The Wheatsheaf, Fitzrovia

The Wheatsheaf

The Wheatsheaf is a pub in Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia, London, that was popular with London's bohemian set in the 1930s. Customers including George Orwell, Dylan Thomas, Edwin Muir and Humphrey Jennings, were known for a while as the Wheatsheaf writers [1] Other habitués included the singer and dancer Betty May, and the writer and surrealist poet Philip O'Connor, Nina Hamnett, Julian Maclaren-Ross, Anthony Carson and Quentin Crisp.[2]

Dylan Thomas

In spring 1936, the poet Dylan Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara (1913–1994), a 22-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed dancer of Irish descent. She had run away from home, intent on making a career in dance, and aged 18 joined the chorus line at the London Palladium.[3][4] Introduced by the artist Augustus John, Caitlin's lover, they met in The Wheatsheaf.[4][5][6] Laying his head in her lap, a drunken Thomas proposed.[3][7] Thomas liked to comment that he and Caitlin were in bed together ten minutes after they first met.[8] Although Caitlin initially continued her relationship with John, she and Thomas began a correspondence, and in the second half of 1936 were courting. They married at the register office in Penzance, Cornwall, on 11 July 1937.

References

  1. ↑ Inwood, Stephen. (2008). Historic London: An Explorer's Companion. London: Pan Macmillan. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-230-75252-8.
  2. ↑ "Strange Flowers guide to London: part 2". Strange Flowers. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  3. 1 2 Thorpe, Vanessa (26 November 2006). "Race to put the passion of Dylan's Caitlin on big screen". Observer.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  4. 1 2 Paul Ferris, "Thomas , Caitlin (1913–1994)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (subscription only)
  5. ↑ von Zweigbergk, Britta. (2007). Tony's War: The life and times of a WW2 Typhoon pilot. Cambridge: Vanguard. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-84386-291-8.
  6. ↑ Jones, Glyn (2 August 1994). "Obituary: Caitlin Thomas". The Independent. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  7. ↑ Akbar, Arifa (19 April 2008). "Dylan Thomas revival proves death has no dominion". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  8. ↑ FitzGibbon, 1965, p. 205.

Coordinates: 51°31′04″N 0°08′03″W / 51.5177°N 0.1341°W / 51.5177; -0.1341


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