22. Keats 200 Anniversary Lecture, November 3, 2021

Being in two places at the same time is something that Company has to plan. Walbrook Warden, Martin Bigg, represented the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators at the Keats 200 Anniversary Lecture, hosted by the City of London at the Guildhall.


This year is the 200th anniversary of John Keats’ death in Rome in 1821 aged 25. Many Livery Masters and Wardens joined members of the Keats Foundation to hear Professor Nicolas Roe from the University of St Andrews talk on John Keats and the London Cavalry. A fascinating comparison was drawn between Keats’ upbringing, his militaristic father and the beautiful imagery of his poetry.


The lecture was followed by a reception at which we heard Fiyinfoluwa Oladipo, a medical student like Keats, read ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’.  We then heard some well-known lines from Keats set to music by Emily Hall and performed by Ben Rowarth, Paul Bentley-Angell and Chris Lombard.

The Keats200 outdoor display in Aldgate High Street was visited by the Master and Deputy Master on 26 September, when creating the itinerary for the Charity Walk. It told Keats’s story from his birth in Moorgate, through his education in Enfield, followed by medical training in Edmonton and at Guy’s Hospital, leading to his decision to give up a career in medicine and move to Hampstead to follow the life of a poet.

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