Eccentric George Cecil Ives

This is where...
Location: 196 Adelaide Road, Lewisham, London
Description: This is the house where the German born George Ives (1867-1950) lived from 1906 to his death. He was a poet, writer, penal reformer and early gay rights campaigner.
Ives was educated at Magdalene College in Cambridge, where he started to amass 45 volumes of scrapbooks of press clippings of murders, punishments, freaks, theories of crime and punishment, transvestism, psychology of gender, homosexuality, cricket scores, and letters he wrote to newspapers.
Ives met Oscar Wilde at the Authors' Club in 1892; Wilde was taken by his boyish looks and persuaded him to shave off his moustache, and once kissed him passionately in the Travellers' Club.
In later life he developed eccentricities and developed a passion for melons, filling this house with them.
When the Second World War ended he allegedly refused to believe it and carried a gas mask with him everywhere in a case until his death.
Throughout his life, Ives had many lovers whom he called his children. He took care of them, gave them money and bought them houses. He often lived with more than one lover at a time and some stayed with him several years.
Tours: Great London Eccentrics Tour
Themes: Literary


This is where... |
Ranking This Month: 652/3075
Pages Hit This Month: 39
Your Comments:
Other places nearby:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's House», 1.6km
Daphne du Maurier lived here», 1.1km
Daily News to Remember», 4.9km
The Rainbow Coffee House», 3.1km
Canada Water Super-Library», 5.9km
Eccentric George Cecil Ives», 0km
Voltaire lived and wrote here», 2.9km
Home to Three Men in a Boat», 3.9km
101 Dalmations author lived here», 1.4km
84 Charing Cross Road», 2.5km
Location Pinpointed:
Open Street Maps», Google Maps»