Virginia Woolf Literary Tour
On this 6-day tour we explore the world of Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), the iconic writer at the centre of the Bloomsbury Group.
Available at any time of the year as a group tour, with expert guide, tailored to your specific requirements
Travelling through the south of England we visit all the key sites connected with Virginia and members of the Bloomsbury Group.
VIRGINIA WOOLF TOUR
Day One
We meet at our hotel in central London. In an afternoon walk around the area, we will explore all the main London locations associated with the group, including:
- The Reading Room at the British Museum immortalized by Virginia Woolf in A Room Of One’s Own (1929) in the description: ‘the vast dome … the huge, bald forehead which is so splendidly encircled by a band of famous names’
- Gordon Square, where many of the group, including Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, and Vanessa and Clive Bell, lived at various times.
- Tavistock, Fitzroy, Mecklenburgh and Bedford Squares
For details of the significance of each address, see
Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury Locations
Day Two
Today we visit Charleston Farmhouse and Monk’s House.
Charleston was the home of Vanessa Bell, who lived here with her fellow artist and lover Duncan Grant, the writer David Garnett, her sons and an assortment of animals from 1916.
The walls are still decorated with their murals and much of the original furniture remains. There are paintings and lithographs by Grant, Vanessa, Fry, Picasso, Derain, Walter Sickert, Nina Hamnett and others in the gallery.
Then we travel on to Monk’s House, at Rodmell in East Sussex.
Leonard and Virginia Woolf moved to the house in 1919, and this is where Virginia Woolf worked on To The Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928) and The Waves (1931).
Virginia Woolf 's ashes are buried in the garden, which remains much as the Woolfs left it. Leonard lived here until his death in 1969.
Day Three
After an overnight stay in Lewes, we travel to Sissinghurst Castle and Garden
Sissinghurst, Vita Sackville West’s house and garden, is home to the first hand press used by Virginia Woolf in the early days of the Hogarth Press.
Vita Sackville West created the Castle and Garden with her husband, Harold Nicolson, between 1930 and 1938. It is now a museum and one of the most beautiful gardens in Europe. We will visit Vita’s library and writing room and the Garden, which has ten separate and different gardens.
From Sissinghurst we will travel to Winchester where we will stay overninght. There will be time to visit the Cathedral and visit Jane Austen’s grave. Jane died of Addison’s Disease at 8 College Street in July 1817.
Day Four
In the morning we will have time to view more of the town and take in the Keats Walk. It was here that John Keats wrote ‘Ode To Autumn’ and revised ‘The Eve of St Agnes’. Keats was impressed by the neatness of the town writing in August 1819: ‘The side streets here are excessively maiden-lady like’.
The we'll cross the narrow stretch of water to the Isle of Wight and Freshwater Bay.
In 1923 Virginia Woolf wrote her only play, Freshwater, a comedy in three acts, concerning her great aunt, the pioneering photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79)
We will visit Dimbola Lodge, now a museum with photographic exhibitions (and tea rooms!) and nearby Farringford House, Tennyson’s former home, which is now a hotel.
Day Five
In the morning
Dr Brian Hinton MBE,
Honorary Curator of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust at Dimbola Lodge, will give us a guided tour of the Freshwater area and Dimbola Lodge.
The afternoon is left free to spend however you would like, from a bracing coastal walk to a bus tour of the island.
Other options include strolling in the famous yachting town of Cowes, visiting Shanklin and Keats’ Cottage, or the wonderfully preserved Victorian town of Bonchurch where Charles Dickens holidayed and wrote parts of David Copperfield (1849-50), and where the poet Algernon Swinburne grew up and is buried.
Day Six
In the morning we will have further time to explore the island before crossing back to the mainland once more and heading back to London.
The Virginia Woolf Tour
Available at any time of year
Guide cost, 6-day tour: £1,090 (approx. 1,929 USD)
Including all accommodations, breakfast and evening meals, all transport during the tour, and all entrances to named houses/museums.
For deatils and all enquiries please contact us
ADDITIONAL EXTENDED OPTION
An additional option is to travel through Hardy country (in Dorset) and on down to the wild and spectacular Cornish coast to visit St Ives, Porthminster Beach, and the Godrevy lighthouse.
From the beach, the distant vision of Godrevy lighthouse was transformed into a potent literary motif in Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse.
Suggested 3-day itinerary:
Day 1
Travel to St Ives
Day 2
In the morning take a long walk, exploring the area around Talland House, and walking Porthminster Beach.
Talland House was the Stephen family holiday home, where Virginia Woolf (nee Stephen) spent many summers.
‘Probably nothing we had as children was quite so important to us as our summers in Cornwall … to hear the waves breaking … to dig in the sands; to scramble over the rocks and see the anemones flourishing their antennae in the pools’.
In the afternoon there is the option to simply relax and take in the view and the sea air, or visit the St Ives Tate Gallery; the sculptor Barbara Hepworth’s house and studio; or the Godrevy Lighthouse.
Day 3
Return to London
Many other additional options for a longer stay in Cornwall are possible. For example, visiting sites connected with Daphne Du Maurier or Dylan Thomas, or Winston Graham's Poldark series to name just three.
Please contact us for a programme to meet your interests and requirements.
To Virginia Woolf Literary Guide
