English lit is arguably the world´s foremost literary trove, and Britain´s capital is a virtual treasure chest of its legacy. Top spots not to miss include the 101-year-old Charles Dickens Museum, housed in the author´s home in King´s Cross (Camden), to see where he penned Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. Then cross the Thames to Southwark, where Shakespeare's Globe (above), a 1997 reconstruction of the 16th-century Elizabethan playhouse tied to the Bard, are still performed today in a style and venue as close to authentic as it gets. Arthur Conan Doyle fans make a beeline to 221B Baker Street near Regents Park in Marylebone, where an early-19th-century Georgian townhouse is home to the 36-year-old Sherlock Holmes Museum, which recreates his home as described in the novels along with plenty of memorabilia (and of course a gift shop). And the more scholarly minded find the British Library immensely gratifying with its myriad original manuscripts including - just to name a very few - various Shakespeare plays; Beowulf; The Canterbury Tales; Jane Eyre; Robinson Crusoe; works of T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Ian Thomas, Harold Pinter, Dylan Thomas, and Agatha Christie; and even lyrics and other memorabilia of British musical greats including the Beatles, Queen, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and Elton John.
There are many, many others; just a handful of examples:
Fitzroy Tavern in central London´s Fitzrovia neighborhood - a favorite watering hole for the likes of George Orwell, George Bernard Shaw, and Dylan Thomas.
Atmospheric Highgate Cemetery up in North London dates back to 1839 and is the final resting place of literary notables such as Douglas Adams (of A Hitchiker´s Guide to the Galaxy fame) George Eliot, and lesbian icon Raddclyffe Hall. (There are plenty of other famous folks pushing up the daisies here, too, from Karl Marx to George Michael.)
Holborn´s16th-century Old Curiosity Shop, alleged (not necessarily definitively) to be the inspiration for Dickens´ eponymous fourth novel - though at the moment it´s closed, and so you can only see the outside).
Keats House, the Hampsted Heath home of the early-19th-century poet John Keats.
Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey, with burial sites of or memorials to more than a hundred literary luminaries including the Brontë sisters, Geofrey Chaucer, Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Edmund Spenser, and Alfred Lord Tennyson.
The atmospheric 17th-century Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub on Fleet Street in The City, a hangout back at various times for James Boswell, G.K. Chesterton, Dickens, Conan Doyle, Ben Jonson, Tennyson, Mark Twain, William Makepeace Thackerary, Voltaire, and William Butler Yeats.
And special attention is due to London´s various Harry Potter locations, including Platform 9¾ at King´s Cross Station (with a HP merch shop next door, naturally); Victorian covered Leadenhall Market in The City, a model for Diagon Alley; Australia House, the inspiration for Gringotts Bank; and the Millennium Bridge, famously destroyed by Death Eaters in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. And dediated fans will also want to make time for a day trip to Leavesden, a half-hour drive or hourlong train ride from London, to the glitzy, tremendously popular Warner Bros Studio Tour (aka The Making of Harry Potter) in Leavesden, including sets, props, and immersive experiences.
And of course you can browse on line for the many tours including many of these sites (including ones specifically devoted to Harry Potter).
Read more in my post 5 of Europe´s Top Destinations for Literary Travelers.
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