Where did J.M.W. Turner grow up and live?

📍21 Maiden Lane, London WC2E 7NA, England

1775 – 1851

“I was born Joseph Mallord William Turner on the 23rd of April 1775 in Covent Garden, London, the son of a barber. The Covent Garden of the 1770s was a working neighbourhood of market traders and theatre people. I showed such early ability that my father displayed my drawings in the barber shop window. I entered the Royal Academy Schools at fourteen. My mother was mentally ill and died in an asylum. The Thames was always my river — I could see it from various studios throughout my life — and its light, changing with weather and tide and season, was the subject I never exhausted. I spent my final years in a Chelsea lodging house under the assumed name Mr Booth.”

👍 LovedThe Thames light in all its variety — the way weather and tide transformed the same river into a different painting each day. The Royal Academy's technical training. The freedom of sketching directly from nature.

👎 DislikedMy mother's mental illness and death in an asylum. The critical hostility to my later work. The deliberate obscurity of my final years.

Map showing where J.M.W. Turner lived — 21 Maiden Lane, London WC2E 7NA, England

🗺️ Approximate location today

Street view of J.M.W. Turner's home at 21 Maiden Lane, London WC2E 7NA, England

📍 Street view today

Sources: Shanes, E. J.M.W. Turner (2000), Shooting Star Press; Hamilton, J. Turner: A Life (1997), Hodder & Stoughton