Cabinet Member Report
Date:
1 October 2007
Subject:
Commemorative Green Plaque for poet, Lord Byron
on the site of his birth in Holles Street, 1788- 1824
Summary
Born in London in a house on the site now occupied by John Lewis department
store, George Gordon, son of Captain John Byron and Catherine Gordon, spent
the first 10 years of his life with his mother in Aberdeen. In 1798 he succeeded
to the title Baron Byron of Rochdale, on the death of his great uncle. The money
inherited enabled him to be educated at Harrow School and then Trinity College,
Cambridge.
Byron became among the most famous of the English 'Romantic' poets; his
contemporaries included Percy Shelley and John Keats. He was also a satirist
whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. His major
works include Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-18) and Don Juan (1819-24).
Byron died of fever and exposure while engaged in the Greek struggle for
independence in April 1824.
Recommendation
That the nomination for a commemorative green plaque for Lord Byron be
approved subject to sponsorship in full.
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Cabinet Member Report
City of Westminster
Cabinet Member
Date:
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Planning
1 October 2007
For General Release
Commemorative Green Plaque for Lord Byron
The Director of Planning and City Development
West End
The commemorative Green Plaques scheme
complements a number of Council strategies: to
improve the legibility and understanding of
Westminster’s heritage and social history; to
provide information for Westminster’s visitors; to
provide imaginative and accessible educational
tools to raise awareness and understanding of
local areas, particularly for young people; to
celebrate the richness and diversity of
Westminster’s former residents.
The Green Plaque Scheme depends on
sponsorship
Report Author:
Gillian Dawson
Contact details
Gillian Dawson
Telephone 020 7641 2457
Fax 020 7641 3050
gdawson@westminster.gov.uk
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1.
Background
1.1
As a child he was known simply as George Noel Gordon. Born in a house in
Holles Street, London, and with a clubfoot, he was taken by his mother,
Catherine Gordon, to Aberdeen, Scotland, where they lived in lodgings on a
meagre income. He attended the grammar school there. At the age of 10,
George inherited the title and estates of his great-uncle, the "wicked" Lord
Byron. His mother proudly took him to England. The boy fell in love with the
ghostly halls and spacious grounds of Newstead Abbey, which had been
presented to the Byron family by the infamous King Henry VIII, and he and his
mother lived in its ruins for a while.
1.2
In 1801 Byron went to Harrow. After a term at Trinity College, Byron indulged
in dissipation and undue generosity in London that put him deeply into debt.
He returned in the summer of 1806 to Southwell, where he gathered his early
poems in a volume privately printed in November with the title Fugitive
Pieces. The following June his first published poems, Hours of Idleness,
appeared. When he returned to Trinity he formed a close friendship with John
Cam Hobhouse, who stirred his interest in liberal Whiggism. On reaching his
majority in January 1809, he took his seat in the House of Lords, published an
anonymous satire, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, and embarked with
Hobhouse on a grand tour.
1.3
They sailed on the Lisbon packet, which inspired one of Byron's funniest
poems, crossed Spain, and proceeded via Gibraltar to Malta. There Byron fell
in love with a married woman and almost fought a duel on her account. On
their return Byron began at Janina an autobiographical poem, Childe Harold,
which he continued during the journey to Athens. They lodged with a widow,
whose daughter, Theresa Macri, Byron celebrated as The Maid of Athens.
1.4
Byron arrived in London on 14 July 1811, and his mother died on August 1
before he could reach her at Newstead. On 27 February 1812, he made his
first speech in the House of Lords, and at the beginning of March, Childe
Harold’s Pilgrimage published by John Murray and took the town by storm.
Besides furnishing a poetic travelogue of picturesque lands, it gave vents to
the moods of melancholy and disillusionment of the post-Revolutionary and
Napoleonic eras. The poem conveyed the disparity between the romantic
ideal and the world of reality, a unique achievement in 19th century verse.
Byron was lionized in Whig society and the handsome poet with was swept
into affairs with the passionate Lady Caroline Lamb, the "autumnal" Lady
Oxford, and Lady Frances Webster. The agitation of these affairs and the
sense of mingled guilt and exultation they aroused in his mind are reflected in
the Oriental tales he wrote during the period.
1.5
Seeking escape in marriage, in September 1814, he proposed to Anne
Isabella Milbanke. The marriage took place on 2 January 1815. After a
honeymoon "not all sunshine," the Byrons, in March, settled in London.
Delays in negotiations to sell Newstead left them financially embarrassed and
before long bailiffs were in the house demanding payment of debts. Byron
escaped to the house of John Murray, his publisher.
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1.6
Lady Byron gave birth to a daughter, Augusta Ada, on 10 December, and in
January she left with the child for a visit to her parents and let him know that
she was not moving back. Byron signed legal separation papers and went
abroad, never returning to England. He was now the most famous exile in
Europe.
1.7
After visiting the battlefield of Waterloo, Byron journeyed to Switzerland. At
the Villa Diodati, near Geneva, he was on friendly terms with the poet Percy
Bysshe Shelley and his entourage, which included William Godwin and Mary
Wollstonecraft's daughter, Mary, who was Shelley’s wife, and Godwin’s
stepdaughter by a second marriage, Claire Clairmont, who had begun an affair
with Byron before he left England.
1.8
A tour of the Bernese Oberland with Hobhouse provided the scenery for
Manfred, a Faustian poetic drama that reflected Byron’s brooding sense of
guilt and remorse and the wider frustrations of the romantic spirit doomed by
the reflection that man is "half dust, half deity, alike unfit to sink or soar." On 5
October, Byron and Hobhouse left for Italy. During the summer of 1818, he
completed the first canto of Don Juan, a picaresque verse satire, with pointed
references to his own experiences.
1.9
The sale of Newstead Abbey finally cleared most of his debts and left him with
a small income which supported him in Italy. But money did not solve any of
his problems, notably his dissatisfaction and restlessness. Shelley and other
visitors, in 1818, found Byron had sunk in promiscuity having grown fat, with
long grey hair which aged him beyond his years. But a chance meeting with
the Countess Teresa Guicciolo in April 1819 changed the course of his life.
Within a few days he had fallen completely in love with 19 year old Teresa,
who was married to a man nearly three times her age. Byron followed her to
Ravenna, and, later in the summer, she accompanied him back to Venice
where she stayed until her husband called for her. Byron returned to Ravenna
in January 1820, as Teresa’s accepted gentleman-in-waiting. He won the
friendship of her father and brother who initiated him into the secret
revolutionary society of the Carbonari. In Ravenna he was brought into closer
touch with the life of the Italian people than he had ever been. He gave arms
to the Carbonari and alms to the poor. It was one of the happiest and most
productive periods of his life. He wrote The Prophecy of Dante; three cantos
for Don Juan; the poetic dramas Marino Faliero, Sardanapalus, The Two
Foscari, and Cain (all published in 1821); and his satire on the poet Robert
Southey, The Vision of Judgment. When Teresa’s father and brother were
exiled for their part in an abortive uprising she, now separated from her
husband, was forced to follow them. Byron reluctantly removed to Pisa, where
Shelley had rented the Casa Lanfranchi on the Arno River for him. He arrived
on 1 November 1821, having left his daughter Allegra in a convent near
Ravenna where he had sent her to be educated. She died on 20 April of the
following year.
1.10
Byron paid daily visits to Teresa, whose father and brother had found
temporary asylum in Pisa, until early summer when then all went to Leghorn,
where Byron had leased a villa near Shelley’s house on the Bay of Lerici.
There the poet Leigh Hunt found him on 1 July, when he arrived from England
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to join with Shelley and Byron in the editing of a new periodical. Byron
contributed his Vision of Judgment to the first number of the new periodical,
The Liberal, which was published in London by Hunt’s brother John on 15
October 1822. At the end of September he moved his entire household to a
suburb of Genoa, where Teresa’s family had found asylum and had taken a
large house for him. Mary Shelley leased another house nearby for herself
and the Hunts.
1.11
Byron’s interest in the periodical had waned, but he continued to support Hunt
and to give manuscripts to The Liberal. After a quarrel with his publisher,
John Murray, Byron gave all his later work - including cantos VI to XVI of Don
Juan, The Age of Bronze, and The Island - to John Hunt. But soon enough,
Byron's old restlessness returned. Accordingly, when the London Greek
Committee contacted him in April 1823 to act as its agent in aiding the Greek
war for independence from the Turks, Byron immediately accepted the offer.
All of his legendary enthusiasm, energy, and imagination were now at the
service of the Greek army.
1.12
He sent 4000 pounds of his own money to prepare the Greek fleet for sea
service and then sailed for Missolonghi on 29 December to join Prince
Alexandros Mavrokordatos, leader of the forces in western Greece. With
tremendous passion he entered into the plans to attack the Turkish-held
fortress of Lepanto. In addition he made dedicated but ultimately fruitless
efforts to unite eastern and western Greece. On 15 February 1824 he fell ill
though his enthusiasm for the Greek cause was undiminished; he now
possessed a more realistic view of the obstacles facing the army.
1.13
The spring of 1824 was wet and miserable, and it unfortunately caught Byron
while he was still weak from the convulsive fits of mid-February. He continued
to carry out his duties and seemed to be on the path to certain recovery. But
in early April he was caught outdoors in a rainstorm; though drenched and
chilled, he did not hurry home. Unfortunately, he caught a violent cold and at
around six o'clock in the evening of 19 April 1824, he passed away.
1.14
Deeply mourned by the Greeks, he became a hero throughout their land. His
body was embalmed and his heart removed and buried in Missolonghi. His
remains were then sent to England and, having been refused burial in
Westminster Abbey, were placed in the vault of his ancestors near Newstead.
1.15
145 years after his death, in 1969, a memorial to Byron was finally placed on
the floor of Westminster Abbey. A Byron Centre has recently opened in
Manchester, dedicated to his life and works.
2.
Legal Implications
2.1
There are no legal implications arising from this report. John Lewis PLC who
occupies the site supports the nomination and is willing to sponsor the plaque.
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3
Consultation
3.1
Ward Councillors are have been consulted and no comments were made.
4
Financial Implications
4.1
The cost of the plaque is in the region of £300 which will be met by
sponsorship.
5
Impact on Health and Well-being
5.1
There are no impacts on health and well-being arising from this report.
6
Staffing Implications
6.1
There are no staffing implications as a result of this report.
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Outstanding Issues
7.1
There are no other outstanding issues.
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Performance Plan Implications
8.1
None
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Crime and Disorder Act
9.1
There are no crime and disorder issues arising from this report.
10
Health and Safety Issues
10.1
There are no health and safety issues arising from this report.
11
Co-operation with Health Authorities
11.1
There are no issues relating to co-operation with health authorities arising
from this report.
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Human Rights Act 1998
12.1
There are no issues relating to responsibilities under the Human Rights Act
1998 arising from this report.
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Conclusions for the Proposed Decision
13.1
Lord Byron became among the most famous of the English 'Romantic' poets
whose contemporaries included Percy Shelley and John Keats. He was also
a satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. A
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green plaque is considered to be a fitting tribute, as well as contributing to an
objective of the Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street Action Plan, to
bring to life the unique social heritage of the West End.
If you have any queries about this report or wish to inspect any of the background
papers please contact: Gillian Dawson, 020 7641 2457
Background Papers
The documents referred to in compiling this report are: 1. letter nominating Lord Byron
2. Biographical notes and poems
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For completion by Cabinet Member

Declaration of Interest
I have no interest to declare in respect of this report
………………………………. Signed ……………………………. Date
I have to declare an interest
State nature of interest ……..…………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………….. Signed ……………………………. Date
(N.B: If you have an interest you should seek advice as to whether it is appropriate
to make a decision in relation to this matter.)
For the reasons set out above, I agree the recommendation(s) in the report entitled
Commemorative Green Plaque for Lord Byron.
Signed ………………………………………………
Cabinet Member for ……………………………….
Date …………………………………………………
NOTE: If you do not wish to approve the recommendations, or wish to make an
alternative decision, it is important that you consult the report author, the Director of
Legal and Administrative Services, the Director of Finance and, if there are staffing
implications, the Head of Personnel (or their representatives) so that (1) you can be
made aware of any further relevant considerations that you should take into account
before making the decision and (2) your reasons for the decision can be properly
identified and recorded, as required by law.
Note to Cabinet Member: The decision will now be published and copied to the
Members of the relevant Overview & Scrutiny Committee and may not be
implemented until five working days have elapsed from publication to allow the
Overview and Scrutiny Committee to decide whether it wishes to call it in.
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