Plaque: Percy & Mary Shelley
Erection date: 19/12/2009
Marchmont Association
Percy Bysshe Shelley , 1792 - 1822, poet and radical thinker & Mary Shelley, 1797 - 1851, author of Frankenstein lived in a house on this site, 1815 - 16.
After their elopement in July 1814 the Shelleys lived here with Claire Clairmont, Mary's step-sister. Their son was born, presumably here, in January 1816. In May 1816 they all left to join Lord Byron in Geneva. The Shelleys were not married until December 1816. Clairmont (1798 - 1879) was made pregnant and dumped by Byron in her teens. The child, Allegra, was sent to a convent by Byron, where she died aged 5. Clairmont lived with the Shelleys for most of their marriage and there was gossip that she had a child by Percy. Towards the end of her life she wrote a vengeful memoir.
Site: Percy & Mary Shelley (1 memorial)
WC1, Marchmont Street, 87
The Shelleys' house, demolished in 1904, was number 26 (renumbered in 1878 to number 87).
Go to map of other memorials in this area
