If you’re in the market for a novel place to live – this fascinating property could be just the job.
Twenty-five Craven Street, a six-storey house in Westminster, London, is now available to rent for £19,500 a month – and it’s where Herman Melville was inspired to write Moby Dick.
The American novelist, Moby Dick, moved into the property in 1849. A blue plaque outside the Georgian Townhouse honors the time he spent there, which was a boardinghouse at the time.
Pictured is end-of-terrace 25 Craven Street in Westminster, which is now available to rent for £19,500 a month
A blue plaque is located outside the Georgian townhouse. It commemorates Melville’s stay in the building. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons. Pictured on the right is Herman Melville who moved into the property two year before he published Moby Dick.
Melville, who was born and raised in New York, was already an accomplished writer before he moved to the UK. Typee, his first book, was published in 1846 and became an overnight bestseller in England.
His wife Lizzie gave birth to their son, Malcolm, months before he moved from London.
According to English Heritage, Melville travelled to London in the autumn to secure a publishing deal for his new novel White-Jacket and to gather material for another book – an account of the American revolutionary Israel Potter.
English Heritage says Melville only stayed at the Craven Street address for ‘a few weeks’, residing in the ‘cheap lodgings’ in November and December.
Dexters estate agents, which is renting the property, says: ‘It is believed that he thought up Moby Dick while living at Craven Street.
‘There are mentions in his diary of “turning flukes” [to go under a whale]Oxford Street is walked down as if being chased by a great white whale. There are also descriptions of imaginary “blubber areas” in Fleet Market.
English Heritage says Melville only stayed at the Craven Street address for ‘a few weeks at the end of 1849’
The six-storey townhouse served as a boarding house from 1849 to 1850. English Heritage reports that Melville stayed there between November and December 1849.
Melville reportedly went to London to get a publishing deal and to gather material for his next book.
Dexters estate agents, who are renting the property, says: ‘It is believed that he thought up Moby Dick while living at Craven Street’
‘It was also in London that the author saw J M W Turner’s whaling pictures for the first time, which provided visual inspiration for his new book.’
English Heritage adds: ‘Melville was an indefatigable partygoer and sightseer. In his diary, he recorded seeing the Lord Mayor’s Show, a public hanging, the British Museum, the National Gallery and London Zoo.’
When he left London, he returned to America, and the following year, he purchased what would become known as the ‘Herman Melville House’ in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
He lived in the farmhouse between 1850 and 1863. It was there that The Confidence-Man and Pierre were first published.
The blue plaque was mounted outside Craven Street in Melville’s honour in 2005. He isn’t the only famous figure to have resided on the street – the Charing Cross address also counts Benjamin Franklin among its past residents.
The home boasts ‘panelled walls, period fireplaces and floor-to-ceiling windows’, according to the estate agents
Prospective renters will enter the 4,400 square ft (409 m sq) property through a grand hallway, which leads to a reception room
Number 25 is a recently renovated building with five bedrooms, five bathrooms and two kitchens
Melville isn’t the only famous figure to have resided on Craven Street – the street also counts Benjamin Franklin among its past residents
According to the estate agent, the property’s winning feature is ‘an immense square roof terrace that provides unobstructed views of the London Eye and the river’
Dexters says of the property: ‘This beautiful Georgian townhouse in Westminster has it all: heritage, character and incredible views of London’s landmarks.’ Pictured on the right is a floor plan of 25 Craven Street, which is a Grade-II listed building
‘Newly renovated with high ceilings and light on three aspects, it offers the perfect contemporary family home in one of London’s most exclusive locations,’ Dexters adds
Number 25 is a recently renovated Grade II-listed building, with five bedrooms, five bathrooms and two kitchens.
Prospective renters will be able to enter the property’s 4,400 sq ft (409m sq) through a grand hallway. This leads to a reception. with ‘panelled walls, period fireplaces and floor-to-ceiling windows’. The fireplace in the first-floor reception dates back to 1792.
According to the estate agent, the property’s winning feature – aside from its literary history – is ‘an immense square roof terrace that provides unobstructed views of the London Eye and the river’.
Lazarus Demetriou, Director of Dexters Fitzrovia, says: ‘This beautiful Georgian townhouse in Westminster has it all: heritage, character and incredible views of London’s landmarks.
‘Newly renovated with high ceilings and light on three aspects, it offers the perfect contemporary family home in one of London’s most exclusive locations.’
For more information visit dexters.co.uk.