Own a Piece of Literary History by Purchasing a Flat in Oscar Wilde’s Former Home
At the height of his career in the late 1800s, Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde lived along the now-famous Tite Street in London. Oscar and his wife, author Constance Lloyd, purchased a townhouse on the street shortly after their wedding in 1884. Although Oscar lived at the property on and off in the subsequent years, he maintained his residency there until his infamous arrest in 1895. Today, the four-story building consists of several individual flats—one of which just hit the market.
Tite Street in London’s Chelsea neighborhood was home to nineteenth-century Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde from approximately 1884/85 until 1895. Originally number 16 (and later renumbered to 34 Tite Street), the building Oscar purchased with his wife Constance has since been subdivided into several individual apartments.
Inside the flat, a hallway leads from the main entrance, past one of the bedrooms and bathrooms, to a living room at the rear. A doorway where the building once ended now leads into a modern, glass-enclosed kitchen overlooking the garden.
During the decade or so that he owned the property, Oscar wrote his acclaimed and only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as his play The Importance of Being Earnest. Oscar and Constance also raised their two children in the home.
The property was repossessed during the two years Oscar spent in prison after being found guilty of sodomy and gross indecency—charges for which he was posthumously pardoned only recently, in 2017.
Daylight pours into the apartment through the new glazed addition.
The flat’s current owners commissioned a new addition at the rear of the building to make room for a modern kitchen and dining area.
Sliding glass doors open at the corner to connect the indoor and outdoor spaces.
The patio also has an elevated section at the rear of the lot.
The approximately 960-square-foot flat comes with two bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Most of the home’s interior has been modernized, although some of the building’s original features remain intact.
One of the home’s most alluring features is its location—not only is it Oscar’s former home, but it’s steps away from other properties once occupied by literary giants such as Mark Twain and Bram Stoker. Keep scrolling to see more of the property, currently listed for £1,695,000 (approximately $2,190,000).
A look at one of the apartment’s two bedrooms.
The second bedroom, located along the front of the building, is illuminated by natural light from several windows.
A closer look at the building’s brick facade along Tite Street in London.
A plaque denotes Oscar’s home in an area famous for its other notable residents throughout history. The surrounding blocks feature other plaques marking the former homes of legendary novelists Mark Twain, Bram Stoker (author of Dracula), and Mary Ann Evans—who is better known by her pen name George Eliot.
Located along Tite Street in Chelsea, London, the flat is currently listed for £1,695,000 (~$2,190,000) by Hamptons International Sloane Square.
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