Angela Williams at Literary Places just sent me a link to a BBC news item, Tidal defence work to protect Teignmouth from flooding, about forthcoming work to protect protect Teignmouth's town centre and beach areas by building of new flood defence walls, flood gates, ramps and steps for access to the quays and foreshore.
While undoubtedly necessary, this is going to radically affect the appearance of the Back Beach, the lesser-known part of Teignmouth on the Teign estuary, where houses and working buildings front straight on to the shore. I've never been there, but I'm going to take up Angela's recommendation to visit before January, when the work starts. I've visited Teignmouth once before - see previously, Keats in Teignmouth - but was feeling very fragile post-flu and fit only for pottering between tea-shops, so I'm sure I'd enjoy a revisit more.
This older section of Teignmouth contains the house (or rather houses - there are two candidates) where Keats lodged during his stay in Teignmouth in 1817. See her latest post In the footsteps of John Keats (Dec 4th 2011) for more pictures, and background on this section of Teignmouth - East Teignmouth, as it used to be called.
- Ray
There is a rather interesting review in NYRB concerning writer's houses:
ReplyDeleteWhat I Hate About Writer's Houses
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/dec/22/what-i-hate-about-writers-houses/
There is much food for thought there.