While in
London for a long weekend I walked from the hotel in Hampstead down to Primrose
Hill to see the flat where Sylvia’s life came to an end on. It’s at 23 Fitzoy
Road and there's a blue plaque on it (it was the boyhood home of the Irish poet
WB Yeats.) It's just round the corner from Chalcote Square where she'd lived
previously with Ted Hughes.
When Sylvia found out her husband Ted Hughes had a mistress the
marriage collapsed quickly. She moved here moved into number 23 with her
children in December 1962. She only lived here for a few weeks. The last person
who saw her alive was the man from the flat below (asking him for some stamps.)
The next morning a nurse called at 11am to see Sylvia and the children but
there was no answer. Worried she asked a workman to help her get into the flat
and they found a terrible sight.
Property prices around there are silly and a typical 2-bed flat
sells for about £1 million (gulp) or a full house sells for £4.5 million. I'm
not sure which upper floor was Sylvia's flat but I was glad to satisfy my
curiosity and visit the property.