“How Dye Do Neighbour”: William and Catherine Blake in Their Immediate Social Context, South Molton Street, Mayfair, c. 1803–21

In the autumn of 1803, William and Catherine Blake returned to London from their three-year sojourn in a cottage in the coastal village of Felpham, Sussex. After an initial stay with Blake’s brother James at 28 Broad Street, and certainly by November, they had moved into a studio-residence at 17 South Molton Street, a street branching diagonally off the southern side of the northern end of Oxford Street. The new lodgings set them at the heart of art and art patronage in Regency London. From South Molton Street they were within easy walking distance of numerous galleries, as well as artists’ studios, shops, and collections. While Alexander Gilchrist describes the street during this period as “dingy, gardenless,” the Blakes had chosen a residence at the very center of London.