George Bernard Shaw

Collected Letters

Ed. Dan H. Laurence. Max Reinhardt. Vol. 1, 1874-1897, pub. 1965; Vol. 2, 1898-1910.

During this period Shaw lived at various addresses in the vicinity of the park: 37 Fitzroy Street (December 1880 to April 1882), 36 Osnaburgh Street (April 1882 to March 1887) and 29 Fitzroy Square (from March 1887).

biked round Regent's Park to purify myself with the clean night air after it. Park not altogether free from improprieties, but quite frosty-pure after Cooper

The only park reference in Vol. 1 is to having started writing a play there. In Vol. 2, on 22nd March 1898, he finished reading William Cooper's History of the Rod and made this entry. See the Nabbs entry for improprieties some 250 years earlier. The letters indicate frequent visits of the 'once round Regent's Park on the bike and then to bed' type: e.g. 'As I walk around the park at night, looking at the other stars, I no longer feel forty-two'.

It was advisable for other park visitors to keep well clear of Shaw when he was on his bicycle - his recklessness resulted in frequent accidents, including on one occasion 'demolishing' Bertrand Russell's plus-fours on an excursion to Tintern Abbey.

Bernard Shaw

Michael Holroyd. Chatto, 1998.

Vol.1 References to the park include a walk with Edith Bland - married name of Edith Nesbit - in 1886; a walk with Beatrice Webb, 12th June 1893; writing The Philanderers in the park and Primrose Hill, amongst other places, 1893; seeking inspiration for a new play, 18th August 1893; and writing You Never Can Tell 'from a wintry chair in Regent's Park', January-May 1896.

Vol.3. Androcles and the Lion shared the bill with The Six of Calais at the premiere of the latter in July 1934 at the Open Air Theatre. There is also a photo of GBS at a rehearsal.