Person    | Male  Born 7/5/1812  Died 12/12/1889

Robert Browning

Categories: Poetry, Seriously Famous

Countries: Italy

Poet and playwright. Born Camberwell. His works include ‘Home Thoughts from Abroad’ and ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’. He fell in love with Elizabeth Barrett and married her secretly because of her father’s disapproval. They escaped to Italy. Browning died Palazzo Rezzonico, Venice and is buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.

Browning's homes in London are remarkably well plaqued. Chronologically they should be visited: SE5, SE14, *, W2, W8. The * represents a plaque gap, 1846 - 1862, which is the period that the Brownings were on the Continent. When Elizabeth died, Browning returned to London with their son, Pen. In 1866 Browning's sister, Sarianna, came to keep house for him and stayed for the rest of his life. The W2 house, which was rented, developed defects and that prompted Browning to buy the W8 house. Pen married a rich American and lived in Venice in Palazzo Rezzonico, where Browning was visiting when he died.

From Londonist's Secrets of London's Canals we learnt that it was Browning that, having just returned from Italy, named the canals near his W2 home 'Little Venice' and the triangle of water there is know as Browning's Pool.

Fun fact: Robert Browning was not as well-versed in vulgar slang as he needed to be. He misread a bawdy 17th century reference to an “Old Nun’s Twat” as referring to part of a nun’s habit, and so he went on to innocently use “twat” in his poem Pippa Passes:
“Then, owls and bats,
Cowls and twats,
Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods,
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry!”

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Robert Browning

Commemorated ati

Robert Browning - SE14

The cottage was 'Telegraph Cottage' which Browning described as "resembling a...

Read More

Robert Browning - SE5

{Beneath a silhouette:}  Robert Browning poet, born Camberwell 1812, lived on...

Read More

Robert Browning - W2 sculpture

2015: The attribution of this work, ‘Two Doves’, to William Mitchell is being...

Read More

Robert Browning - W2 Westminster plaque

He lived at what was number 19 Warwick Crescent.

Read More

Robert Browning - W8

Robert Browning lived in this house 1887 - 1889, from here his body was taken...

Read More

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Robert Browning

Creations i

Robert Browning Settlement

The quotation is from Browning's poem 'Saul': "I have gone the whole round o...

Read More

Rossetti fountain

Unveiled by William Holman Hunt. There must have been a committee to erect th...

Read More

Other Subjects

Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset

Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset

Poet and politician. Probably born in Essex. Lived in Bow Street. Died at Bath.

Person, Poetry, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
William Johnson Cory

William Johnson Cory

Teacher, scholar and poet. Born Devon as William Johnson. As assistant master at Eton College, 1845 - 1872, he composed the words for the Eton Boating Song. In 1850 he published a collection of ...

Person, Education, Poetry

1 memorial
Milos Crnjanski

Milos Crnjanski

Poet, and diplomat. Born in Csongrád, Hungary. His family moved to Romania in 1896, where the Serbian heritage was instilled in him. In 1912 he went to study in Rijeka (in modern day Croatia) and V...

Person, Poetry, Politics & Administration, Austria, Balkans, Hungary, Romania, Serbia

1 memorial
Alice Meynell

Alice Meynell

Poet and journalist.  Alice Thompson was born in Barnes.  Her paternal grandmother was an unmarried Creole.  Educated with her sister entirely by their father as they lived a peripatetic life mainl...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Poetry, Italy

1 memorial
Edwin Arnold

Edwin Arnold

Journalist and poet, Born at Gravesend. In 1852 he obtained the Newdigate prize for his first poem, 'The Feast of Belshazzar' ('High on a throne of ivory and gold, From crown to footstool clad in p...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Poetry, India, USA

1 memorial