A Virtual Tourof Shaw'sLondon

In 1900 LSE was recognised as afaculty of economics in the newly-constituted University of London,offering first university degreesprincipally dedicated to the socialsciences.In 1902 the School moved formally toits present site in Clare Market, off the

Our tour of Shaw’s London begins inHoughton Street, just off Kingsway, atthe LSE (London School of Economicsand Political Science), one of theforemost social science universities inthe world.

LSE was founded in 1895 by fourmembers of the Fabian Society(Beatrice and Sidney Webb, GrahamWallas and Bernard Shaw). Its initialfunding came from a £20,000 bequestto the Fabians by Henry HuntHuchinson. The aim of the School wasthe betterment of society, by studyingpoverty issues and analysinginequalities.Sidney Webb had a vision of a “centrenot only of lectures on special subjectsbut an association of students whowould be directed and supported indoing original work”.LSE held its first classes in rooms inJohn Street, then at 10 Adelphi Terrace,where Charlotte Payne-Townshend,later Mrs Bernard Shaw, had anapartment.

Aldwych, and in May 1920 King GeorgeV laid the foundation stone of the “OldBuilding”. LSE now has over 9,000 full-time students, and a worldwidenetwork of over 100,000 alumni in 190countries.A total of 16 Nobel Prize winners ineconomics, peace and literature havebeen either LSE staff or alumni.You can then walk to the centre ofWaterloo Bridge for views up and downthe River Thames and of the NationalTheatre on the opposite bank, and thenback to Covent Garden market(including St Paul’s Church, designedby Inigo Jones and the setting for thefirst scene of Shaw’s Pygmalion. Youcould loiter behind the pillars with anotebook,

The National Theatre (on the southbank of the river) has in recent yearsdone fine productions of St Joan,MajorBarbara and The Doctor’s Dilemma. Itwas built in the 1970s, but thecampaign to establish it had lastedmany years.

We will take in a number of thelocations associated with Shaw (see thelast page for a full list of where he livedin London) but also, for the benefit offirst-time visitors to London, otherplaces of interest.

Facing us at the end of Kingsway, aswe turn left into the Aldwych, isBush House, home for many years forthe BBC’s World Service; George Orwellworked here in the 1940s and is said tohave made it the model for the Ministryof Truth and Room 101 in his 1984.

Travelling along the Strand, we passKings College (part of the University ofLondon), Somerset House (amagnificent 18th century buildingformerly

Shaw in 1938 receiving the title deedsof an earlier, abortive attempt toestablish a National Theatre (he led thecampaign at a time when the Britishgovernment was strongly opposed topublic subsidy of the arts)

government offices and now an artsand cultural centre), the LyceumTheatre (where Henry Irving and EllenTerry performed) and the SavoyTheatre (original home of the Gilbertand Sullivan operas).

We then turn off the Strand to:Adelphi TerraceCharlotte lived at 10 Adelphi Terraceand this was the Shaws’ London ad-dress for the first 29 years of theirmarriage.The building no longer exists, havingbeen demolished and replaced with amonumental Art Deco block in the1930s.

beneath. At that time the river wasmuch wider than now (see pictureabove),before the construction of theVictoria Embankment in the 1860s.Adelphi Terrace has had many nota-ble residents. David Garrick lived forhis last seven years, and died in1779, in the centre house; the nov-elist Thomas Hardy, the playwright JM Barrie, the Victorian impresarioRichard D’Oyly Carte, the philanthro-pist and social reformer CharlesBooth, and the novelist JohnGalsworthy all lived here.

The Adelphi district, between the Strandand the River Thames, was developedbetween 1768-72 by the Adam brothersJohn, Robert, James and William Adam(adelphi is the Greek for brothers).Robert Adam was influenced by hisextensive visit to Diocletian's Palace inDalmatia, and applied some of thisinfluence to the extensive visit toDiocletian's Palace in Dalmatia, andapplied some of this influence to thedesign of the Adelphi.The terrace was Londons first neo-classical building, consisting of elevenlarge houses, with vaulted wharves

Adelphi Terrace in the time of Shaw

We return to the Strand, crossTrafalgar Square (adorned with NelsonsColumn), under Admiralty Arch, andalong The Mall,with St James’s Park on our left andBuckingham Palace straight ahead. Atthe Victoria Memorial in front of thePalace we turn left and return alongBirdcage Walk on the other side of thepark.

This takes us to Parliament Square, withWestminster Abbey, the Houses ofParliament and Big Ben to our right. Weturn left along Victoria Embankment; onour left are various government offices,on the right (across the river) the formerCounty Hall, now housing the LondonAquarium and other exhibitions, and thebig wheel (the London Eye).

One of the many photographs whichShaw took from the windows of AdelphiTerrace in the early 1900s

The New Adelphi, which replaced AdelphiTerrace, seen from across the river

As we turn left into NorthumberlandAvenue, we pass the Playhouse Theatre(formerly called the Avenue Theatre),where Shaws Arms and the Manreceived its first performance.

Whitehall CourtShaws home from 1927 until he diedWhitehall Court is a vast French-chateau- style block built between 1884and 1887 mostly by architects ThomasArcher and Arthur Green, alsoresponsible for the Hyde Park hotel(originally a gentleman's club, now theMandarin Oriental). One end ofWhitehall Court, now the NationalLiberal Club, was designed by AlfredWaterhouse, better known for theNatural History Museum which is in thesame Gothic Revival style.

There was nothing shoddy about thisso-termed "palace of flats". Beneaththe ornate exterior lurked all the modcons of the day: electricity, lifts andsound-proofing. Among its decorativefeatures are glass canopied doorways,arched loggias and the prominenttowers and gables forming a skylinevisible from the Embankment. With asmany as 20 rooms, the largest of theflats dwarfed today's penthouses. Witha pleasant and convenient locationbetween Whitehall and Embankment,Whitehall Court attracted politicians,actors, writers and gentlemen ofmeans.

Among those who resided there at onetime or another were WilliamGladstone, H G Wells, Oscar Wilde, LordKitchener and Grand Duke Michael ofRussia. Flat number 54 served asHQ for MI6 (the secret intelligenceservice) during the First World War,while during the Second World Warparts of the building served asembassies for both the USA and theSoviet Union.

British MuseumThe British Museum was founded in1753, the first national public museumin the world; it began as a place todisplay the collection of more than71,000 objects bequeathed by thephysician and naturalist Sir HansSloane. Visitor numbers have grownfrom around 5,000 year in theeighteenth century to nearly 6 milliontoday.

From Whitehall Court we proceed backto Trafalgar Square, past theNational Gallery and St Martin-in-the-Fields, up Charing Cross Road, intoTottenham Court Road, and then turninto Great Russell Street. This takes uspast the front of the British Museum.Although we won’t stop here, we noteit as having been such an importantpart of Shaw’s self-education.

By the 1850s the museum badly need-ed a larger reading room and it wasdecided to construct a round room inthe empty central courtyard of thebuilding. The Reading Room opened in1857; using cast iron, concrete, glassand the latest heating and ventilationsystems, it was a masterpiece of mid-nineteenth century technology. Theroom had a diameter of 140 feet (= 43metres, wider than the dome of StPauls Cathedral) and was inspired bythe Pantheon in Rome. The bookstackssurrounding the room are made of ironand contain 25 miles of shelving.Shaw of course used the Reading Roomalmost daily from his first arrival inLondon; other famous readers included

Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, RudyardKipling, Conan Doyle, H G Wells, Lenin,Mark Twain, Mahatma Gandhi andGeorge Orwell.In 1997 the books were moved to thenew purpose-built British Library in StPancras.

As part of the museums GreatCourt development the interior of theReading Room was carefully restored,with the interior of the dome repairedand the original blue, cream and goldcolour scheme reinstated. The ReadingRoom was used as a temporary homefor special exhibitions until the newWorldConservation and ExhibitionsCentre opened in 2014.

In his small study at Fitzroy SquareShaw wrote his music and drama criti-cism, his Fabian essays, The Quintes-sence of Ibsenism and his first sevenplays, and prepared his public speeches(nearly a thousand delivered during thetime he lived here).The plaque on the wall reads: GeorgeBernard Shaw lived in this house 1887-1898 / “From the coffers of his genius,he enriched the world”.

The blue plaque is for Virginia Woolf, alater occupant of the house which isnow, like many of those in the square,offices.

subsequently joined by others includingShaw himself, W S Gilbert and IreneVanbrugh. In 1912 Shaw donated theroyalties from Pygmalion to RADA(allowing it eventually to benefitsubstantially from the success of MyFair Lady). Shaw gave occasionallectures tothe students, including one calledElementary Economics for Actors.

In 1920 RADA was granted its RoyalCharter, and in 1921 a new theatre forthe academy was built in Malet Street,adjacent to the Gower Street premises.In 1927 the two Georgian houses whichcomprised the Gower Street site werereplaced with a single new building,with Shaw donating £5,000 towards thecost. When he died in 1950 Shaw leftone third of all his royalties to RADA(the other two beneficiaries being theBritish Museum and the NationalGallery of Ireland).

Royal Academy of Dramatic ArtRADA is one of the oldest dramaschools in the UK, and is generallyregarded as one of the most prestigiousin the world. It was founded in 1904 bySir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, the leadingactor-manager of the day.

Famous for his spectacularShakespeare productions at theHaymarket Theatre. The initialmanaging council included the actor SirJohnston Forbes-Robertson (for whomShaw had created the role of Caesar inCaesar and Cleopatra) and the play-wrights Pinero and Barrie; they were

Fitzroy SquareShaw and his mother moved to 29Fitzroy Square in 1887 and he was tostay there until he married eleven yearslater. (They had earlier lived for 16months in 1880-2 at 37 Fitzroy Street,which is just off the square, and is nowconsiderably smartened up sinceShaw’s time – the London base for theScientology movement).

Where did Shaw live in London?

Shaw came to London in April 1876, aged 19, to join his mother and sister at 13Victoria Grove (now Netherton Grove), off Fulham Road, West Brompton

23 December 1880, they moved to 37 Fitzroy Street (an unfurnished first floorapartment; it was insalubrious and Shaw was often ill)

22 April 1882, they moved to 36 Osnaburgh Street, on the north side of EustonRoad (second floor of a  highly respectable house )

The landlord went bankrupt, so they moved in March 1887 to 29 Fitzroy Square (5rooms, on the third and fourth floors); Shaw lived here until he married in 1898

1 June 1898 he married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, moving to her residence at10 Adelphi Terrace

In 1906 they took a tenancy at Ayot St Lawrence (dividing time between there andLondon); intended originally as a temporary home, they bought it in 1920

In July 1927 they moved from Adelphi Terrace to a serviced apartment at WhitehallCourt (this was Shaws London address until his death in 1950)

The London tour was devised and researched by the lateMichael Sargent. Michael was an educationalist and theatre director;he directed four plays by Shaw, including Caesar and Cleopatra and

Mrs Warren’s Profession, and also devised and presentedentertainments for the Shaw Society on Shaw and the New Woman,Shaw on War and the Ellen Terry / Bernard Shaw correspondence.Tour guides: Michael Sargent and the late Malcolm Wroe (actor,

writer and Shaw Society member)