Plaque

(lost) Edward Lear - Seymour Street - gone

Inscription

Edward Lear, 1812 - 1888, artist and writer, lived here.
London County Council

Site: Edward Lear - Seymour Street - gone (1 memorial)

W1, Seymour Street, 30

2016: Douglas Eaton told us the plaque has gone. Checking on Google Street View history: it was still there in July 2009, then number 30 and its neighbour to the east disappeared under scaffolding and wraps, emerging in May 2015 sans plaque. The works included replacing all the plate glass with properly fenestrated windows so the developers did something right. We'll give them a bit longer before we flag this plaque as lost.

December 2017: The plaque has not returned so we have marked it as lost. The brickwork has been cleaned and now looks so like plastic cladding that we had to touch it to check. Two pseudo-Dickensian notices are attached to the railings: one an advert for their 'Hearty Breakfasts' etc. and the other a hypocritical notice, 'we love cycles but please park them elsewhere'. Can you tell that we've rather taken against this outfit?

2018: Via Facebook, Steve Roffey tells us that these buildings, numbers 28-30, are modern facsimiles of the originals, and that EH retrieved their plaque but did not want to re-erect it on the facsimile so found an alternative Lear home in 2016 but, so far, no re-erection. We'll leave it marked as lost until we hear of its new location.

We know of other reproduction Georgian houses around London and they seldom work completely. These ones are successful from a distance but close up they look fake, as we noted last year when we visited knowing nothing of the recreations.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Edward Lear - Seymour Street - gone

Subjects commemorated i

Edward Lear

Born Bowman's Lodge, (now Bowman's Mews), the penultimate of 21 children. Art...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Edward Lear - Seymour Street - gone

Created by i

London County Council

Prior to the LCC London matters were run by church parishes. The LCC was the ...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Sir Charles Barry - SW4

Sir Charles Barry - SW4

SW4, Clapham Common North Side, 30

Sir Charles Barry, 1795 - 1860, architect, lived and died here. L.C.C. 

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association

E8, Bayford Street, Bayford Mews

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, founded October 1959, acquired and occupied these premises, the Groupwork Centre, Bayford Mews, E...

1 subject commemorated
Citroën House

Citroën House

W6, Shepherd's Bush Road, 184

This is the only London work that we can identify by Heathcote, a Manchester architect. e-Architect describes, with photos, Its recent re...

4 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Richard Stannard

Richard Stannard

IG10, The Avenue, 33

Capt Richard Stannard, V.C. (1902 - 1977) R.N.V.R., hero of the evacuation of Namsos,1940, lived here. Loughton Town Council 1999

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Skipper Gandolfi and Kim Mayo

Skipper Gandolfi and Kim Mayo

SE15, Linden Grove, Nunhead Cemetery

The wording of the Mayo plaque is a little strange.  In what way could research give the Leysdown tragedy to the Friends of the Cemetery?...

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator