Virginia Woolf in Richmond (eBook)

Introduction

All the rooms, even when we first saw them in the dirty, dusty desolation of an empty house, had beauty, repose, peace and yet life.

− Leonard Woolf

Why Richmond?

Virginia Woolf, aged 32, was an aspiring writer who had recently completed her first novel when she moved to Richmond, in south-west London. Leonard Woolf, her husband, wanted to find somewhere quiet where Virginia could fully recover her mental health, as the strain of writing her debut novel, The Voyage Out had led to mental exhaustion and collapse. Central London was considered too busy, too full of distractions and social gatherings that could be detrimental to Virginia’s fragile state of mind, and so after considering Hampstead and Twickenham, Richmond was chosen as the ideal place for Virginia to reside. It was also close to the nursing home, Burley House, in Twickenham, where Virginia had been confined during her recent illness.

In October 1914, the couple first moved to a lodging house on The Green in Richmond. The Woolfs were pacifists and opposed to the war with Germany, but the reality of the conflict would have been inescapable, due to the large military presence in the town, with regular drills carried out at 8pm every evening on Richmond Green right opposite their lodgings. The town’s small population swelled with hundreds of Belgian refugees and troops moving through the town to the Front.

While renting rooms with their Belgian landlady, Mrs le Grys at 17 The Green, the couple spotted Hogarth House, which was only a few minutes’ walk away along Paradise Road. The Woolfs immediately fell in love with Hogarth House and set about acquiring it. They moved into the house in 1915, albeit under the dark shadow of Virginia’s struggle to get well and the on-going stress of what was referred to initially as the ‘European Crisis’. People had hoped the war would be over quickly but the food rationing and mounting number of casualties led to widespread distress. There was a Relief Committee to help those who were unemployed or widowed, while wounded soldiers were returning in large numbers to be nursed in Richmond Hospital and the military hospital which was created at the Star and Garter hotel. By May 1915, when the first Zeppelin airship bombing raids began over central London, the Third Battalion Signallers from the London Scottish Regiment were encamped in Richmond Park. In 1916, a new military hospital for South African soldiers was being built to house the hundreds of wounded survivors being transported to the town.

Through her diaries and letters, the reader can see how the war affected daily life, as Virginia describes the effects of the numerous air raids in and around London. For example, towards the end of the war in March 1918, Virginia writes:

‘…the guns went off all round us and we heard the whistles. There was no denying it.’1

We get a glimpse into how people at that time coped with the ferocity of the war, by hiding and sleeping in cellars and kitchens. Virginia and Leonard were no different; mattresses were laid down in lower rooms and the time was spent with the servants, Nellie and Lottie. Through this time, Virginia was extremely worried about the safety of her sister Vanessa and her friend, Katherine (Ka) Cox, but everyday life continued despite this – visitors were still received at the house and writing continued. The war was a time of great anxiety for the Woolfs. It would later permeate Virginia’s writing, most notably in Jacob’s Room and Mrs Dalloway, started in January 1920 and mid-1922, as The Hours, respectively. Jacob’s Room follows Jacob through his life in Cambridge, London and Greece, places that Virginia had visited. Although not directly referencing the war, the first lines of the novel give a great indication:

‘So of course,” wrote Betty Flanders, pressing her heels rather deeper in the sand, “there was nothing for it but to leave.”’.2

One of the most well-known poems of the war was written in 1915 by John McCrae, entitled In Flanders Fields, and, as some critics have noted, Flanders can be seen as a synonym for death in battle. There is an obvious connection between the character of Jacob and Virginia’s deceased brother, Thoby, who died in 1906 aged 25, and it has been suggested that Jacob’s Room was written not only as an elegy to him, but also to the countless numbers of young men killed in the Great War.

Today, Richmond is fortunate that the buildings at 17 The Green and Hogarth House still stand. They are both Grade II listed as historic buildings, meaning that they are of special interest and every attempt should be made to preserve them. Both properties have recently been renovated. Hogarth House has been graced with a blue plaque that testifies to the years the couple spent there and their creation of The Hogarth Press. Richmond Green remains largely as it was a century ago but Paradise Road is now a busy thoroughfare with regular traffic queues and Hogarth House is surrounded by office buildings and a public car park, but it isn’t hard to imagine Virginia watching the army trucks and soldiers on horseback passing along the street a hundred years ago. Being located close to the shops and only five minutes away from the station, the couple were able to easily travel by train to visit friends and family living elsewhere. The house is also close to the River Thames and to the semi-wilderness of the ancient Deer Park at the top of Richmond Hill, which offered the couple many opportunities for delightful walks in the area. Indeed, going for long walks was advised by Virginia’s doctors, and Virginia seemed to enjoy walking around the Richmond area, often wandering to Kew Gardens with her dogs, casually observing all manner of life and activity around her.

In her writing, Virginia presents Hogarth House as a solid building, with thick walls and doors, almost like a protective shroud. Leonard also refers to Hogarth House as ‘graceful and light’, demonstrating that the couple thought of the house not only as a safe haven, but also as a comfortable home. It was, indeed, ‘…a perfect envelope for everyday life.’3

Her first novel, The Voyage Out, had received warm reviews, and Virginia was determined to make a name for herself in the literary world. The time she spent living in Hogarth House, could be described as an embryonic period for her development as a novelist, which was to be further enhanced by the creation of the Hogarth Press.

The Hogarth Press

The Hogarth Press began as a hobby for Leonard and Virginia. In fact, Leonard had decided that it would be useful for Virginia to have something practical to focus on, as her writing and self-absorption took such a toll on her mental health. She needed a distraction from the psychological strain of writing which brought with it the anxiety of never being able to make a name for herself as a respected writer.

Having relocated to the suburbs to escape the constant demands of Bloomsbury’s hectic social scene, Leonard believed he had found the perfect place for Virginia to recover and settle down to a regular routine. In his autobiography, Beginning Again, Leonard describes the moment that the couple saw a printing press in a shop window:

‘We stared through the window at them rather like two hungry children gazing at buns and cakes in a baker shop window.’4

They attempted to learn the process of printing, but eventually bought a press which came with an instruction manual and they taught themselves from there. Although it was initially a struggle with some setbacks, the couple persisted in their aim to be able to publish their own work and the process of printing and publishing became a source of great joy and pride for both of them.

At the time when their new press was delivered, Virginia was not writing regularly in her diary, but she was sending frequent letters to family and friends. She describes the new arrival with great excitement, but also describes the difficulties with the typesetting process. In a letter to her sister, Vanessa Bell, on April 17th 1917, she says that, ‘…the arrangement of the type is such a business that we shan’t be ready to start printing directly.’5

She goes on to describe how the large blocks of type would need to be split into separate letters and fonts, which then have to be placed into the correct partitions. Unfortunately for Virginia, soon after starting, she confused the h’s with the n’s, leading them to start the process of typesetting all over again.

In a later letter, she describes Leonard’s feeling of never wanting to do anything else but printing and it seems that Virginia is very happy at this particular moment. Their first attempt at producing fiction was in 1917 when they decided to print a short pamphlet which contained two stories; one each by Virginia and Leonard.

Two Stories was officially published in July of the same year and included Three Jews by Leonard and The Mark on the Wall by Virginia. The pamphlet was around 34 pages long but took the couple more than two months to produce due to the lengthy process of setting the type manually.

The couple had decided...