The former Blue Plaque home of American author Herman Melville (1819-1891), a 4,371 sq.ft. (406 sq.m) Georgian four/five-bedroom townhouse with a 227 sq.ft. (21 sq.m.) rooftop terrace at 25 Craven Street on London’s Embankment, which inspired Melville’s acclaimed novel Moby-Dick, is for sale for £9 million through sole selling agent Wetherell.
Originally built in 1791-2, designed by architect Henry Flitcroft and builder Thomas Philips, the Georgian townhouse at 25 Craven Street is a four-storey townhouse with brown-brick façade and sash windows providing accommodation over basement, lower ground, ground and three upper floors. The end-of-terrace location provides the townhouse with windows to the front, side and rear facades, with all of the principal rooms being dual aspect, with two stuccoed bow windows to the side façade.
The townhouse has the benefit of full planning permission to extend and remodel the property to create a circa 5,500 sq.ft. luxury residence with multiple reception rooms, VIP bedroom suites, private cinema and a wine tasting room/display cellar which could be worth up to £16 million once refurbished to an ultra-prime specification.
The first owner of the townhouse was merchant John Lucie Blackman who owned a sugar plantation and cargo ships in Barbados. During the 1800s at the Thameside end of Craven Street there was a wharf which docked whaling ships and dealt with the distribution of whale oil, blubber and other products.
John Lucie Blackman used 25 Caven Street as a lodging house, renting rooms to sailors, travellers and people working in local theatres and restaurants. It was here in 1849 that Melville rented one of the rooms on the upper floors, during the Georgian era the bow windowed rooms offered direct views of the River Thames, wharf and whaling ships.
Melville was in London seeking a publisher and doing research in his manuscript for his latest novel, published in 1851, which would be called Moby-Dick. Moby-Dick is a novel about the adventures of Captain Ahab, the captain of the whaling ship Pequod, and Ahab’s hunt for the white whale Moby Dick who bit off Ahab’s leg, replaced by a prosthetic leg made from whale ivory.
The novel drew upon Melville’s personal experiences between 1839 to 1844 when he worked as a sailor on whaling ships and learnt about Mocha Dick, an albino sperm whale which attacked ships in the Pacific Ocean during the early 1800s. Melville also learnt about the American whaling ship the Essex, which was attacked and sunk in 1820 by a sperm whale.
Whilst living in London Melville had the idea whilst touring Oxford Street of turning his whaling ship experiences and stories into a novel focused on a white whale and its duel with a whaling ship and its captain. During a visit to the National Gallery Melville saw artist J.M.W. Turner’s Whalers painting which provided him with visual inspiration for his Moby-Dick novel.
At his lodgings at 25 Craven Street Melville would write notes for the novel and gaze out of the window onto the wharf and whaling ships at the end of the street. The character of Captain Ahab, the protagonist in Moby-Dick, was influenced by Captain George Pollard Junior, the captain of the ill-fated Essex, and by Captain Archibald Buchanan, a Royal Navy captain, who lodged at 25 Craven Street whilst Melville lived there.
Captain Archibald Buchanan would pace the rooftop terrace at 25 Craven Street and from his bedroom below Melville could hear the Captain’s feet on the timber decking and this became the pacing of Captain Ahab on the quarterdeck of the Pequod whilst he scanned the oceans looking for Moby Dick.
The bow windowed first floor drawing room where Captain Buchanan would talk to Melville about ships and the high seas, became in his novel Captain Ahab’s cabin on the Pequod, where Ahab would eat and plan revenge on Moby Dick with his chief mate Starbuck, second mate Stubb and third mate Flask.
At the end of 1849 Melville returned to America and lived in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In February 1850 he used his London research to started writing in earnest, finishing his novel 18 months later. The novel was first published in London as The Whale in October 1851 and as Moby-Dick in New York in November 1851.
Now the townhouse at 25 Craven Street which played a role in the creation of Moby-Dick is for sale. Currently it provides cellars in the basement, a kitchen/breakfast room and living/bedroom on the lower ground floor, kitchen and two reception rooms on the ground floor, two reception rooms on the first floor and four bedrooms and four bathrooms (two ensuite) on the upper floors.
Once extended and remodelled into a new luxury residence the townhouse will have a passenger lift connecting all the floors. There will be an entrance hall, dining room and drawing room on the ground floor. The first floor will feature a spacious main reception room, a library and a study.
The principal bedroom suite will occupy the entire second floor providing a bedroom, walk-in dressing room and main bathroom with freestanding bathtub and walk-in marble shower. The third floor will provide two VIP ensuite bedrooms, the principal guest suite having a walk-in dressing room. The top floor will offer a spectacular roof garden with a spacious terraced area for loungers and seating and an outside built-in barbeque/kitchen.
On the lower ground floor will be the family kitchen with central island and breakfast bar, a separate utility room, an ensuite bedroom and guest WC. The transformed basement will have a private cinema and a VIP wine tasting room/display cellar with floor-to-ceiling wine display racks, a feature fireplace and vaulted ceiling.
Peter Wetherell, Founder & Executive Chairman of Wetherell says: “This Blue Plaque townhouse at 25 Craven Street was once the London base of American author Herman Melville and inspired his acclaimed novel Moby-Dick. Once remodelled and refurbished this will be one of the most spectacular townhouses on the Embankment, located between the River Thames and The Strand.”
Robert Britten, Sales & Board Director at Wetherell, says: “Over the last decade the area between Covent Garden and the Embankment has become one of London’s most highly desirable locations, with new 5-star hotels, fashionable restaurants, boutique shops and luxury homes. Once transformed this spacious townhouse on Craven Street has the potential to become a real trophy home address.”
The house at 25 Craven Street is for sale for £9,000,000 (freehold). Viewing is strictly by appointment, contact sole selling agent Wetherell for more information.
Images courtesy: Wetherell.
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