3, The Grove, Highgate, in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

, is a 17th-century house built by William Blake. In the 19th century it was home of the poet

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...

; in the 20th, the novelist J. B. Priestley; and in the 21st, the model

Kate Moss Katherine Ann Moss (born 16 January 1974) is an English model. Arriving towards the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her t ...

. It is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

In the 17th century,

Highgate Highgate is a suburban area of N postcode area, north London in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden, London Borough of Islington, Islington and London Borough of Haringey, Haringey. The area is at the north-eastern corner ...

was a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

to the north of London situated in the midst of the extensive Middlesex estate of the

Bishops of London The bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury. By custom the Bishop is also Dean of the Chapel Royal since 1723. The diocese covers of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of ...

. Nos. 1–6, The Grove, Highgate were built in around 1688 by a

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

, William Blake. Constructed in the gardens of a large mansion called Dorchester House, the speculative development was intended by Blake to fund a

charity school Charity schools, sometimes called blue coat schools, or simply the Blue School, were significant in the history of education in England. They were built and maintained in various parishes by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants to ...

he had established in the main building. In 1816,

, moved to the Highgate home of his doctor, James Gillman, seeking treatment for his addiction to

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

. In 1823 the Gillmans moved to No. 3, The Grove, installing Coleridge in a suite of rooms on the top floor. He remained there until his death in 1834; writing, revising and republishing earlier works such as ''

Kubla Khan "Kubla Khan: or A Vision in a Dream" () is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. It is sometimes given the subtitles "A Vision in a Dream" and "A Fragment." According to Coleridge's preface to "Kub ...

'', receiving visitors and becoming lauded as "the Sage of Highgate". In 1931 the house was bought by J. B. Priestley, using the profits from his novels, which had brought literary and worldly success since the publication of ''

The Good Companions ''The Good Companions'' is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley. Written in 1929, it follows the fortunes of a Concert Party (entertainment), concert party on a tour of England. It is Priestley's most famous novel and established hi ...

'' in 1929. He engaged Seely & Paget to reconstruct the house and the landscape architects Mawson's to redesign the garden. In the 21st century, No.3 was home to the model,

. Moss sold the house in 2022.

Architecture and description

Bridget Cherry Bridget Cherry (born 17 May 1941) is a British architectural historian who was series editor of the Pevsner Architectural Guides from 1971 until 2002, and is the author or co-author of several volumes in the series.Pevsner Buildings of England series, describes Nos. 1–6, The Grove, as "the finest group in Highgate". The row was originally built as three pairs of

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family Duplex (building), duplex dwelling that shares one common party wall, wall with its neighbour. The name distinguishes this style of construction from detached houses, with no sh ...

houses, of two storeys with dormers above. Most have been greatly altered since. No. 3 is now of three storeys, with a basement and a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. The construction material is red

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

. No. 3 is a

, the listing including the low wall which fronts the house, and its

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

railings and lamp.

Notes

References

Sources

* {{commons category Houses completed in the 17th century Grade II* listed houses Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Samuel Taylor Coleridge