London house where Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick goes on sale
The former Blue Plaque home of American author Herman Melville, where he wrote early drafts of Mody-Dick in the late 1840s, has gone on the market for £9m.
The five-bedroom, four-storey townhouse on London’s Embankment housed Melville for two separate periods of the 1800s, and the nearby wharf served as inspiration – along with his experiences on a whaling ship – for Moby-Dick.
According to selling agent Wetherell, other lodgers Captain George Pollard Junior and Captain Archibald Buchanan inspired the character of Captain Ahab, the protagonist in Moby-Dick.
During a visit to the National Gallery, Melville purportedly saw artist J.M.W. Turner’s Whalers painting, which provided him with visual inspiration for the novel, while a bow shaped-drawing room overlooking the Thames may also be the basis for Captain Ahab’s cabin in the novel.
Wetherell has said the house, which was originally built in 1791-2 and has direct views of the Thames, could be worth as much as £16m once refurbished to an ultra-prime specification. The townhouse comes with full planning permission.
The house currently provides cellars in the basement, a breakfast room and living room on the lower ground floor, kitchen and two reception rooms on the ground floor, two reception rooms on the first floor and four bedrooms and four bathrooms on the upper floors.
It was originally split up into lodging rooms and only later became a standalone home.
Chair of selling agent Wetherell, Peter Wetherell, said: “This Blue Plaque townhouse at 25 Craven Street was once the London base of American author Herman Melville and inspired his acclaimed novel Moby-Dick.
“Once remodelled and refurbished this will be one of the most spectacular townhouses on the Embankment, located between the River Thames and The Strand.”
Melville’s novel was first published in London as The Whale in October 1851 and as Moby-Dick in New York in November 1851.