Giant Places:
Ten Larkin Wellington Haunts
Despite claiming he’d “have missed it for anything” Philip Larkin was surprisingly sociable during his thirty-month stay in Wellington. Here is a quick rundown of some of the poet-librarian’s most notable 1940s haunts.
Wellington Public Library, Walker Street
Housed in Wellington’s former Parish Workhouse, the former public library was given a smart new façade to honour the coronation of Edward VII when it opened in 1902. Philip Larkin arrived some 41 years later and became — quite incredibly — only the second person to occupy the librarian’s post in a facility he described as a “shockingly administered” mess! Aside from instituting many changes that transformed the archaic institution into a modern library, it was also the place where Larkin wrote much of his poetry and prose in Wellington; “landladies did not really want to provide fires in the morning, and I wrote my novel in the library before taking it back with me to work after lunch.”
To read more about Larkin’s tenure as Wellington’s librarian click here
Wellington Public Library, Walker Street
Housed in Wellington’s former Parish Workhouse, the former public library was given a smart new façade to honour the coronation of Edward VII when it opened in 1902. Philip Larkin arrived some 41 years later and became — quite incredibly — only the second person to occupy the librarian’s post in a facility he described as a “shockingly administered” mess! Aside from instituting many changes that transformed the archaic institution into a modern library, it was also the place where Larkin wrote much of his poetry and prose in Wellington; “landladies did not really want to provide fires in the morning, and I wrote my novel in the library before taking it back with me to work after lunch.”
To read more about Larkin’s tenure as Wellington’s librarian click here
Wellington Railway Station
Larkin arrived at a rain swept Wellington station for his job interview on Saturday 13th November 1943 (the interview being conducted in the former urban district council offices in Walker Street, opposite the library). For Larkin, one of the main attractions of taking the job was its proximity to his college friend Bruce Montgomery, who taught at Shrewsbury School and was already a published author. Aside from providing encouragement and a valuable critical eye, the two enjoyed regular drinking sessions on Larkin’s Tuesday nights off, with the train providing a vital connection to the county town. On one occasion, Larkin became so drunk he fell asleep on the return journey and missed his stop — a salutary lesson for all late night rail revellers!
To discover more about the history of Wellington station, click here
The Wrekin Buildings (Wellington YMCA)
The Wrekin Buildings have been home to the Wellington Branch of the YMCA since 1913. Their literary associations date back to at least 1922, when the Wrekin Hall (situated upstairs on the first floor) hosted a talk by the writer Hilaire Belloc on the balance of power in Europe. Billiards tables were first provided during the First World War (when injured troops from the local military hospital used them) while in the 1950s the semi-finals of the World Professional Snooker Championship were held here twice. A decade earlier, literature and cue sports combined, when Philip Larkin made his debut as a fledgling player on the Wrekin baize. He was inspired to join the organisation after a gruelling evening in the library with a group of local children, of which the only well-behaved member sported a YMCA badge; “I feel that if only in that field the Christian mystery is most valuable”, he told his mother!
The Raven, Walker Street
The Raven public house holds the distinction of being Philip Larkin’s favourite Wellington watering hole — so much so, that he even took a picture of it for posterity before leaving the town in 1946! While the more salubrious Charlton Inn in Church Street was his venue of choice when entertaining his family or his fiancée Ruth Bowman, Oxford friends Bruce Montgomery (better known by his pen name Edmund Crispin) and Kingsley Amis both drank here with Larkin. While little altered externally, inside, the now cavernous but Grade II listed Raven (which was gutted during the 1980s) is very different from the pub Larkin knew as a maze of smaller rooms.
The Raven, Walker Street
The Raven pubic house holds the distinction of being Philip Larkin’s favourite Wellington watering hole — so much so, that he even took a picture of it for posterity before leaving the town in 1946! While the more salubrious Charlton Inn in Church Street was his venue of choice when entertaining his family or his fiancée Ruth Bowman, Oxford friends Bruce Montgomery (better known by his pen name Edmund Crispin) and Kingsley Amis both drank here with Larkin. While little altered externally, inside, the now cavernous but Grade II listed Raven (which was gutted during the 1980s) is very different from the pub Larkin knew as a maze of smaller rooms.
Sidoli’s, New Street
Although the New Street café known to Larkin as Sidoli’s is currently called Sofia’s, the outlet retains several period features including a counter where he would no doubt have paid for his drinks! After leaving Wellington, Ruth Bowman wrote to Larkin expressing her disbelief that they would never again enjoy teas in Sidoli’s or a coffee in the long-vanished Brittain’s, in Market Square. It was another of the poet’s old haunts but disappeared as part of the redevelopment of a number of units opposite the junction of Station Road in the 1960s.
Alexander House, New Church Road
For a man who sent his handkerchiefs home to be washed, moving to Wellington was clearly a departure for Larkin, and he was probably at his most curmudgeonly when it came to his living arrangements. Eschewing the idea of getting a flat he spent his entire time here in lodgings, and never more than a short walk from the library. For the first month, he stayed at Alexander House in New Church Road, working on his novel while being plied with cups of Oxo, Cocoa and biscuits by the “remarkably efficient” first-time landlady Mrs Fanny Jones. While conditions had been “better than expected”, Larkin’ s search for better accommodation would soon lead him elsewhere — although his high hopes were hardly realised!
Glentworth, King Street
Larkin moved to Glentworth in December 1943, paying 35 shillings a week for a large bedroom and a study he shared with an “insufferably boring” art teacher at the local high school. Not even Larkin’s situation at the library could engender the levels of vitriol he reserved for life at the “undeniably dirty” Glentworth. His “uncouth and moody” landlady Miss Tomlinson, whose burnt porridge he said seemed to “embrace every foul gradation of taste under the sun”, was a particular source of his ire. However, Larkin admitted in a letter to his mother he was probably exaggerating and would be “stupid to leave.” In the event, he stayed until January 1946!
Ladycroft
Sadly, Larkin’s last Wellington lodgings (and easily his favourite) at 7 Ladycroft are long demolished but the street they occupied remains. Despite having to use an outside toilet, such was his enamour of his new surroundings Larkin declared they would be the only thing for which he’d be sorry to leave Wellington! Larkin reserved special praise for his business-like landlady Miss Davies (“a cut above Miss T altogether”) and it was in these comfortable surroundings he spent his final few months in the town, reading Hardy in the early mornings and studying for his initial qualifications in librarianship.
Haygate Road
Ruth Bowman, Larkin’s fiancée, lived on the outskirts of town in Herbert Avenue, which is connected directly to the Walker Street library via Haygate Road. Locals recall the two walking hand-in hand, reciting poetry to each other, en route to Ruth’s family home (although her mother never approved of the ‘arty’ librarian). Wellington cemetery also lies just off Haygate Road, and Larkin spent time writing there; the first pangs, perhaps, of a lifelong love of churchyards.
The Wrekin
Climbing The Wrekin is a rite of passage for all true Salopians, native or adopted, and among Larkin’s earliest Wellington experiences was a bracing trip to the summit in December 1943. His guide on this “local nature ramble” was Rosalind Musselwhite, a local schoolmistress, who guided him “to the top of the Wrekin”, an experience, he said, that left him feeling like a “piece of chewed string”! Larkin would become a regular visitor to The Wrekin Hills, both with his fiancée Ruth Bowman and visiting friends, such as Kingsley Amis.
To read more about the Wrekin’s literary associations, click here