Green, 1574-86. As a girl, Lady Mary lived there, visited by brother, Sir Philip Sidney. Speculation she wrote Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Sidney House, close to Stile Hall and Strand on the Green (demolished)
17th Century
Alexander Pope 1688-1774. Poet, satirist. The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad. Translated Homer’s Iliad while living with his parents in Mawson Row from 1716-19.
House in Mawson Buildings, now the Mawson Arms pub, Chiswick Lane South W4 2QD (plaque and sign)
18th Century
Elizabeth Moody 1737-1814. Poet and critic, Monthly Review, St James’s Chronicle. To a Lady Who Sent The Author a Present of a Fashionable Bonnet, To a Lady Who Was A Great Talker, To Dr Darwin. Married to vicar of Turnham Green; neighbour of Ralph Griffiths (ibid).
Turnham Green Terrace, W4
Rev Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844). Poet. Translated Dante’s Inferno and Divine Comedy – the best translation in any language according to Ugo Foscolo (ibid). 1814 Reader at St Nicholas Church, leased Hogarth’s House till 1833. Buried in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Hogarth’s House, Hogarth Lane (admission free, see days/times on website)
Ugo Foscolo 1778-1827. Italian poet and patriot: Dei Sepolcri. Buried in St Nicholas churchyard in marble chest tomb, but remains were returned to Florence at the King of Italy’s request.
St Nicholas Churchyard, Chiswick Mall W4 2PJ.
19th Century
William Morris (1834-96). Poet, novelist, designer, printer, social activist, Arts & Crafts pioneer. The Earthly Paradise, News From Nowhere. Lived in Chiswick 1872-8, prior to Kelmscott House, Hammersmith.
Horrington House (demolished), near The Roebuck and Thornton Avenue.
WB Yeats 1865-1939. Poet: The Lake Isle of Innisfree was written in Chiswick, inspired by Chiswick Eyot. Lived in Bedford Park in the 1880s and 90s. Nobel Prize for Literature 1923.
3 Blenheim Road, W4 1UB (Green plaque from Bedford Park Society) and 8 Woodstock Road W4 1UE. (Private houses, no access)
GK Chesterton 1874-1936. Novelist, poet, critic. In The Man Who Was Thursday, “Saffron Park” is a parody of Bedford Park: his fiancée lived in Bath Road.
Bath Road, Bedford Park, W4 1TT
6. Sir John (J. C.) Squire (1884-1958). Poet and man of letters; editor, New Statesman, the London Mercury for 20 years; loved (and detested) by great names of literary society; satirised by Evelyn Waugh in Decline and Fall; founder of legendary cricket club (immortalised in England, Their England). Lived at Swan House, Chiswick Mall, 1913 to 1925.
Swan House, Chiswick Mall, W4 2PS
20th Century
Sir John Betjeman 1906-1984. Poet Laureate, conservationist. Patron of the Bedford Park Society and Bedford Park Festival in the 1960s, helping protect the first garden suburb from developers.
St Michael & All Angels Church, Bedford Park, W4 1TT
Dylan Thomas (1914-53). Poet, playwright, short story writer, broadcaster. Under Milk Wood, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. Lived in St Paul’s Vicarage, Grove Park c. 1938-41; 13 Hammersmith Terrace, 1941-2. Also stayed at Ship Cottage, Strand on the Green.
64 Grove Park Road (St Paul’s Vicarage), W4 (Private home, no access)
Anthony Burgess 1917-1993. Poet, Playwright, Novelist: A Clockwork Orange. Lived in Chiswick in the 1960s, where he wrote Nothing Like the Sun and Tremor of Intent.
24 Glebe Street, W4 2BG (Private house, no access)
20th & 21st Century
James Berry OBE 1924-2017. Windrush poet. Seven collections, including Windrush Songs (2007) and A Story I Am In: Selected Poems (2011) from Bloodaxe. Books of poetry and short stories for children, winning the Smarties Prize (1987), the Signal Poetry Award (1989) and a Cholmondeley Award (1991).
Homecross House, Fishers Lane, W4 (Private residential home, no access).
Further information
For sources and weblinks, see the Writers Trail 2023 .
See also: ‘Six centuries of famous Chiswick poets’ on The Chiswick Calendar.