A Neglected Address: 25 Adam Street

In his Diaries for 6 July 1928, Evelyn Waugh writes that "Our honeymoon came to an end" and specifies that he (and presumably his wife, Evelyn Gardner) "Spent the following week at Hampstead," undoubtedly his parents' house. That would have occupied their time through Friday, 13 July. On Saturday, however, Waugh writes that he "Returned to 25 Adam Street." He does not explain whether or not She-Evelyn accompanied him, and it is possible that Waugh went alone to work on a "wrapper for novel for Chapman & Hall" and "proofs of Decline and Fall." He at least seems to have spent ten days there, from Saturday, 14 July, to Monday, 23 July. Then he "left 25 Adam Street and came to live at 145 North End Road" (Diaries 295), his parents' house. Waugh also gave "25 Adam Street, Portman Square" as his "Town Address" to Anderson & Sheppard, the tailors. His card can be viewed at Newsletter 39.3. None of Waugh's biographers mentions 25 Adam Street, though Selina Hastings does say that Waugh had a flat near Robert Byron in Portman Square (175). Christopher Sykes claims that He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn stayed at "Harold Acton's flat which he put at their disposal" (84), but Acton did not live in Adam Street, and Waugh's Diaries do not refer to any such arrangement. All the biographers assume that Waugh and his wife moved in with his parents after the wedding, though the Diaries clearly indicate a brief interval at Waugh's flat.