Just as an isolated forester’s cottage became Lawrence’s retreat in Dorset, so an attic room at 14 Barton Street, Westminster, provided him with a refuge from the crowds in London. Here Lawrence was allowed to stay when in London by the distinguished architect Sir Herbert Baker, who leased the house from Westminster School to use as an office.
It was here that Lawrence wrote much of his second draft of Seven Pillars of Wisdom after his original manuscript was lost at Reading Station towards the end of 1919, and he continued to use the room as his London base for years afterwards.
‘I’m perfectly well, and very comfortable in Barton Street which is quite beautiful,’ he wrote to his mother in 1922. ‘The quiet of so little a place in the middle of a great mess has to be experienced a thousand times before it is properly felt. I will be very sorry to leave’.
Few descriptions have reached us of Lawrence’s attic room, so it is interesting to find the following record in the autobiography of the sculptor Sir Charles Wheeler, who visited 14 Barton Street to sculpt Lawrence in 1929. ‘The small room in which he wrote and slept above Baker’s office was littered with books. He was constantly sent new books for comment or review. He told me that one day he found it practically impossible to get into bed, so he filled his knapsack with the most recent novels and made nocturnal visits to Canons’ houses in Westminster Abbey Close to deposit those volumes which he thought most suitable in the most appropriate letter-boxes.
‘His presence at No 14, Barton Street was kept a secret from the general public. But one morning the telephone bell rang and a voice announced: “Is Colonel Lawrence there – I am George Bernard Shaw.” The duteous office boy slapped down the receiver with “Tell that to the Marines.” Ten minutes later a loud knocking on the door heralded G.B.S. in person.’
Even today, to wander into Barton Street is to find an oasis from the hustle and bustle of Westminster. It is worth taking a street map and searching it out, though there is no public access to number 14 itself. A blue plaque records Lawrence’s association with the building.
Other places where Lawrence lodged in London included Sir Herbert Baker’s own house at 2 Smith Square (also used by his mother Sarah and brother Arnold when 2 Polstead Road was sold) and the Union Jack Club where he was known as 353172 A/c Smith. The Union Jack Club still exists today, offering accommodation to non-commissioned members of the British armed forces. It has moved since Lawrence’s time from Waterloo Road to Sandell Street.