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Camden New Journal - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 25 October 2007

Mick Scott with Keats House head of visitors’ services Gianpaolo Di Giacomo

Restoration will return Keats House to a thing of beauty

A JOB lot of goats’ hair is just one of the more interesting orders builders have placed as Keats House in Hampstead prepares to shut at the end of the month for a year-long renovation.
The animal fur will be mixed with lime render and daubed over the walls of the poet’s house, mimicking the Regency building techniques used when the Grade I-listed house was constructed.
When the £500,000 restoration is finished, the Keats Grove house will be just as the Romantic poet left it in the 1820s, according to museum manager Mick Scott. “Our aim is to make it that John Keats would not notice anything different,” he said.
The house has had no major decoration work since the City of London took it over in 1997. Part of the £500,000 cost is coming from the Lottery Heritage Fund.
Mr Scott said: “We had to do a lot of work when we took it over from Camden Council in the 1990s. We spent £500,000 on fixing the roof and making sure the walls stood up straight.
“It has not had any thing done inside since the 1970s.”
To find out how the house looked in Keats’ day, historic buildings specialist Allyson McDermott consulted the poet’s letters, analysed materials in the house and drew on knowledge of Georgian building techniques.
The renovation will free 30 per cent more space for exhibits relating to the poet.
Paintings and sculptures of Keats by his friend Joseph Severn, who travelled to Rome with the poet when he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, will be on display at the Guildhall art gallery.
Mr Scott said: “It is an exciting restoration project and will make the place a wonderful attraction to celebrate the life of the poet.”

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