William Blake Plaque

You are standing near the site of number thirteen Hercules Buildings, where the visionary poet and artist William Blake lived for a full decade starting in seventeen ninety. While the original house was demolished in nineteen eighteen, this location marks the heart of what Blake considered his most creatively fertile period. During these years, he and his wife Catherine enjoyed a garden where they famously sat together, once allegedly greeting a visitor while stark naked and declaring they were simply Adam and Eve. It was within these walls that Blake developed his revolutionary color printing techniques and produced major works like Songs of Experience and the prophetic book Europe.