Place    From 1559 

Poets' Corner

Categories: Literature

The popular name for the south transept of Westminster Abbey. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first person to be interred here, although it was for his position as Clerk of Works to the Palace of Westminster, rather than for literary merit. It wasn't until the burial of Edmund Spenser that the tradition began. The name was supposed to have been coined by Oliver Goldsmith. Nowadays occupants are commemorated with a wall or floor tablet rather than actual interment.

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

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Poets' Corner

Commemorated ati

Robert Browning - W8

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

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Other Subjects

Sir Henry Rider Haggard

Sir Henry Rider Haggard

Novelist. Born at Wood Farm, West Bradenham, Norfolk. At the age of nineteen he was sent to Natal to serve the Lieutenant-Governor, as his father said he was only fit to be a greengrocer. He achiev...

Person, Law, Literature, South Africa

1 memorial
The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in the Willows

Written by Kenneth Grahame, much of it based on a series of letters to he wrote to his son.  First published October 1908.

Fiction, Fictional, Literature

1 memorial
Henry Buxton Forman

Henry Buxton Forman

Born Camden Place, Southampton Street, Camberwell. Bibliographer and forger. An authority on the lives and works of Shelley and Keats. He also had a lifelong career in the Post Office and was award...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Literature, Museums / Libraries, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 2nd Baronet

Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 2nd Baronet

Home Secretary 1859-60. Born London. Before entering politics Lewis studied linguistics and published a number of books throughout his life.

Person, Literature, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Sir Leslie Stephen

Sir Leslie Stephen

Scholar, writer and mountaineer. Born in Kensington Gore, (now 42 Hyde Park Gate). Father of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. He became an Anglican clergyman but later renounced his religious belie...

Person, Literature, Sport / Games, Switzerland

1 memorial

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Sidney R. J. Smith

Sidney R. J. Smith

Architect. HIs extant work in London includes: West Norwood Free Public Library, Knight’s Hill (1887); Outdoor Relief Station, Norwood (1887); Tate Free Library, South Lambeth Road (1887); Durning ...

Person, Architecture

1 memorial