To London, with Love
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After a month-long obsession with Regency Romance novels I have finally done it – I’ve bought tickets for a pilgrimage to the golden city. Caught up in a giddy wave of excitement, I immediately searched the internet for places to visit. I want to stroll in the footsteps of my heroines, to soak in the magic of the pleasure gardens, to drink a brandy in the dark paneled rooms where my heroes have sat, to people-watch in Hyde Park, and to dance the night away under the coal-obscured starlight of the London sky. Okay, not exactly, but you get my drift. What still exists in London that was there during the Regency period? White’s? Brooks’? Boodle’s? Almack’s? Mayfair mansions? The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens? Covent Gardens? Drury Lane? Hyde Park? Surely I’m not the first starry-eyed bookworm to want to see the Regency haunts in real life? Google, for once, has failed me – where is The Regency Romance-Lover’s Guide to Visiting London? Why hasn’t Avon Romance, the giant of Regency publishing, put out such a needed travelog? There are DaVinci Code tours of Paris, The Sound of Music tours in Austria, and Brothers Grimm tours in Germany, so where is the Regency Romance Novel tour of London? Unless, gentle reader, you can point me in the right direction, I shall have to write the book myself. It would be my honor to create such a tome to guide fellow Romance pilgrims.
Here are a few resources that I intend to look into to guide my trip research:
“A Visit to Regency London” by Victoria Hinshaw
The most promising find – a single webpage with a list and photographs of what one can see today from Regency London from a Regency romance novelist.
“Jane Austin in London” by The Jane Austin Society of Australia
Pages on Jane in London, especially the pages on pleasure gardens and
Gentlemen’s Clubs. The Society took a trip to London and visited gardens and several Gentlemen’s Clubs including Whites and Brooks, but hasn’t seen fit to put the maps, itinerary, and the like on the website. Great information on the cultural importance of the pleasure gardens, theater, art, and clubs.
The A to Z of Regency London by Richard Horwood.
Maps, maps, and more maps! Horwood’s plan of the Cities of London and Westminster (3rd Edition 1813) in book form on a scale of 14 inches per mile, with key and index. Extends Hyde Park-East India Docks; Pentonville-Walworth. Hardback, 116pp. Publication no 131 (1985). I can compare this to modern day maps to see how the city has changed.
London by Edward Rutherford
I read his Princes of Ireland about Dublin and was impressed with Rutherford’s storytelling technique. He weaves the history of a city through the lives of subsequent generations of common people.
London’s Pleasures from Restoration to Regency: Two Centuries of Elegance and Indulgence by David Kerr Cameron
This book sounds like a fabulous research book for rakish and genteel activities alike: from bear-bating to pleasure gardens to theaters to coffee houses. Unfortunately, the Seattle Public Library doesn’t seem to have it. I may have found a use for my Borders gift card, which I have been saving it for a rainy day!
An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England by Venetia Murray
Publishers Weekly mentions that “perhaps even fans of Regency romances” will like this book about the prolifigate vice and paradoxical idealized virtue of the Regency period. The author covers the period of history from 1790 to 1830.
The Traditional Shops & Restaurants of London: A Guide to Century-Old Establishments and New Classics by Eugenia Bell
Profiles the historic shops of London, some of which started in the early 1700s and are still around. Now I just have to go back through my novel and dig up the names of the shops and restaurants my heroes and heroines frequent!
Tea in the City: London by Jane Pettigrew
Like I could visit England without having a spot o’ tea. Crumpets anyone?
The Amateur Historian’s Guide to Medieval and Tudor London by Sarah Valente Kettler and Carole Trimble
This is the exact travel book I am looking for…except for the wrong time period. I want The Amateur Historian’s Guide to Regency London. My kingdom, My kingdom, My kingdom for a horse!
October 9th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
You may want to take a side trip down to Brighton and see the Prince Regent’s astonishing pavilion. Very Regency period. And Bath, of course. And in London, have dinner at Simpson’s in the Strand. The room they currently use for dining was a men’s club a couple hundred years ago, so it should be just right for you.
As for research, I’d recommend searching for specific places by name, such as Drury Lane and Kew Gardens.
Have a great trip. London is glorious. Even if you don’t see only things from that era, you will still see much that is delightful.