1-629-550 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Oliver Goldsmith's house, Canonbury, Islington, 1912. Canonbury Tower formed part of a manor house of the Priors of St Bartholomew. The Tower itself dates from the mid 16th century. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was acquired by Sir John Spencer, Lord Mayor of London, who added the two wings. Irish-born British playwright, dramatist poet and novelist Goldsmith (1730-1774) lived in the tower during the 1760s. He is best remembered for the novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), the poem The Deserted Village (1770), and the play She Stoops to Conquer (1773). Illustration from Famous Houses and Literary Shrines of London, by John Adcock, (J M Dent and Sons, London, New York, 1912).