“Things are going well for me here, I have a wonderful home and it’s a great pleasure for me to observe London and the English way of life…”

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, September 1873

Between August 1873 and September 1974, a young Vincent van Gogh took lodgings at 87 Hackford Road. It was here in London that Van Gogh became deeply inspired by British literature and art.

At the age of 20, Vincent van Gogh was transferred from the Dutch branch of art dealers Goupil and Ci. in the Hague to its English location in Covent Garden. This was Van Gogh’s first time living and working in a new country, and his first foray into a foreign culture.

After living in XX houses, Van Gogh finally settled into a room at 87 Hackford Road, an 1820s Georgian terrace in Stockwell. He shared the residence with his widowed landlady Mrs. Ursula Loyer, her daughter Eugenie Loyer, and Samuel Plowman, an xxx according to the 18xx census. It is rumoured that Van Gogh fell in love with Eugenie, yet his affections were not returned.