Carlyle's back garden
24 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London
Carlyle lived in the house at 24 Cheyne Row (then number 5) for 47 years, from 1834 until his death in 1881, and was visited here by Ruskin, Tennyson and many others. An important part of the house for him was its garden, where he could go out in his dressing-gown and straw hat and smoke his pipe, with Jane's dog Nero beside him. Under the leadership of Sir Leslie Stephen, the Carlyle Memorial Trust bought up the house just after his death, so both house and garden are still very much as he left them. One of his hats still hangs in the hall, while Nero's lead is in a display cabinet.
Photograph and text by Jacqueline Banerjee