GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc - Chinatown celebrates links to writers with green plaque
Published: 23 July 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM
CHINATOWN is famous for many things but literature isn’t one of them.
But last week that changed, when the area’s hitherto little-known connection to literary greats GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc was commemorated with a green plaque.
In 1900, Chesterton and Belloc, shared a bottle of Moulin-à-Vent at what was then the Mont Blanc restaurant at 16 Gerrard Street. It marked the start of a long and close friendship that was so unshakeable, George Bernard Shaw would later describe them as “Chesterbelloc”.
They went on to write some of the most talked about books in recent history, including The Everlasting Man, Orthodoxy and The Servile State.
Today, the site is occupied by the Golden Harvest – a Cantonese and Dim Sum restaurant, reflecting the area’s Chinese community, which settled there following the Second World War.