London
After Stockholm’s quaint 17th century buildings painted in rose, yellow, peach, and red, London is relatively grey and colorless. I admit, I am disappointed. Compared to Stockholm, London isn’t very picturesque. However, it has one or two other things to recommend it, namely tons of historic sites, cultural icons, and romance novel settings. It is warmer than Sweden too, and it hasn’t rained yet this week! Ickiness alert: the pollution here is bad, and although you can’t see it with the nekid eye, you find it clearly in the black gunk that accumulates in your nose every day. Ew.
As you may remember, this is my very first trip to London. Did I immediately head for the Tower? Buckingham Palace? Big Ben? No, no and no. It is highly doubtful that my characters stood in line for a Beefeater tour. The best way to understand a character is to see the city as they saw it; to walk the winding streets and darkened alleys; to sit in green parks and watch the people scurry past; to study the built environment as it would have appeared during the 19th century. What would they have seen? Heard? Smelled? Where would they have lived? Shopped? Played? Cities are living, breathing, adapting organisms that have a profound impact on our personality, actions, and lifestyle. Understand the city, and you understand the soul of its people, be they historical, fictional, or present day.
As Churchill so succinctly put it, “We shape our buildings; thereafter our buildings shape us.”
Tuesday, October 30
On Tuesday I took the London Walks tour of Historic Greenwich, mostly because it started out with a boat ride down the Themes, which was lovely. The boat guide pointed out famous pubs and locations used by Charles Dickens in his novel Oliver Twist, such as where the criminal mastermind Fagin lived and died. Greenwich itself was slightly dull, perhaps because the guide didn’t share much in the way of interesting history lessons, but I did set my watch by the official ball that falls at 1 pm. (Pictured left: the Queen’s house with its view to the Themes framed by buildings of the Navel hospital.)
I ran back to the City for a much more interesting afternoon walk of “Old London, the Medieval to Georgian City“, which could be renamed “Churches of Christopher Wren and the Great Fire of 1666″. Our tour guide Hilary was fabulous. Old London is pretty much the financial capital of the world, so don’t expect a lot of old architecture aside from the churches.
In the evening we took the “Hidden Pubs of Old London Town” tour in which we saw the home of Dr. Johnson (author of the first dictionary), the location of Sweeney Todd’s barbershop (He shaved the faces of gentlemen/Who never thereafter were heard of again./He trod a path that few have trod,/Did Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street -Sondheim), and Twinnings (tea merchants since 1706).
Wednesday, October 31
Halloween. In the morning I took a tour of “Shakespeare’s and Dicken’s London – The Old City” by the marvelous actor Shaughan who regaled us with monologues from both writers’ works and a song. In the afternoon I toured Old Hampstead Village where the middle class escaped the noxious fumes of the city and saw the Admiralty House that P. L. Travers wrote into Mary Poppins (pictured left). Who knew it was real? The Admiral apparently built his home the the exact dimensions of his ships’ deck and really did set off canons from the roof. Hampstead was an attractive brick village, but the guide was sparing on the historic details of the place. I really could care less where the Spice Girls or Riddley Pearson live.
Thursday, November 1
First day of NaNoWriMo and I write a grand total of zero words, because of course I came down with a cold. I managed to go out for the morning for a lovely and very informative tour of Mayfair, neighborhood of everyone who is anyone in a Regency romance novel (and Beau Brummell, Regency fashion leader). It was very different from what I’ve been imagining all this time! It is still a swanky place to live – the most expensive digs in the world, populated mostly by Americans and Middle Easterners. Many of the buildings are empty, bought only as property investments, adding a layer of blight and neglect. Apparently it is also a high class red light district – and always has been. In the late 1700′s the most infamous light-skirt, Kitty something, charged what would in today’s dollars be 300,000 pounds for her services. I think I need to right that into my book. Ha! Our guide, Richard, was awesome, very informative, and very open to questions.
I walked around Bond Street and saw Boodle’s, Brook’s, and the building where Almack’s used to be in Pall Mall in the afternoon, then came home and slept. Friday I slept. Being sick sucks.
Frustratingly, there seem to be London guidebooks for most other literary genres, but not romance. There are numerous books on London through the eyes of