Late last summer one of my best friends, Angelika, moved to England for a two-year work assignment. I recently flew over to London to spend a long weekend catching up with her and exploring her new home. Angelika’s also a poet, so you can imagine our time there had many writerly themes!
We visited three writers’ homes and I felt connected to each one in different ways. I’ll share a bit about Virginia Woolf’s Sussex home in this post, and in the coming weeks I’ll take you through the other homes!
Something that was new to me is that not all houses have numbers in England. Some have names. Angelika explained to me that having a house name instead of a number is ‘posh.’ 🙂 Virginia Woolf’s home is Monk’s House and she and her husband Leonard used it as their country home.
Virginia Woolf’s country home, Monk’s House.
Virginia and her husband started Hogarth Press, which was named after their other home where they first started printing their books, Hogarth House. I thought this was special for a few reasons. One, it was uncommon in 1917 for a woman to be an equal business partner. Two, Sarah Jessica Parker now has a publishing imprint SJP for Hogarth. (And you may remember my long-time SJP fandom.)
This is Leonard’s actual desk and I love that they have staged it with Hogarth Press stationery!
Hints of Hogarth Press.
A few (seemingly inactive) beehives were out back (not pictured), so my beekeeper side felt connected to this. 🙂
The style of the exposed beams in their living room reminded me of home. (The original owner of our house is responsible for hand-hewn beams in our living room that look very similar to this.)
The Woolfs’ home felt simple and peaceful. No wonder the gems Virginia wrote in A Room of One’s Own were mined here.
How cool! That’s a really neat idea to visit writers houses. I’ve been trying to think of things to do this summer, and looking at a mini tour of writer houses in the North of England would be a neat thing to do. Thanks for the idea. What wonderful photos too!
Thx, Nicola! If you find yourself in the South, search for the Southern Literary Trail. I haven’t done it yet, but it’s on my list and goes through AL, MS, and GA. You have so many great spots in NE to visit—I hope Nathaniel Hawthorne’s in Salem is on your itinerary!