Name: Keats House 100: From Poet’s Life to ‘Living Memorial’
Start: 2025-08-26T12:30:00+01:00
End: 2025-08-26T13:45:00+01:00
Location: Dr Johnson's House

$Keats House 100: From Poet\u2019s Life to \u2018Living Memorial\u2019$

Join Keats House curator, Rob Shakespeare, to discover the fascinating story of why and how Keats House became a museum 100 years ago.
About this Event

Join us this August for the Dr Johnson's House monthly lecture, sponsored by the Fleet Street Quarter.

Discover how a Hampstead home inspired John Keats, and was later saved to become a museum to his creative genius.

John Keats lived at Wentworth Place, Hampstead for less than two years but during that time wrote most of the work for which he is now remembered and loved. After all connection between Keats and the house was forgotten, his poetry and life was re-discovered by later artists, eventually leading to the house being purchased as a ‘museum and living memorial’ celebrating his life and works.

Join Keats House curator, Rob Shakespeare, to discover the fascinating story of why and how Keats House became a museum one hundred years ago.

Rob Shakespeare is responsible for heritage across the City of London Corporation’s Natural Environments division, which includes iconic spaces such as Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood, Epping Forest and Keats House. A former teacher, Rob joined the City Corporation in 2018 and has led on projects such as Keats200, the 150th anniversary celebrations of Hampstead Heath and West Ham Park being saved for the public and, more recently, the ‘Firing London’s Imagination’ in Highgate Wood, ‘Culturally Speaking’ with Doctor Johnson’s House, and Keats House 100 projects.

Tickets

Your ticket includes the opportunity to look around Dr Johnson's House, to learn about the unique architectural features of the last surviving Grade I listed historic townhouse in Fleet Street Quarter. It also includes a complimentary lunch from local business Dilieto on Fleet Street.

The small charge for this lecture is to ensure good attendance and reduce drop outs, and is far below the normal cost for a similar event. This lecture series has been sponsored by the Fleet Street Quarter.

Lunch

Lunch will be served at this event: please let us know 48 hours in advance, via an Eventbrite message, if you have any specific dietary requirements or have any allergies.

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