Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792 - 1822, poet, lived here in 1811.
English Heritage
Shelley lodged here after he was expelled from Oxford.
Site: Percy Shelley - W1 (1 memorial)
W1, Poland Street, 15
The English Heritage plaque is on the corner building, in Poland Street. The mural on the sidewall of the building includes a faux blue plaque The Soho Mural, Ode to the West Wind, 1989 Louise Vines for London Wall 01 737 4948'. - this Ode being a Shelley poem.
In the mural we have interrupted a black-haired young man (woman?) who had been reading a book while sitting/standing (in a very odd pose) in front of a green field with trees in the background. In the foreground is a solitary tree that has been blasted in two. To the right the branches of another tree can be seen, the tree itself being outside the frame. The foreground trees are shedding their leaves as if it were autumn but the background trees are still in green leaf. We ourselves are just inside an arcade, the arches of which can be see at the top of the mural.
The wild, dark hair suggests the figure may represent Shelley himself.
Sadly, some damp damage has been caused to the mural creating a vertical grey line towards the right-hand edge.
explains that the Ode explores the death and decay that the autumn winds usher in and suggests that the subject of the mural may have been prompted by the Great Storm of 1987.
Credit for this entry to: Bob Baker


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