Keats House

Keats House is a semi-detached pair of buildings designed to appear as one house, originally known as Wentworth Place, built around 1815-1816. It was constructed for antiquary and critic Charles Wentworth Dilke and writer Charles Armitage Brown. The house underwent alterations around 1839 and in the late 20th century. The exterior is finished in stucco with a plain band at the first floor. It features a slated hipped roof with projecting eaves and tall chimney stacks on both returns.

The building has two storeys and a basement, with a double fronted design that includes three windows and a one-storey, two-window extension added to the east end around 1839-1840. The ground floor openings are set in shallow, round-arched recesses, with a round-arched doorway that has splayed reveals, a fanlight, and a panelled door, accessed by steps with cast-iron railings. The ground floor also has square-headed casements with cast-iron balconies, while the first floor and extension feature recessed sash windows. At the rear, the ground floor has a continuous cast-iron verandah.

Historically, from 1818 to 1820, the poet John Keats stayed with Brown in the eastern part of the house, where he composed "Ode to a Nightingale" in 1819. Dilke rented the western house to the family of Fanny Brawne, to whom Keats became engaged. The houses were combined into one by Eliza Chester, a retired actress, in 1838-1839. Today, it serves as the Keats museum.