What did Charles Lamb plaque do at 10 Giltspur Street?

The Story

Standing at 10 Giltspur Street, you're looking at what was once Christ's Hospital School, where young Charles Lamb spent his formative years as a "Bluecoat Boy" from 1782 to 1789. It was within these walls that the future essayist developed his love of literature and formed lifelong friendships, most notably with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was a fellow student. The distinctive blue uniform and strict classical education he received here would later feature prominently in his Essays of Elia, particularly in his touching piece "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago," where he vividly recalled both the hardships and joys of his school days. These seven years as a charity student shaped not only Lamb's literary voice but also his deep sense of humanity and empathy, qualities that would make him, as the plaque suggests, "perhaps the most loved name in English literature."