Place    From 1559 

Poets' Corner

Categories: Literature

The popular name for the south transept of Westminster Abbey. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first person to be interred here, although it was for his position as Clerk of Works to the Palace of Westminster, rather than for literary merit. It wasn't until the burial of Edmund Spenser that the tradition began. The name was supposed to have been coined by Oliver Goldsmith. Nowadays occupants are commemorated with a wall or floor tablet rather than actual interment.

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

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Poets' Corner

Commemorated ati

Robert Browning - W8

Robert Browning lived in this house 1887 - 1889, from here his body was taken...

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Other Subjects

Wyndham Lewis

Wyndham Lewis

Artist and writer. Born Percy Wyndham Lewis but he didn't like the Percy and dropped it. He was born in his wealthy American father's yacht off Amherst, Nova Scotia, to a British mother who left he...

Person, Art, Literature, USA

1 memorial
Helene Hanff

Helene Hanff

Born Philadelphia. Wrote 84 Charing Cross Road in 1970. Later made into a play and film. Died New York City. The apartment building where she lived at 305 E. 72nd Street has been named "Charing ...

Person, Literature, USA

1 memorial
Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer

Novelist. Born at 103 Woodside, Wimbledon. From 1932, she produced one romance novel and one thriller each year. In all she wrote nearly sixty volumes. Died at Guy's Hospital.

Person, Literature

1 memorial
Leonard Huxley

Leonard Huxley

Writer. His works include biographies of his father Thomas Henry Huxley and Charles Darwin. Father of Aldous and Julian Huxley, the unidentified child in the photograph is presumably one of his sons.

Person, History, Literature

1 memorial
Theodore Fontane

Theodore Fontane

German writer and novelist, best known for novel 'Effi Briest' and recognised as foremost realist in 19th century German literature. In 1849 he became a professional writer and was sent by the inte...

Person, Literature, Germany

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Barber Beaumont tomb

Barber Beaumont tomb

E1, Shandy Park

Three years before his death in 1841 Beaumont created a tomb for himself and his family in front of the chapel, “… two immense pedestals ...

1 subject commemorated