Keats House - Museum

Museum

The building next door, within the grounds of the house, occupies the space where the kitchen garden and outhouses were; it was also the site of a later coach house. It was opened on 16 July 1931 as the 'Keats Museum and Branch Library', housing both a public library and a room to display artifacts from the Keats House collection. Some of these artifacts were donated by Charles Armitage Brown's descendants in New Plymouth, New Zealand, the town to which Charles Brown emigrated in the last year of his life. The Heath Branch Public Library closed in March 2012. The building, which is part of the Keats House Trust administered by the City of London Corporation, reopened in April 2012 as 'Ten Keats Grove'. A volunteer-run library currently occupies part of the space in the building.

Artifacts on display in the house include the engagement ring Keats offered to Fanny Brawne and a copy of Keats's death mask. The museum runs regular poetry and literary events, and offers a range of educational facilities. In December 2006 it was announced that the house was to benefit from a restoration programme partly financed by a £424,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant. Keats House was closed on 1 November 2007 and reopened on Friday, 24 July 2009, some 6 months after the projected re-opening.

To support the work of the house and to contribute to its upkeep, the Keats Foundation was established as a Trust in November 2010.

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