Monk's House is an 18th Century weatherboarded cottage, nestled down a beautiful country road in Rodmell, Sussex, England. It's beautiful setting and never-ending gardens attracted Leonard and Virginia Woolf in 1919 and it became their country retreat.
The Woolfs made several additions to the building during their time there, including improvements to the kitchen, the installation of a hot water range and bathroom with water closet and an ambitious two-storey extension in 1929. This extension importantly included Virginia Woolf's 'room of one's own' where she is thought to have written many of her most famous books.
The house itself is lovely. Very petite and you have to bend your head a lot to miss the beams when you're changing rooms but it really feels like a home and the current tenant and the National Trust has done a lovely job in keeping it so homely and cozy. I particularly enjoyed looking at the couple's bookshelves. I don't know about you but for some reason I always forget that writers read as well as write... I work for a literary agency and yet that one still catches me out.. oh dear.
Being the home of the Woolfs, Monk's house was a literary hub with frequent visitors from members of the Bloomsbury Group, including T S Eliot and E M Forster.
Although the couple had a home in London, they visited Rodmell often and when their London flat was damaged in a bombing raid in 1940, the pair moved in full-time. It was also thought that the calm and quiet of the village community offered Virginia some form of relief from the stress and chaos of wartime London, which understandably took its toll on an already fragile woman.
Sadly, it was from Monk's House that Virginia made her famous walk to the river Ouse where she drowned herself in 1941.
Leonard continued to live in the house and was a well-known and respected member of the village community until his death in 1969.
Since it became a National Trust property, you can have a look round yourself. The gardens are spectacular and includes an impressive vegetable garden and garden hut where Virginia Woolf was thought to have spent a lot of time writing.
For a bit more on Virginia Woolf, see my previous post: Introducing... Virginia Woolf
Although the couple had a home in London, they visited Rodmell often and when their London flat was damaged in a bombing raid in 1940, the pair moved in full-time. It was also thought that the calm and quiet of the village community offered Virginia some form of relief from the stress and chaos of wartime London, which understandably took its toll on an already fragile woman.
Sadly, it was from Monk's House that Virginia made her famous walk to the river Ouse where she drowned herself in 1941.
Leonard continued to live in the house and was a well-known and respected member of the village community until his death in 1969.
Since it became a National Trust property, you can have a look round yourself. The gardens are spectacular and includes an impressive vegetable garden and garden hut where Virginia Woolf was thought to have spent a lot of time writing.
For a bit more on Virginia Woolf, see my previous post: Introducing... Virginia Woolf
No comments:
Post a Comment