Hampstead Heath

Keats House
Wentworth Place, Keats Grove, Camden, Camden, London, NW3 2RR
(Keats: 1795 to 1821)

John Keats (1795-1821) was an English Romantic poet who devoted his short life to works marked by vivid imagery. From 1818 to 1820, Keats lived in a house in Hampstead, London, where he wrote some of his best works, including "Ode to a Nightingale", which he composed under a plum tree in the garden.

The Keats House is now a museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of the poet's life and works. The Keats House Collection consists of letters, poems, and manuscripts written by Keats' friends and acquaintances. It also includes books annotated by the poet, a notebook he kept as a medical student, and a few original drafts of his poems. (Please click here for a list of contents.)

Collected by the poet throughout his life, this material is a valuable resource for students or scholars who need information on Keats, lyric poetry, or the English Romantic movement.

One of Keat’s favourite walks was down Millfield Lane, which was noted for its nightingales.
Coleridge would meet here with Keats.

John Keats spent two years from 1818 to 1820 at this house in the leafy suburb of Hampstead. The collection housed here includes letters, manuscripts and relics belonging to him and his contemporaries. It was under a plum tree in the garden of this Grade II listed building that Keats wrote his 'Ode to a Nightingale'. The building was originally a pair of semi-detached houses known as Wentworth Place. He fell in love with the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, to whom he was engaged. But they never married and it was from this house that he travelled to Rome, on the advice of his doctor. Sadly the moved failed to save him from tuberculosis and he died aged just 25. As you'd expect, poetry is appreciated here and there are regular themed poetry readings.

(You can peruse some slides of this area below:)