What's Real in Burning Bright?
• William and Catherine Blake, and Philip and John Astley all existed.
• Other characters who existed in name if not in personality: Blake’s mother and siblings, Rachael Pelham, John Roberts, John Fox, Hannah Smith
• The Blakes lived at 13 Hercules Buildings between 1790 and 1800.
• Blake owned a printing press and probably kept it in his front room.
• There was a grapevine and a fig tree in his back garden.
• Circus impresario Philip Astley ran a famous circus at the end of Westminster Bridge. He lived in a mansion in the field behind Blake’s house. His son John Astley lived in a house next to Blake’s.
• One day Blake saw a young boy dragging around a log attached to his leg. He confronted Philip Astley and the two had a shouting match, though ended up reconciled.
• Astley’s fireworks lab blew up on 1 June 1792, killing the carpenter John Honor.
• Blake’s mother died in September 1792 and was buried in Bunhill Fields.
• In December 1792 the newly formed Lambeth Association petitioned local residents to sign a loyalty pledge.