In response to:
The Charms of Edwin Lutyens from the December 4, 2014 issue
To the Editors:
In “The Charms of Edwin Lutyens” [NYR, December 4, 2014] Martin Filler makes the interesting suggestion that Edwin Lutyens in his childhood had William Makepeace Thackeray for a neighbor in London’s Onslow Square. However, this cannot be, since Lutyens was born in 1869 and Thackeray died in 1863. Perhaps the suggestion really means that the Lutyens family had Thackeray for a neighbor, but even that doesn’t work very well, since Thackeray left Onslow Square in 1860 and the Lutyens family moved there (if Google is to be trusted) in 1863.
Still, if the suggestion is merely that Onslow Square was the arty sort of place where someone like Thackeray once lived, that’s true enough.
Sheldon Goldfarb
Vancouver, British Columbia
Martin Filler replies:
I am indebted to Mr. Goldfarb for sorting out the intricacies of Onslow Square real estate during the reign of Queen Victoria.
