John Keats Home Reopens After $800,000 Renovation

Posted on August 6, 2009

The home of English poet John Keats is reopening following a renovation that cost over $800,000. John Keats lived in the Regency villa in Hampstead, a part of north London, from 1818-1820. It was here that he composed some of his famous works, including "Ode To A Nightingale."

The Wall Street Journal reports that Keat's home had been a "dilapidated state" before the renovation.

But the house had finished its last major overhaul in the mid-1970s and had been in a "dilapidated state," said Mr. Scott, who is employed by the City of London's Metropolitan Archives, which has operated the site since 1997. "The floors were so damp and weak," said Geoff Pick, the restoration project's director, that guides used to be able to take only a few people up to the second floor at a time.
After securing a �424,000 ($717,709) grant from Britain's Heritage Lottery Fund, a new steel frame was installed. Then, said Mr. Pick, the goal was to capture the feel of Wentworth Place during Keats's time, down to the salmon-pink paint on his bedroom walls, the Chaucer and Milton books dotting the shelves and Brown's grandfather clock in the corner.
The tubercular Keats watched that clock during his final days at Wentworth Place, lounging on what he called a "Sopha bed," and penning letters to his lover Fanny Brawne next door. Eventually Keats shipped off to Italy in late 1820 for an unsuccessful attempt at convalescence, ultimately dying of the disease in February 1821, at just 25.

Keats House is now a thriving museum dedicated to the poetry of John Keats and to poetry in general. You can visit the official website here.