Mary Shelley Blue Plaque

About This Blue Plaque

Mary Shelley, born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in 1797, was a pioneering English novelist best known as the author of the Gothic classic “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”. She lived a remarkable life shaped by tragedy, scandal, and a deep passion for literature.

The daughter of prominent feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft and political philosopher William Godwin, Mary was raised in an intellectually stimulating environment. In 1814, at the age of 16, she began a romance with the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was married at the time. The couple, along with Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont, famously traveled through Europe, which inspired Mary to pen “Frankenstein” during a stay at Lake Geneva in 1816.

Mary and Percy eventually married in 1816 after the tragic suicide of his first wife. They had one surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. Sadly, Mary endured further loss with the deaths of two other children and ultimately Percy himself in a sailing accident in 1822. A single mother, Mary returned to England, where she continued to write novels, short stories, and travel narratives. From 1846 to 1851, she resided here at 24 Chester Square in London’s Borough of Westminster, an affluent area known for its grand garden squares and notable residents. Mary Shelley died of a brain tumor in 1851 at the age of 53, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most influential and groundbreaking writers of the 19th century.