Though Virginia Woolf is often associated with Bloomsbury, the writer grew up between Knightsbridge and Kensington, living in Hyde Park Gate with her sister, artist Vanessa Bell. Now, an apartment from the building could be yours.
Virginia Woolf is widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant modernist writers. Known for her books Mrs Dalloway, To The Lighthouse and Orlando, she became famous for writing boundary-pushing work that defied traditional narrative conventions.
Her sister, Vanessa, was a painter in her own right. A core part of the Bloomsbury group alongside her sister Virginia, the pair belonged to a trailblazing circle of writers, artists and intellectuals in London. Their father, who purchased the house in 1876, was the writer and critic Sir Leslie Stephen.
'Marked by an English Heritage Blue Plaque for Sir Leslie Stephen, this property is a living piece of British cultural history – it is the childhood home where his daughters, Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, grew up,' says Stine Kaus, advisor at DDRE Global.
The apartment for sale sits on the fourth floor of Sir Leslie Stephen's home. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a large reception room. Fully refurbished, the property also has bespoke joinery, Dinesen wood flooring and two original west-facing sash windows.
'Tucked away in a peaceful, dead-end cul-de-sac just off Kensington Road, this address offers a rare duality: complete privacy and discretion with zero through-traffic, at the entrance to Hyde Park,' says Stine.
'What makes this home irreplaceable is its artistic provenance; long before the Bloomsbury Group reshaped British literature and art, their story began right within these walls.'
Virginia Woolf had a complex relationship with 22 Hyde Park Gate, and in her autobiographical essay of the same name, she described it as 'a house of innumerable small oddly shaped rooms built to accommodate not one family but three.'
The house remained central to the family until Sir Leslie Stephen died in 1904, when Virginia moved to Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, selling 22 Hyde Park Gate.
The apartment is on the market with DDRE Global for £1,950,000.
Take a look around the property...
Follow House Beautiful on Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest
The Bedside Table Edit
