Introduction
Acclaimed in 1977 in the Times Literary Supplement by the poet Philip Larkin as the most underrated writer of the 20th century, Barbara Pym’s novel Quartet in Autumn of 1977 was nominated for the Booker Prize. The rest, as they say, is history. It would have been a great loss if she had not been rediscovered by Philip Larkin. And now, Barbara Pym also has her very own Blue Plaque in Cambridge Street, Pimlico.
Early Life and Education
Pym studied at Oxford and travelled to Germany in the post-war Nazi period. She specialised in writing about vicars, spinsters and unrequited love — a dying world of middle England with its Church of England and a very real community many would recognise.
Publishing Struggles and Rediscovery
Unfortunately, her seventh novel in 1963 An Unsuitable Attachment had been rejected. She had been advised that her style was old-fashioned. Small-town spinsters and vicars were not of interest anymore. As a result, Pym did not publish again until 1977 after Philip Larkin rediscovered her. She never fully forgave Cape publishers for the slight and invented, with her sister Hilary, “Maschler pudding” — a weak-tasting dessert of lime jelly and milk in honour of Tom Maschler, who had rejected her on behalf of Cape.
Perhaps Pym’s culinary invention could be forgiven, but it was the swinging 60s — a time when many places were changing, attracting a new generation of readers.
Posthumous Recognition and the Blue Plaque Campaign
After Pym’s death, Maschler appeared in the 1992 television film Miss Pym’s Day Out, recounting his decision to reject the novel (which was posthumously published in 1982).
In terms of progressiveness, she was one of the few writers to write about gay characters sympathetically at a time when male homosexuality was still illegal (decriminalised 1967 in England and Wales).
For many, the unveiling of a Blue Plaque on 1 May 2025 by historian Lucy Worsley was a long time coming. The Barbara Pym Society, formed in 1994 following a literary weekend exploring her work at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, remains active today. Here in 1934 she received her second-class BA in English Language and Literature.
Gender Inequality in Blue Plaque Awards
Pym is one of many women denied a voice for too long in the Blue Plaque league. It has been said that in London it would take 300 years for women to reach equality with men in terms of numbers of Blue Plaques, according to The Guardian. In 1986, 120 years after the launch of Blue Plaques, there were still only 46 in London honouring women.
This is highlighted by the fact that at one point Jack Cohen of Tesco, important as he is, had a plaque, but Noor Inayat Khan, a secret agent in World War II, did not.
Life in Pimlico
The May 1st Blue Plaque unveiling for Barbara Pym took place at her home at 108 Cambridge Street, Pimlico — the first-floor flat she shared with her sister Hilary from 1945 to 1949. It overlooked Warwick Square and St Gabriel’s Church, recording her observations in her distinct, almost Jane Austen style.
Barbara Pym’s Own Words
Her home environment leapt off the page when Pym declared in Excellent Women:
“I would just see the church spire through the trees in the Square. Now they were leafless and it looked beautiful springing up among the peeling stucco fronts of the houses — prickly Victorian gothic, hideous inside, I suppose, but very dear to me.”
and
“Hilary and I have taken a flat in Pimlico, not a very good district but perhaps we shall raise the tone. It is at the corner of Warwick Square and really quite nice. Anyway we are lucky to get anywhere at all, as it is practically impossible to choose at all.”
Pimlico’s Housing History
After World War II there was a dire shortage of housing for all classes. Even the daughters of genteel middle-class families such as Barbara and her sister, who worked for the BBC (an establishment which had a housing officer), found it hard.
There were prefabs, new towns, and people lived in tents, contacted farmers for barns, caravans, abandoned buses, army bases, and squatted in hotels, shops, and air raid shelters.
Barbara Pym came to shabby Pimlico as it moved along the housing cycle away from the grand days of Thomas Cubitt family homes — except around the three main squares of St George’s, Warwick, and Eccleston Square, which remained somewhat grand — to a world more separated into rooms, flats, and hotels.
Not long after Barbara Pym arrived, Laura Ashley was living around the corner with her husband, and the area began to develop a “shabby chic” and trendier feel.
Barbara Pym’s Later Years and Legacy
Barbara Pym died in 1980, aged 66. Today, Pimlico is as fun a place to live in and explore as it always was — so why not come on the Garden Village of Pimlico private tour?
Read the blog and come and re-discover the Pimlico of Barbara. Pym and other interesting people on the Garden Village of Pimlico walk
