Person    | Male  Born 24/4/1815  Died 6/12/1882

Anthony Trollope

Author of over 50 delightful novels. Born at 16 Keppel Street. Worked for the GPO (General Post Office) 1834 - 59 and introduced the free-standing postbox ('pillar box') to the UK, an idea stolen from France.

His family left Keppel Street when Anthony was still an infant but he perhaps had fond memories since in the 1861 'Orley Farm' he has one of his characters say to her husband, who has been so successful that the couple are now living in grand Harley Street: "Oh, Tom, I wonder whether you ever think of the old days when we used to be so happy in Keppel Street!" And in the 1874 'Lady Anna' he moves Anna and her mother into a house in Keppel Street. It is a novel about the nuances of rank and Keppel Street must have suggested to Trollope exactly the right level in the social hierarchy for this couple. Initially they occupy just the first and second floors but on acquiring some money they take over the ground floor as well. And (spoiler alert) it is in the ground floor parlour, actually in the parlour doorway, that an attempted murder takes place. 

Died in a nursing home at 34 Welbeck Street following a stroke while visiting relatives. We've read that the stroke was a result of excessive laughter brought on by reading a now forgotten Victorian novel, 'Vice Versa'. Can it really have been that funny? Must get a copy.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Anthony Trollope

Commemorated ati

Anthony Trollope

L.C.C. Anthony Trollope (1851 - 1882), novelist, lived here.

Read More

Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Fleet Street

5 similar plaques have been erected.

Read More

Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Pall Mall

5 similar plaques have been erected.

Read More

Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Piccadilly

This plaque commemorates the bicentenary of the birth of Anthony Trollope (18...

Read More

Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Rutland Gate

5 similar plaques have been erected.

Read More

Show all 8

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
Rape of the Lock

Rape of the Lock

Poem by Alexander Pope. Its convoluted plot concerns a character called Belinda and a count who is determined to obtain a lock of her hair. Originally written in two cantos, it was expanded in 1714...

Fiction, Literature

1 memorial
The Sign of Four

The Sign of Four

The second of the Sherlock Holmes novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Originally called the Sign of The Four, it has a complex plot involving the East India Company, the Indian Rebellion of 1...

Fiction, Literature

1 memorial
Ben Okri

Ben Okri

Poet and novelist.  Born Nigeria but spent his early childhood in London.  Returned to England to study in the late 1970s.  His 1991 novel 'The Famished Road' won the Booker Prize.

Person, Literature, Poetry, Nigeria

1 memorial
John Wyndham

John Wyndham

Author. Born John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, in Dorridge near Knowle, Warwickshire. Most of his novels are about terrestrial apocalypses (he disliked the term science-fiction). The best kn...

Person, Literature

1 memorial