Noel Coward's Childhood Home

Actor, Playwright and Songwriter born here in 1899

Location: 131 Waldegrave Road, TW11 8BB

Description: Sir Noel Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 - 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called 'a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise'.

Born in Teddington, Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage debut at the age of eleven.

As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards.

Many of his works, such as 'Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter' and 'Blithe Spirit', have remained in the regular theatre repertoire.

He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta 'Bitter Sweet' and comic revues), poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel 'Pomp and Circumstance', and a three-volume autobiography.

Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works.

A real legend then, which is perfectly applicable to Noel Coward, and so is this house - where he was born back in 1899.

There is a blue plaque on the wall here as a mark or deserved respect.