In light of the 'Frankenfestival' centred on the National Theatre's Frankenstein play there are a number of sites around London significant to Percy and Mary Shelley. The connections among the Shelley - Godwin - Wollstonecraft - Clairmont - Byron circle are dizzying, so strap yourself in. These are only a few. One could expand these links further to include Thomas Paine, Leigh Hunt, Joseph Johnson, John Murray, and Samuel Coleridge.
Firstly, there's an English Heritage blue plaque memorialising Percy Shelley on the corner of Poland Street and Noel Street in Soho, where he lived in 1811 before he met Mary Godwin.
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The Marchmont Association has also installed one of its blue plaques on north Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury (near the corner of Tavistock Place) where both Percy and Mary lived in early 1816 before they left for Lake Geneva with Lord Byron. It was Mary Godwin's step-sister, Claire Clairmont (then pregnant to Byron) who had the idea to move to Switzerland.
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Percy Shelley used to visit Mary in early 1814 at William Godwin's house in Skinner Street in east London. There is nothing to see there now. The Somers Town house where Mary Shelley was born in 1797 has been demolished and Oakshott Court estate is built upon the location of the 18th century housing village called The Polygon. There is a brown plaque on the Werrington Street side of Oakshott Court estate (near Polygon Road) to Mary Wollestonecraft who lived with William Godwin in 1797 for a few short months before dying in childbirth.
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There is also a blue plaque at 24 Chester Square Belgravia where Mary Shelley died in 1851. It was here that her son, Percy Florence Shelley, met Jane St John, who became the fierce guardian of the Shelley legacy.
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Perhaps the most significant London site to the entire Shelley - Godwin - Wollstonecraft - Clairmont circle is the graveyard at St Pancras Old Church just north of the Eurostar terminal. William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft were married here in early 1797. It was also here that Percy first courted Mary with young Claire as chaperone, beside the grave of her mother Mary Wollstonecraft, in 1814. William Godwin was here buried in 1836. His second wife, Mary Jane Clairemont (nee Vial), mother of Claire Clairmont, is still buried there in the same grave.
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Jane St John (later Lady Shelley) had the remains of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft exhumed and reburied at St Peters Church, Bournemouth. Later Mary Shelley and her son Percy Florence Shelley were also buried in Bournemouth.
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An interesting footnote to St Pancras Old Church is that Dr John Polidori, who was Byron's doctor and present at the famous mid-June 1816 ghost-writing competition at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, committed suicide in 1821, aged just 25 and is be is buried at St Pancras Old Church. The grave is now lost, probably due to the laying down of railway tracks later in the 19th century. It was Polidori that took Byron's fragment of a Gothic proto-vampire story and published as The Vampyre, the first time that the east European myth had been fused with a seductive aristocrat (modelled on Byron). This was taken up by Bram Stoker in 1897 in Dracula. Thus the June 1816 ghost writing competition was the originator of two of the most pervasive gothic archetypes, Frankenstein and the modern aristocratic vampire.
Firstly, there's an English Heritage blue plaque memorialising Percy Shelley on the corner of Poland Street and Noel Street in Soho, where he lived in 1811 before he met Mary Godwin.
View Larger Map
The Marchmont Association has also installed one of its blue plaques on north Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury (near the corner of Tavistock Place) where both Percy and Mary lived in early 1816 before they left for Lake Geneva with Lord Byron. It was Mary Godwin's step-sister, Claire Clairmont (then pregnant to Byron) who had the idea to move to Switzerland.
View Larger Map
Percy Shelley used to visit Mary in early 1814 at William Godwin's house in Skinner Street in east London. There is nothing to see there now. The Somers Town house where Mary Shelley was born in 1797 has been demolished and Oakshott Court estate is built upon the location of the 18th century housing village called The Polygon. There is a brown plaque on the Werrington Street side of Oakshott Court estate (near Polygon Road) to Mary Wollestonecraft who lived with William Godwin in 1797 for a few short months before dying in childbirth.
View Larger Map
There is also a blue plaque at 24 Chester Square Belgravia where Mary Shelley died in 1851. It was here that her son, Percy Florence Shelley, met Jane St John, who became the fierce guardian of the Shelley legacy.
View Larger Map
Perhaps the most significant London site to the entire Shelley - Godwin - Wollstonecraft - Clairmont circle is the graveyard at St Pancras Old Church just north of the Eurostar terminal. William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft were married here in early 1797. It was also here that Percy first courted Mary with young Claire as chaperone, beside the grave of her mother Mary Wollstonecraft, in 1814. William Godwin was here buried in 1836. His second wife, Mary Jane Clairemont (nee Vial), mother of Claire Clairmont, is still buried there in the same grave.
View Larger Map
Jane St John (later Lady Shelley) had the remains of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft exhumed and reburied at St Peters Church, Bournemouth. Later Mary Shelley and her son Percy Florence Shelley were also buried in Bournemouth.
View Larger Map
An interesting footnote to St Pancras Old Church is that Dr John Polidori, who was Byron's doctor and present at the famous mid-June 1816 ghost-writing competition at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, committed suicide in 1821, aged just 25 and is be is buried at St Pancras Old Church. The grave is now lost, probably due to the laying down of railway tracks later in the 19th century. It was Polidori that took Byron's fragment of a Gothic proto-vampire story and published as The Vampyre, the first time that the east European myth had been fused with a seductive aristocrat (modelled on Byron). This was taken up by Bram Stoker in 1897 in Dracula. Thus the June 1816 ghost writing competition was the originator of two of the most pervasive gothic archetypes, Frankenstein and the modern aristocratic vampire.
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| The old tombstone of Mary Wollstonecraft, is also where William Godwin is buried, as well as second wife Mary Jane Claremont. The writing has faded significantly. Godwin and Wollstonecraft were later reburied in Bournemouth. |
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| Marchmont Street, just north of Tavistock Place |
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| Poland Street, Soho |
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| Old to the West Wind mural in Soho |
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| Map of St Pancras Old Church |
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| Where Mary Wollstonecraft died giving birth to her daughter Mary Godwin (later Mary Shelley), author of Frankenstein. |
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