Walking with the Ancestors - Philip Larkin

Tracing the Poet in Residence

Aside from his aversion to the library and his lodgings, Larkin seemingly had little trouble acclimatising to Wellington life and many of his former haunts can still be visited today. At the top of Walker Street, opposite its junction with Duke Street, stands 'Rasputin's', the public house Larkin knew as The Raven, a hostelry he is known to have frequented regularly. Next door, Larkin learnt to play billiards at the local YMCA, now a furniture shop, while further up Tan Bank, a nightclub occupies the site of the Grand Theatre, where he spent many wartime evenings with the 'school captain', his fiancée Ruth Bowman.

She was a pupil at the Girl's High School (now New College) which stands in King Street, near to Glentworth and the Drill Hall, whose bugles were such a source of irritation to the young novelist. Although Larkin's final lodgings at 7 Ladycroft are no more, a short walk back into town leads to the Charlton Arms in Church Street, where he entertained his college friend, the novelist Kingsley Amis.