Wilde in the city

For Oscar Wilde, London was the centre of existence – of pleasure and of power. It was also the best place to buy cigarettes. Although he may have been born in Dublin in 1854 and would die in Paris in 1900, it was in the English capital that he made both his home and his name. London was the locale of his keenest hopes and his greatest triumphs. It was the site, too, of his spectacular fall from grace.

Wilde has left his imprint upon the city. There remain many places touched by his presence. Of course there is Tite Street, the redbrick enclave in Chelsea where he lived – briefly at Number 1, then at what was Number 16 (now 34), in a house that he decorated in collaboration with the great architect-designer, EW Godwin.