11. George Chapman’s house

34 Tilehouse Street, SG5 2DY

George Chapman’s House, a Grade II* listed building, conceals a timber frame beneath its handsome 18th century brick and tile façade. Playwright and poet Chapman (1559 – 1634) a contemporary of Shakespeare, was born near Hitchin and is said to have completed his major work – translating Homer – on Hitchin Hill. He died in poverty, but Keats recalled him in the famous poem Much have I travelled in the realms of gold, and he was praised by poet T S Eliot.

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