Blue plaque to poet Sylvia Plath in Chalcot Square

The American writer moved into what is now a celebrity hotspot with fellow poet Ted Hughes in January 1960.

Plath’s 18 months in the three room top floor flat at 3, Chalcot Square was happy and productive: she published her first volume of poetry, The Colossus, wrote her only novel, The Bell Jar, and gave birth to her first child, Frieda.

The couple had signed a three year lease, but the flat didn’t offer enough space for both poets to write, so in August 1961, with another baby on the way, they let it out and moved to rural Devon.

The plaque was unveiled outside 3, Chalcot Square in 2000 by Sylvia Plath’s children Frieda and Nicholas. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) The ad in the Evening Standard was answered by another poet David Wevill and his wife Assia. The two couples had dinner together, and Ted and Sylvia invited their sub-letters down to Devon.

When Sylvia discovered that Ted and Assia were having a passionate affair, she built a bonfire and tossed his letters and manuscripts into the flames.

There followed bitter rows with Ted shuttling between his wife and children in Devon and his lover in London – until Sylvia decided to leave.

She moved back to Primrose Hill with her two children in the freezing winter of December 1962.

Sylvia and husband Ted Hughes sub let their flat in Chalcot Square to fellow poet David Wevill and his wife Assia. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) It was the blue plaque outside No 23, Fitzroy Road that attracted her to the property, which she described as “the street and the house … where I’ve always wanted to live … It is WB Yeats’ house – with a blue plaque over the door, saying he lived there.”

The Irish poet had lived there as a boy, and a plaque had gone up in 1957 to mark the spot.

Plath managed to write, including some poems published posthumously in the classic collection Ariel.

Sylvia and her children moved into what had been the boyhood home of WB Yeats in Fitzroy Road following her split from Ted Hughes. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) But she was dogged by the return of her earlier depression and plagued by anxiety and suicidal thoughts while struggling to care for two very young children.

On February 11, 1963, she took her own life at the age of just 30 while her children slept in their beds upstairs.

Ted Hughes moved into the flat and Assia helped him to care for the children, but they would later move back to Devon.

The plaque to Sylvia Plath was unveiled by her children Frieda and Nicholas Hughes at number 3 Chalcot Square in the year 2000.

Asked why it did not mark 23 Fitzroy Road, Frieda replied: “My mother died there, but she had lived here.”