Moby-Dick author's London home on the market for £9m

The National

31-01-2025

A blue plaque house where Herman Melville researched and wrote the first drafts of his novel Moby-Dick is on the market for £9 million. The five-bedroom, 4,371-square-foot Georgian townhouse near The Strand and the River Thames in central London is located on Craven Street, which was once home to a whaling ship wharf which dealt with the distribution of whale oil, blubber and other products. It is one of several features that inspired details of the mid-19th century novel, which was based on real-life events and tells the story of Captain Ahab's obsessive search to kill a whale that bit his leg off on a previous voyage. The blue plaque initiative, which is run by the English Heritage charity, celebrates the links between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked. The plaque to Melville at 25 Craven Street says he lived there in 1849. The original owner of the townhouse, John Lucie Blackman, a sugar plantation and cargo ship owner, rented rooms to sailors, travellers and people working in local theatres and restaurants. Melville rented a room on one of the property's upper floors, offering views of the Thames, while he was in London looking for a publisher for the book that would become Moby-Dick. He would write notes for the novel while gazing out at the Thames, the nearby wharf and passing whaling ships. It is believed Melville partly based the character Captain Ahab on Capt Archibald Buchanan, a Royal Navy captain, who also lodged at 25 Craven Street while Melville was there. The author used to hear the captain walking on the timber decking of the terrace above him, using him for the inspiration for Captain Ahab pacing on the Pequod whaling ship as he scanned the ocean looking for Moby Dick, while the bow-shaped drawing room overlooking the River Thames provided the inspiration for his cabin. 'When you're in the house you have a feeling of belonging that you are part of old London,' Peter Wetherell, founder and executive chairman of Wetherell estate agents told The National. 'The Thames would come literally right up to the houses.' Melville also drew on his experiences working on a sailor on whaling ships, which is when he first heard the story of about Mocha Dick, an albino sperm whale that attacked ships in the Pacific during the early 1800s. The author returned to the US in 1849 to write the book based on the notes, research and drafts from his time in London. He finished it 18 months later, publishing it as The Whale in October 1851 and Moby-Dick in New York in November 1851. The current owner obtained full planning permission to extend and remodel the property to create a circa 5,500-square-foot luxury residence with multiple reception rooms, VIP bedroom suites, private cinema and a wine tasting room and display cellar. Selling agent Wetherell believes the property could be worth up to £16 million once refurbished. Plans include a passenger lift connecting all four floors, with an entrance hall, dining room and drawing room on the ground floor and a main reception room, library and a study on the first floor. The transformed basement would have a private cinema and a display cellar. 'The owner battled away to get planning permission to bring it in to the modern world,' said Mr Wetherell. 'It gives someone the opportunity to put their own mark on a house that's been improved and changed throughout its history.'