Streatham Worthies

The Streatham Worthies is the collective description for the circle of literary and cultural figures around the wealthy brewer Henry Thrale and his wife Hester Thrale who assembled at his country retreat Streatham Park and were commemorated by a series of portraits by Joshua Reynolds.

It is generally believed to be a playful reference to the celebrated 'Temple of British Worthies' at Stowe House.

Burney noted that Thrale wanted: "the persons he most loved to contemplate... to preside over the literature that stood highest in his estimation".

Mrs Thrale wrote that Sir Philip Jennings-Clerke had pressed her to include him in the list of Worthies.

Commentators have sometimes used the term for the wider intellectual circle around the Thrales and Johnson, in particular to include Fanny Burney and Elizabeth Montagu.