About Peter Pan

The play by Sir James Barrie

Like Alice in Wonderland and other great stories for children, Peter Pan originated as a private entertainment invented for one particular child or group of children.

By 1898 James Matthew Barrie was a popular, established British novelist and playwright in his late thirties. At a dinner party in London, he had met Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, sister of the actor-manager Gerald du Maurier and the wife of Arthur Llewelyn Davies, a successful barrister. Soon Barrie was a close friend of the entire family, which at that time consisted of George aged five, Jack aged three and baby Peter, not yet out of his pram.

J.M. Barrie

The Davies family lived near the area in London known as Notting Hill Gate to the north of a central park called Kensington Gardens, while Barrie and his wife Mary lived in Gloucester Road to the south.

It was Barrie’s habit to walk in the Gardens every day, always with “Porthos”, his St Bernard dog. The Davies boys also visited the Gardens for their daily walk and it was there that the remarkable friendship between 38-year-old Barrie and his “lost boys” developed.

For the boys he quickly became the most exciting part of their daily excursions into Kensington Gardens. He amused them with jokes and games, inventing new ones every day; but above all he could tell stories which completely captured their imagination: Long rambling adventures in which the boys were cast heroes, with Barrie himself and “Porthos” also taking part.

More about Peter Pan and also the connection with Great Ormond Street Hospital