Edith Sitwell, Flat 42, ‘Greenhill’, Prince Arthur Road

A special treat today, for this blog’s one-week anniversary: estate agents’ photos from inside Edith Sitwell’s flat. In 2012, this was listed at £2078 pcm. No mention of whether there was a Sitwell premium, but given that they didn’t even mention the association on the listing (the flat number’s on the blue plaque! what do these letting agents get paid for) it seems unlikely. I wonder if the archaic-looking radiator in the smaller of the two bedrooms was installed at the same time as Sitwell?

Here’s Cecil Beaton’s 1962 portrait of Sitwell in situ:

Sitwell6

The angles of the walls, the bed and the bookshelf have always looked rather odd to me in this photo: is it possible that she’s turned her bed so it’s pointing diagonally towards the window? (Or perhaps it was Beaton who moved it, to improve the lighting for the portrait.) And what are those creepers or wires rising from her pillow?

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