Panel C8

Chatterton has moved from the restrictions and lack of privacy of Shoreditch, to his own attic room at Holborn. He can now control what his family in Bristol might be told about his situation - nobody can belie him now, but he has just 12 weeks and 1 day to live.

​

Brooke Street, it is said, was a somewhat sleazy and run-down area but now, at last, Chatterton had the privacy he craved. The privacy he needed to put pen to paper and bring to light the works filling his head - that's how I see it - for what it's worth!

​

It is not known on what date Chatterton moved to Holborn, but I have selected June 1st as  his first day, based on the following: his letter to his mother dated the 14th May, states 'Direct for me, at Mr. Walmsley's, at Shoreditch - only, so at that point in time he had no plans to be anywhere else; The Death of Nicou, was dated Brooke-Street, 12th June - so a date in-between the two dates seems reasonable enough.

So, Chatterton is now in Brooke Street, but which house did he actually live in?

It has been claimed to be number 4, however, in a magazine dated 1858, named 'The Train,' a writer demolishes Masson's 1856 essay, 'Chatterton: A story of the Year 1770,' and states that the house was actually number 39.  It took Masson until 1874 to publish the Chatterton essay as a stand alone book where he corrects his errors, 'Chatterton: A Story of the Year 1770.' 

The British Museum has Wykeham's drawing, which dates to around 1825/30. Wykeham (1808-1864) states the house to be No.4, and that Chatterton died in the garret (attic room) top left of the image. The curator at the BM corrects this, stating that No. 39, on the opposite side of the road, is where Chatterton lived and died

​

Nothing remains of the house in Brooke Street, so it hardly matters which house it was, apart from helping to determine the depth of research a particular editor has put into the production of his work but, it must be said, it is so much easier these days.

​