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

R.F. Delderfield

R.F. Delderfield

Author. Born Ronald Frederick Delderfield at 37 Waller Road, New Cross. His family moved to Addiscombe near Croydon, which provided the backdrop to his first major novels 'The Dreaming Suburb' and ...

Person, Literature

1 memorial
Mary Hutchinson

Mary Hutchinson

Short-story writer, socialite, model (for painters) and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Born as Mary Barnes in British India. Brought up in Italy and moved to London in 1909. Married barrister S...

Person, Literature, India, Italy

1 memorial
Theodore Fontane

Theodore Fontane

German writer and novelist, best known for novel 'Effi Briest' and recognised as foremost realist in 19th century German literature. In 1849 he became a professional writer and was sent by the inte...

Person, Literature, Germany

1 memorial
Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer

Poet and administrator. Whilst living in the Aldgate, as the ‘Comptroller of the Customs and Subside of Wools, Skins and Tanned Hides’ that Chaucer published ‘A Monks Tale’ and worked on ‘Canterbur...

Person, Literature, Seriously Famous

11 memorials
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