Keats Shelley House

What Keats Shelley House does

Keats-Shelley House is a literary museum and research library located at Piazza di Spagna 26, Rome, occupying the final residence of the English Romantic poet John Keats, who died there in 1821 at age 25. Maintained by the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association (a registered UK charity founded in 1903), the museum houses one of the world's finest libraries of second-generation English Romantic literature — approximately 8,000 volumes, 400+ manuscripts, and a collection of artworks and relics relating to Keats, Shelley, Byron, and Mary Shelley. KSH's preserved bedroom shrine to Keats is the institution's most distinctive physical asset and one no peer can replicate.

The institution operates a portfolio of interconnected services centered on its core museum experience. In-person admission runs €7 for adults and €5 for school students and reduced categories (ICOM members, children under 6, and disabled visitors enter free). Group bookings (400+ school groups annually plus adult cultural groups) form a significant revenue line, priced at €5–€7 per person with guided talks. The Friends membership program (£20/€40 UK/Europe; $45 rest of world) provides recurring annual revenue. The museum operates a retail shop (books, jewellery, prints, memorabilia) both on-site and online, though it cannot currently ship to the US due to tariff constraints. Digital offerings include a Panoramic Tour with live guides in English, Italian, and Russian (launched February 2021), a searchable Digital Collections Archive, and a virtual book club. The Keats-Shelley200 bicentenary campaign (2020–2022) drove a sustained programmatic expansion including museum restoration, immersive videos narrated by Bob Geldof and Julian Sands, and academic conferences.

The business model is a non-profit charitable structure reliant on a diversified income mix: visitor admissions, group bookings, retail shop sales, Friends membership subscriptions, donations and legacies, and project-specific grants from the Italian Ministry of Culture (€113,000 over 2021–2023; €79,946 committed for 2024–2026 via the Tabella Triennale). Customer segments are intentionally fragmented across school groups, literary enthusiasts, general tourists, and Friends patrons. The museum is actively operating with regular hours (Monday–Saturday 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–18:00), staffed by 8 employees, and led by Curator Ella Kilgallon and Deputy Curator Dr Luca Caddia.

Name

Keats Shelley House

Legal name

Keats-Shelley Memorial Association (Incorporated)

Website

https://keats-shelley-house.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1903

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Keats-Shelley House is a museum and research library in Rome at Piazza di Spagna, occupying the final residence of poet John Keats, dedicated to second-generation English Romantic poets. It serves 400+ school groups annually, literary tourists, scholars, and Friends members through admission, education programs, digital tours, and a charity-supported retail shop.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Literary Museum and Cultural Heritage Site

NAICS

Museums (712110), Historical Sites (712120), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712)

akta.pro primary industry

History Museums (THAJADAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Architecture & Urban Design Tours (THAJAAAD), Poetry Workshops (EDAMAMAB)

Keywords

• Literary museum operations
• Cultural heritage preservation
• Historic house museum
• Educational museum programs
• Virtual museum tours

Headquarters

HQ city

Rome

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Museum Admission: Ticket sales for museum entry with tiered pricing for adults, students, seniors, and special categories
2. Retail Shop: Sale of books, jewellery, gifts, cards, prints, apparel, and memorabilia related to Romantic poets
3. Membership (Friends Program): Annual membership fees of £20/€40 for UK/Europe or $45 for rest of world, providing free entry, Keats-Shelley Review copies, and event invitations
4. Donations and Legacies: One-off and regular donations, plus legacy gifts to support museum upkeep and education
5. Group Tours and Educational Programs: Fees for guided tours, talks, and educational programs for school and adult groups
6. Virtual Tours: Panoramic tour experiences with live guides available in multiple languages
7. Book Club Sessions: Paid book club meetings at €20 per session including museum admission and refreshments

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Keats-Shelley House is a museum and library in Rome dedicated to second-generation English Romantic poets (Keats, Shelley, Byron, Mary Shelley). It offers paid museum admission to the preserved rooms at Piazza di Spagna 26 (including Keats's deathroom), panoramic virtual tours with live guides, a research library of 8,000+ volumes, group educational programs for schools, the annual Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize for Schools, an English-language book club, temporary exhibitions, gift shop sales, and a Friends membership program.

Product overview

The Keats-Shelley House is a literary museum and research library at Piazza di Spagna, Rome, dedicated to the British Romantic poets. The institution offers a portfolio of interconnected services centered around its core museum experience, including in-person admission, a Panoramic Tour digital experience (launched February 2021), library services for scholars, and educational programs such as the annual Poetry Prize for Schools and English Language Book Club. Supporting offerings include a gift shop (online and in-person) selling books and memorabilia, temporary exhibitions (currently featuring Mary Shelley's The Last Man), the Keats-Shelley200 bicentenary campaign, group visits with guided tours, Friends membership, and a digital collections archive. The library holds approximately 8,000 volumes of Romantic-era materials.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Museum Admission In-person museum entry to the Keats-Shelley House at Piazza di Spagna 26, Rome. Visitors tour preserved rooms dedicated to John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron, including Keats's preserved bedroom shrine. Tiered pricing: adults (up to 65) €7, under 18s / 65+ / students with ID / Touring Club / Carta per due / FAI members €5. Free admission for ICOM members, children under 6, and disabled visitors. Open Monday–Saturday 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–18:00.
• Gift Shop (Online and In-Person) Museum gift shop selling books, jewelry, ceramics, postcards, notebooks, gifts, and Keats-Shelley200 commemorative items related to British Romantic poets. Operated both as an in-person shop at the museum and as an online e-commerce storefront at ksh.roma.it/shop for EU shipping (unable to ship to US due to tariff situation).
• Panoramic Tour with Live Guide Live-guide-led virtual tour of the Keats-Shelley House museum rooms, allowing remote participants to explore Keats's apartment and rooms dedicated to Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Byron. Available in English, Italian, and Russian. Pricing: €6 for adults, €5 for school groups and elderly. Maximum 30 participants per tour.
• Library Research Services By-appointment access to the Harry Nelson Gay library containing approximately 8,000 volumes focused on second-generation English Romanticism, including first editions of Keats and Shelley works, manuscripts, and Italian translations. Access restricted to one user at a time, supporting academic and scholarly research.
• English Language Book Club Monthly English-language book club sessions held at the Keats-Shelley House, discussing literary works related to Romantic poets and their circle. Sessions priced at €20 per person and include museum admission and refreshments.
• Group Visits and Guided Tours Structured bookable educational programs for school groups and adult cultural groups. School groups: €5 per student including talk, free admission for up to 2 teachers, minimum 10 students. Adult/cultural groups: €7 per person (€5 for over 65 with ID), minimum €70 guided tour fee (equivalent to 10 tickets), maximum 26 people per group. Available Monday to Saturday in multiple time slots, booked via online calendar or phone.
• Friends of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association Membership Annual recurring membership program offering free entry to the House, free copies of the Keats-Shelley Review (twice yearly), newsletter, and invitations to events in the UK and Rome. Pricing: £20 / €40 for UK and Continental Europe residents; $45 for rest of world.

Named customers4 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Bodleian Libraries, OxfordminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Received donation of Shelley family papers from James Scarlett, 9th Baron Abinger, containing documents related to Sir Percy Florence and Lady Shelley, including letters by Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Leigh Hunt.
• Keats-Shelley Memorial AssociationcoreOthers · 1 January 1903The parent organization that maintains the Keats-Shelley House and cares for the graves of Keats and Shelley in the Non-Catholic Cemetery. Founded 1903 with support from King Edward VII, King Vittorio Emanuele III, and President Theodore Roosevelt. A registered UK Charity.
• Keats-Shelley Association of AmericaminorOthersAmerican affiliate organization supporting the mission of the Keats-Shelley House
• Associazione Nazionale Case della MemoriaminorOthersItalian national association of memory houses, connecting cultural heritage sites

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• Associazione Nazionale Case della Memoria: Italian national network of literary/writer's house museums explicitly listed as an affiliate of the Keats-Shelley House; comparable cohort of peer institutions for benchmarking programming and visitor flow.

Broad incumbents

• Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford: Major research library that has received Shelley family papers from the Keats-Shelley House (documented partnership). A larger institutional counterpart for archival stewardship, exhibitions, and public engagement with Romantic-period materials.
• The Morgan Library & Museum: Larger US literary-specialist museum and research library housing manuscripts and rare books with comparable research access, exhibitions and Friends membership — a scaled-up version of the Keats-Shelley House model.

Direct peers

• The Brontë Parsonage Museum: Literary house museum preserving the home of the Brontë sisters, with comparable size, charitable governance, library/archive, school programmes, and membership model.
• Charles Dickens Museum: London literary house museum (48 Doughty Street) operated by a charitable trust, with comparable size, educational programming, retail shop, Friends membership, and curated exhibitions.
• Petrarch's House (Casa del Petrarca): Italian literary house museum dedicated to Petrarch in Arezzo, sharing the same literary-writer's-house format, Italian heritage location, and small-team nonprofit operating model.
• Shakespeare's Birthplace: Single-author literary heritage museum operated by a UK charity, with multi-site tickets, school education programmes, retail shop, and membership — a structurally analogous literary-house-museum operating model.
• Robert Burns Birthplace Museum: Scottish literary heritage museum (National Trust for Scotland) covering a single Romantic-era poet, with school programmes, retail, and memberships — a comparable scale and curatorial model.
• The Keats House (Hampstead): Hampstead museum dedicated to John Keats — the same poet featured at the Keats-Shelley House — making it a directly comparable single-author literary heritage museum with overlapping curatorial scope.
• Casa di Goethe: Rome-based literary house museum dedicated to a German writer, explicitly mentioned as a reciprocal discount partner. Closest geographic and conceptual peer: a single historic apartment museum in Rome devoted to a Romantic-era foreign-language author.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Keats_Shelley
• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=Vlhg9VlSSQI
• Facebookfacebook.com/keatsshelleyhouse
• Instagraminstagram.com/keats_shelley_house_rome?igshid=10edhu5ecift2
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/keats-shelley-house

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Keats Shelley House