The Pines is a

Grade II listed 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, H ...

house in

Putney Putney () is an affluent district in southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ...

in the

London Borough of Wandsworth Wandsworth () is a London boroughs, London borough in South West (London sub region), South West London, England. It forms part of Inner London and has an estimated population of 329,677 inhabitants. Its main communities are Battersea, Balham, P ...

, it was home to the poets

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He wrote many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...

and

Theodore Watts-Dunton Theodore Watts-Dunton (12 October 1832 – 6 June 1914), from St Ives, Cambridgeshire, St Ives, Huntingdonshire, was an English poetry critic with major periodicals, and himself a poet. He is remembered particularly as the friend and minder of ...

Location

The building is at 9 - 11 Putney Hill, south of the Upper Richmond Road,

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

bus stop Putney Station (Stop H) is outside.

History and residents

The building was built circa 1870 as a pair of four-storey townhouses.

moved in during 1879 with his two sisters, brother in-law, and nephew. Watts-Dunton took in

until Swinburne's death in 1909. Watts-Dunton and Swinburne are seen in an image at the property in 1909 and a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

erected by the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

on the house in 1926 reads "Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) poet, and his friend Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832–1914) poet, novelist, critic, lived and died here". Watts-Dunton lived on at The Pines for five years after his more famous companion's death in 1909 and then died there in 1914.

Visitors

Essayist and cartoonist

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, Parody, parodist and Caricature, caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the theatre crit ...

frequently visited. He described the house as being "but a few steps from the railway-station in Putney High Street" in his 1914 essay ''No. 2, The Pines''., and illustrated a visit in a piece in 1926. Mollie Panter-Downes researched Beerbohm's visits in the book 'At the Pines' in 1971. Watts-Dunton also took in artist Henry Treffry Dunn and provided a studio for him at The Pines until his death in 1899.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pines, The Grade II listed houses in London Houses in the London Borough of Wandsworth Houses completed in the 19th century Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Wandsworth Putney