Moby-Dick author’s London home on the market for £9m

Herman Melville wrote early drafts of classic novel in Georgian townhouse near The Strand

The central London house where Herman Melville lodged in 1849 provided inspiration for the American writer's famous novel published two years later. Photo: Wetherell

A blue plaque house where Herman Melville researched and wrote the first drafts of his novel Moby-Dick is on the market for £9 million.

The five-bedroom, 4,371-square-foot Georgian townhouse near The Strand and the River Thames in central London is on Craven Street, which was once home to a whaling ship wharf which dealt with the distribution of whale oil, blubber and other products.

It is one of several features that inspired details of the mid-19th century novel, which was based on real-life events and tells the story of Captain Ahab’s obsessive search to kill the whale that bit his leg off on a previous voyage.

The blue plaque initiative, which is run by the English Heritage charity, celebrates the links between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked. The plaque to Melville at 25 Craven Street says he lived there in 1849.

The London house where 19th-century American author Herman Melville researched and wrote early drafts of his famous novel Moby-Dick is for sale at £9 million. Photo: Wetherell

The original owner of the townhouse, John Lucie Blackman, a sugar plantation and cargo ship owner, rented rooms to sailors, travellers and people working in local theatres and restaurants.

Melville rented a room on one of the property’s upper floors, offering views of the Thames, while he was in London looking for a publisher for the book that would become Moby-Dick.

The terrace of the Georgian townhouse, with the London Eye on the South Bank of the Thames in the background. Photo: Wetherell

He would write notes for the novel while gazing out at the Thames, the nearby wharf and passing whaling ships.

It is believed Melville partly based the character Captain Ahab on Capt Archibald Buchanan, a Royal Navy captain, who also lodged at 25 Craven Street while Melville was there.

American novelist Herman Melville portrayed around 1850. Moby-Dick was published in 1851. Getty Images

The author used to hear the captain walking on the timber decking of the terrace above him, using him for the inspiration for Captain Ahab pacing on the Pequod whaling ship as he scanned the ocean looking for Moby Dick, while the bow-shaped drawing room overlooking the River Thames provided the inspiration for his cabin.

“When you’re in the house you have a feeling of belonging that you are part of old London,” Peter Wetherell, founder and executive chairman of Wetherell estate agents, told The National. “The Thames would come literally right up to the houses.”

The Craven Street townhouse 'is part of old London', say estate agents. Photo: Wetherell

Melville also drew on his experiences working on a sailor on whaling ships, which is when he first heard the story of about Mocha Dick, an albino sperm whale that attacked ships in the Pacific during the early 1800s.

The author returned to the US in 1849 to write the book based on the notes, research and drafts from his time in London. He finished it 18 months later, publishing it as The Whale in October 1851 and Moby-Dick in New York in November 1851.

The exterior of the townhouse Photo: Wetherell

The current owner obtained full planning permission to extend and remodel the property to create a roughly 5,500-square-foot luxury residence with several reception rooms, VIP bedroom suites, private cinema and a wine tasting room and display cellar. Selling agent Wetherell believes the property could be worth up to £16 million once refurbished.

Plans include a passenger lift connecting all four floors, with an entrance hall, dining room and drawing room on the ground floor and a main reception room, library and a study on the first floor. The transformed basement would have a private cinema and a display cellar.

A spacious bedroom in the historic property. Photo: Wetherell

“The owner battled away to get planning permission to bring it in to the modern world,” said Mr Wetherell. “It gives someone the opportunity to put their own mark on a house that’s been improved and changed throughout its history.”

An illustration from an early edition of Moby-Dick. Photo: Wikimedia Commons