A Short Guide to Literary Spots in London

Most people who have never been to the capital know London from films and books. Especially classical books written in the Victorian era or the first half of the 20th century. C’mon, admit it, when you hear London, the first thing that comes to your mind is Baker Street. Or narrow paved streets with carriages on them, and dirty Dickensian kids shouting everywhere.

If you have recently had your boxes unpacked by the man and van movers who helped you relocate to London, and you are anxious to explore your new place of residence, why don’t you check out the literary spots listed below and see where those images have been conceived and even created?

• Your first stop should be definitely the George Inn. The pub was open in the 16th century, and according to the plaque on the front door, it was the favorite place to rest and have a beer or two after a hard day at work for both William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. The George Inn is on 77 Borough High Street.
• The Garden Squares of Bloomsbury in Camden are today known to literary lovers because of the famous Bloomsbury literary group that gathered here in the 1920s and 1930s. We are talking about such names as Virginia Woolf, T.S. Elliot, John Maynard Keynes and E. M. Forster. Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein also lived here.
• The British Library. Well, no famous author lived or drank beer here, but that is definitely the ultimate place to go for every bookworm. The sheer amount of volumes and original manuscripts kept here is overwhelming. If you want to look at the manuscripts of some of the most iconic works in the British literary canon, this is the place to go. The library holds works by William Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and many others.
• Platform 9 ¾ at the King’s Cross Station. If you are from a younger generation, or you have kids, chances are that the Harry Potter series of books have left a permanent mark on your life already. Platform 9 ¾ is now officially marked on the station, and there is a Harry Potter shop next to it.
• No literary tour of London can go without a visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Do you want to try guessing where it is? That’s right – 221b Baker Street. The famous detective is already a symbol of London and the British experience as a whole, so you should not miss your chance to pay your tributes at his own home.
• 21 New Globe Walk is home to the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. If you are a fan of the best playwright of them all and the Elizabethan Era itself, you should definitely come here – it is the place where most of Shakespeare’s plays were first presented to the audience, and the whole place just holds the atmosphere of greatness that the name of the author possesses still centuries after his death.

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