The Blue Plaque former home of Amelia Edwards, pioneer of Egyptology and founder of the influential Egypt Exploration Fund, has hit the market.
An English novelist, journalist, and archaeologist, Edwards was an ‘insatiable traveller’ who first visited Egypt in 1873. Inspired by her journeys along the Nile - from Cairo to Abu Simbel - she returned to England determined to devote her life to the study of Egypt and ultimately wrote ‘A Thousand Miles up the Nile’, a bestseller that remains in print today.
Distressed by the increasing threat directed towards ancient statues and artefacts by tourism and modern development, Edwards spent the latter part of her life campaigning for both the preservation and accurate recording of monuments in Egypt and Sudan.
In 1882, she co-founded what is now the Egypt Exploration society with R.S Poole, the Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. The pair’s mission was to help fund excavations across Egypt and promote discoveries in the region. Before her death in 1892, she bequeathed her collection of Egyptian antiquities to University College London and endowed its first chair in Egyptology.
Today, the one bedroom flat where Edwards lived with her family in her early years as a writer is available to rent with Dexters. The property, on a tree-lined street in Finsbury, is where she wrote what is considered her best novel ‘Hand and Glove’ as well as a concise history of France and various travelogues based on her visits to the continent.
The property is set within a beautiful Georgian conversion and has its own private entrance with period wood flooring and a lovely rear garden. Well connected to Angel, King’s Cross and Farringdon Stations, the flat is also nearby Exmouth Market, a hidden precinct in the Clerkenwell area with lots of coffee shops, bars and restaurants.
Ricky Chan, Director of Dexters Clerkenwell says, ‘Finsbury has a rich cultural history with writers from Charles Dickens to George Orwell having resided in the area. This historic property would be well-suited to someone independent and creative, much like Ms Edwards, who’s looking for a cosy apartment in one of London’s most vibrant neighbourhoods.’
