Person    | Male  Born 5/4/1837  Died 10/4/1909

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Categories: Poetry

Born 7 Chester Street, Chelsea. Poet associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He invented the poetic form called ‘roundel’. Was a good friend of Dante Rossetti, who called him his ’little Northumbrian friend’ as Swinburne had adopted Northumberland as his native county and was just over five feet tall.

Staying with his homosexual lover, George Powell, at Entretat (near Dieppe) Swinburne had a near-death experience swimming off the beach when he was swept out to sea. His rescue by a fishing vessel was witnessed (possibly assisted) by Guy de Maupassant who thus got to know Swinburne and Powell. He described his visits to their cottage on a number of occasions and the abode does seem very bizarre: on display were piles of bones and a flayed hand (the fingers of which Powell kept sucking), supposedly of a patricide. A large pet monkey was noisily present. After lunch pornographic German photographs were brought out for the boastfully heterosexual Maupassant's enjoyment. Afterwards he wrote: "If genius is a kind of delirium of the higher intelligence then Swinburne is assuredly a genius". The genius died at 11 Putney Hill.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

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

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Commemorated ati

Rose and Crown, Wimbledon

The Rose and Crown - one of Wimbledon's oldest public houses, dating from the...

Read More

Rossetti & Swinburne

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828 - 1882, and Algernon Charles Swinburne, 1837 - 1...

Read More

Swinburne & Watts-Dunton

L.C.C. Algernon Charles Swinburne, (1837-1909), -poet-, and his friend, Theod...

Read More

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Creations i

Rossetti fountain

Unveiled by William Holman Hunt. There must have been a committee to erect th...

Read More

Other Subjects

Sir Stephen Spender

Sir Stephen Spender

Poet.  Born 47 Campden House Court, Kensington.  The Evening Standard carries a very critical review of a 2012 edition of Spender's journals. Died at home at 15 Loudoun Road, St John's Wood , or i...

Person, Poetry

1 memorial
Richard Church

Richard Church

Poet and writer. Born Richard Thomas Church in Battersea. He worked as a civil servant, before taking up writing full-time in 1933. His poems include 'Solstices', 'A House in Winter' and 'The Man W...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Poetry

1 memorial
W. B. Yeats

W. B. Yeats

Poet and dramatist. Born in Dublin to John Butler Yeats.  A member of The Rhymers' Club. Died in Roquebrune, France.

Person, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Theatre, France, Ireland

6 memorials
John Heath-Stubbs

John Heath-Stubbs

Poet.  Born Streatham Manor, Leigham Avenue (though his parents lived in Hampstead) into a wealthy family.  Partially and progressively blind from age 18.  Gay.  Influenced by by classical myths.  ...

Person, Poetry

1 memorial
Francis Bret Harte

Francis Bret Harte

American writer, best know for his accounts of pioneering life in California. Born New York. Came to London in 1885 via Germany and Glasgow. Buried at Frimley, Surrey. Some sources, contradicti...

Person, Literature, Poetry, USA

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Dame Ida Mann

Dame Ida Mann

NW2, Minster Road, 13

This house is on the corner of the street in which Ida Mann was born, Fordwych Road, number 67. She lived in Minster Road aged 9 - 41.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester

Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester

Married Humphrey, uncle to the child King Henry VI.  Eleanor was implicated in a plot of  treasonable necromancy against the king.  Her supposed co-conspirators were executed and she was sentenced ...

Person, Royalty

1 memorial
John Constable - Fitzrovia

John Constable - Fitzrovia

W1, Charlotte Street, 76

We thank Steve Roffey for alerting us to this item at Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association 1. We thank FNA for the photos and for their ca...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Mr Benn

Mr Benn

SW15, Festing Road, 52

The memorial is actually in the pavement at the junction of Festing Road and Lower Richmond Road. Our map pin is at number 54, the house...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Medieval bastion

Medieval bastion

First conserved in 1959 by the Ministry of Works when it was in the basement of the then new General Post Office.  The picture source is a report by the developers of the current building. 

Building, London Wall

1 memorial