![\"Wilkie](\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/files\/2019\/02\/Wilkie-Collins-Grave-OGorman-photo-300x224.jpg\")
Wilkie Collins\u2019s grave at Kensal Green Cemetery, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, August 2015, author\u2019s photograph.<\/span><\/p>\nthe Bront\u00ebs at Haworth and Scarborough; Clough and Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Florence. Borrowing a term from Catholic Christianity, George Steiner thinks of the \u2018real presence\u2019 of creative artists behind their work. For me, what enhances that felt experience in reading is knowing where, and having visited, the final resting place.<\/p>\n
But it isn\u2019t only graves. It is also, far more cheerfully, birthplaces. Of course, there is only memory here, not mortal remains. But starting places, the location of first memories, have a role in helping one grasp the shape of an author\u2019s life. I have just, for instance, been to Higher Bockhampton to see\u2014for the first time since the summer of 1976\u2014the Hardys\u2019 beautifully cared-for cottage where their baby, Thomas, was born on 2 June 1840.<\/p>\n
![\"Hardy's](\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/files\/2019\/02\/Hardys-birthplace-Higher-Bockhampton-OGorman-photo-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Hardy\u2019s birthplace, Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, July 2018, author\u2019s photograph.<\/span><\/p>\n Ruskin, as everyone knows, is buried in St Andrew\u2019s Churchyard, Coniston, under W.G.\u00a0 Collingwood\u2019s unRuskinian Celtic cross made from local slate. He is still among the hills, which he had loved since infancy. But Ruskin\u2019s birthplace<\/em> has suffered far more than Hardy\u2019s. Anthony Trollope\u2019s birthplace was demolished by the University of London in the 1930s and its location is now under the car-park of Senate House, off Russell Square.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Charles Holden\u2019s Senate House for the University of London (1932-7), on top of the site of Trollope\u2019s birthplace. Image available through Creative Commons, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Senate_House,_London#\/media\/File:Senate_House,_University_of_London.jpg<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just a few hundred metres away, Ruskin\u2019s birthplace has also vanished.<\/p>\n As we all know, Ruskin was born on 8 February 1819 in 54 Hunter Street, Brunswick Square. And as we all also know, the house no longer stands. It was one of those demolished to make way for the construction of Patrick Hodgkinson\u2019s Brunswick Centre, a Modernist shopping and residential complex. The Brunswick is still there, both admired and disliked.<\/p>\n The Brunswick Centre, on the site of Ruskin\u2019s birth which was almost exactly half-way between the front of the ambulance and the \u2018lollipop\u2019 crossing signal. Image available through Creative Commons,\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brunswick_Centre#\/media\/File:Brunswick_Centre_(4136275375).jpg<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n But there has been a long-standing effort, led by Dr James S. Dearden MBE, and now taken up by me, to mark the spot of Ruskin\u2019s birth with a blue plaque or some other form of lasting commemoration. Jim has been able to retain a memory of exactly where the spot is, which is a blessing. He visited the house, then in an almost derelict state, on 1 January 1969, in the company, as it happens, of Spike Milligan, shortly before 54 Hunter Street was pulled down.<\/p>\n Jim photographed some of the property and has written several times giving more details of his visit. When the house was, shortly afterwards, demolished, what was immediately put in its place was the entrance to an underground carpark that served the residents of the Brunswick Centre. But that has now gone too. All that stands of any visible Ruskinian interest are the two remaining unaltered houses of Hunter Street (nos. 3 and 4) that were once directly opposite number 54. In the opening chapter of Praeterita<\/em> (1885-9), Ruskin remarks that as a child he counted the bricks of the \u2018opposite houses\u2019 (Library Edition<\/em>, xxxv.21).You can still do that in person or via Google Street View. https:\/\/mapstreetview.com\/#uod2l_-2n26_1h.5_5f43<\/a> will take you straight there.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s hope we can mark the location of this lost house permanently. There are other \u2018sites\u2019, after all, which have blue plaques near-by, not least that of Dickens\u2019s Tavistock House, more or less round the corner, where the novelist lived from 1851 to 1860. The site of John Ruskin\u2019s birthplace has every reason to be remembered. I hope I can complete what Jim has started.<\/p>\n Francis O\u2019Gorman Our third blog is by Francis O’Gorman, Saintsbury Professor of English Literature, University of Edinburgh; Honorary Visiting Professor, Ruskin Library and Research Centre, Lancaster University and Chairman of the Ruskin Society. I\u2019m a habitual visitor of graves. Most particularly, of the graves of writers and musicians. Because as a critic I am always writing about … Continue reading Where Ruskin was born<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9OdOv-i4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1127,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions\/1127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Senate](\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/the-ruskin\/files\/2019\/02\/Charles-Holdens-Senate-House-224x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Brunswick](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Senate_House,_London#\/media\/File:Senate_House,_University_of_London.jpg\")
<\/p>\n54 Hunter Street (note the plaque marking Ruskin\u2019s birthplace). Online uncopyrighted image.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nSaintsbury Professor of English Literature, University of Edinburgh
\nHonorary Visiting Professor, Ruskin Library and Research Centre, Lancaster University
\nChairman of the Ruskin Society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"