The Wheatsheaf, Fitzrovia

The Wheatsheaf

The Wheatsheaf is a pub in Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia, London, that was popular with London's bohemian set in the 1930s. Its customers included George Orwell, Dylan Thomas, Edwin Muir and Humphrey Jennings, who were known for a while as the Wheatsheaf writers [1] Other habitués included the singer and dancer Betty May, and the writer and surrealist poet Philip O'Connor, Nina Hamnett, Julian Maclaren-Ross, Anthony Carson and Quentin Crisp.[2]

Dylan Thomas

In spring 1936, the poet Dylan Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara (1913–1994), a 22-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed dancer of Irish descent. She had run away from home, intent on making a career in dance, and aged 18 joined the chorus line at the London Palladium.[3][4] Introduced by the artist Augustus John, Caitlin's lover, they met in The Wheatsheaf.[4][5][6] Laying his head in her lap, a drunken Thomas proposed.[3][7] Thomas liked to comment that he and Caitlin were in bed together ten minutes after they first met.[8] Although Caitlin initially continued her relationship with John, she and Thomas began a correspondence, and in the second half of 1936 were courting. They married at the register office in Penzance, Cornwall, on 11 July 1937.

References

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  1. ^ Inwood, Stephen. (2008). Historic London: An Explorer's Companion. London: Pan Macmillan. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-230-75252-8.
  2. ^ "Strange Flowers guide to London: part 2". Strange Flowers. 3 March 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  3. ^ a b Thorpe, Vanessa (26 November 2006). "Race to put the passion of Dylan's Caitlin on big screen". Observer.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  4. ^ a b Paul Ferris, "Thomas, Caitlin (1913–1994)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (subscription only)
  5. ^ von Zweigbergk, Britta. (2007). Tony's War: The life and times of a WW2 Typhoon pilot. Cambridge: Vanguard. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-84386-291-8.
  6. ^ Jones, Glyn (2 August 1994). "Obituary: Caitlin Thomas". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 June 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  7. ^ Akbar, Arifa (19 April 2008). "Dylan Thomas revival proves death has no dominion". independent.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 June 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  8. ^ FitzGibbon, 1965, p. 205.

51°31′04″N 0°08′03″W / 51.5177°N 0.1341°W / 51.5177; -0.1341