Kenneth Grahame wrote the children’s classic, The Wind in the Willows, while living at 16 Phillimore Place in Holland Park.

EARLY WORKS

Throughout the most important years of his life, Grahame enjoyed two careers: one, as an employee of the Bank of England – he entered the bank in 1879 and was appointed Secretary in 1898 – and another as a writer.

As a writer, Grahame first came to notice with Pagan Papers (1893), a collection of stories about a group of orphaned children. The work was followed in 1895 by The Golden Age and, four years later, by Dream Days. Grahame’s lasting fame, however, rests on The Wind in the Willows (1908).

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

Supposedly based on a series of bedtime stories told by Grahame to his only child, Alastair (1900–20), the work was written at 16 Phillimore Place, formerly 16 Durham Villas. A friend and neighbour, Graham Robertson, wrote that Grahame’s

special room in No. 16 was most characteristic; it looked like a nursery. Books there were certainly, but they were outnumbered by toys . . . intriguing, fascinating toys which could hardly have been conducive to study.

The plaque incorrectly states that Grahame lived at the address in 1901–8. In fact, number 16 was the author’s London home from the time of his marriage in July 1899 to Elspeth Thomson (1862–1946) until June 1908, when he retired from the Bank of England.