[quote=Jenson Shepherd]The Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863[/quote]You are right! I take it all back - I was out by 10 years. The Underground is a post-Fall invention, and all bets are therefore off.
I still think it’s Baker Street though ;-)
Thanks for the correction,
Richard
It opened in '63, but it had been planned and plotted and worked on since the '50s. Post-Fall engineers may have simply continued the work that had already been started when they build the Underground to the underworld.
I must say that I’m inordinately fond of the idea of the Empress living in the V&A (haw, haw), but it’s unfortunately a bit too far southwest. Similarly, St. James’s Palace - the official royal residence - isn’t in quite the right place - although I understand that London was “warped” with the Fall, so perhaps there’s hope yet.
A tiny update: in the process of researching something completely different, I happened to find out that the Bow Bells were rung at nine o’clock every evening, from 1469 all the way through until 1876. (Makes you wonder why they stopped, doesn’t it? When I have more time, I’ll try to find out.) So, given that the Bone Bell marks the opening of the night market, I’d say that one’s nailed on.
Now we just need to figure out why Victoria quit Buckingham Palace, and my life will be complete.
In 1469, the Bow Bells were rung to mark the 9 o’clock curfew by order of the Common Council. The curfew was rescinded in 1876, hence the practice discontinued.
La Chauvelin
[quote=Richard ]A tiny update: in the process of researching something completely different, I happened to find out that the Bow Bells were rung at nine o’clock every evening, from 1469 all the way through until 1876. (Makes you wonder why they stopped, doesn’t it? When I have more time, I’ll try to find out.) So, given that the Bone Bell marks the opening of the night market, I’d say that one’s nailed on.
Now we just need to figure out why Victoria quit Buckingham Palace, and my life will be complete.[/quote]
[li]
Thank you!
(Slightly to my disappointment, I’ve also now found out that the bells rang every night for 400 years except on all the occasions when they didn’t - like when there was nobody to ring them, or the bells were broken, or someone complained about the noise or the whole church burned down in the Great Fire Of London. Ah well. It’s a nice story.)
Cheers
Richard
I just learned about the Kensington System. However much one may resent the strictures and isolation of one’s youth, one may find them comforting when one is, say, raising a brood of fishy-looking offspring and unable to tolerate music.
It’s still on the wrong side of the park, but… spacey-wacey!
I was amused to learn that there’s also real-history precedent for the Empress not living in Buckingham for the latter half of her life: "In March 1864, a protester stuck a notice on the railings of Buckingham Palace that announced ‘these commanding premises to be let or sold in consequence of the late occupant’s declining business’."
I just learned about the Kensington System. However much one may resent the strictures and isolation of one’s youth, one may find them comforting when one is, say, raising a brood of fishy-looking offspring and unable to tolerate music.
It’s still on the wrong side of the park, but… spacey-wacey!
I was amused to learn that there’s also real-history precedent for the Empress not living in Buckingham for the latter half of her life: "In March 1864, a protester stuck a notice on the railings of Buckingham Palace that announced ‘these commanding premises to be let or sold in consequence of the late occupant’s declining business’."[/quote]
I was reading about that very notice just this morning. The protest in question related to the excessive period of mourning which the Queen was engaged in. Following Albert’s death Victoria stayed away from Buckingham, secluding herself in Windsor Castle, Balmoral and Osborne. Although, obviously, for Fallen Londoners such a thing never happened.
[li]
Its possible to explore Victorian London in quite some detail here Explore georeferenced maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland which may help prospective mappers[li]
edited by Anstruther Barron on 12/11/2013
Geography alert! If you have a Noman and the right Ambition, you get this:
"An annex of the Bazaar extends past the cathedral to the rusting shadows of Beazley’s Gate"
Since we know the Bazaar is at Borough Market, the cathedral’s just Southwark Cathedral - no mystery there.
Beazley’s Gate? No idea. I don’t know that part of London at all well, so there might be some obvious analogue. Or, fancifully, perhaps it’s an homage to Joseph Bazalgette.
Cheers
Richard
PS. Lest I be tutted at (by other forum members), let me clarify that this isn’t close to being the complete text of the storylet, and the forum rules say that "quotes are fine".
For some reason I read that as ‘prospective muggers’.
Anstruther Barron, that map site is amazing! Thanks! Fascinating just on a curiosity level :D pores over it
I protest! Benthic can’t possibly be UCL!
[quote]Omnes adsint, quamvis dementi, quamvis nefasti
Benthic College is the younger, more modern of the University’s colleges. As the motto says, all are welcome here. The demonic, the soulless, the radical, even the poor.[/quote]
Younger? Younger?! We were founded three whole years before those bastards at Kings!
Also, there’s the obvious absence of Tomb Colonist Jeremy Bentham shuffling around campus.
[li][/li][li]
edited by Flidget on 2/27/2014
[color=#009900]That was carelessness on the part of a writer in the deep past, who I’m going to assume wasn’t me because I never make mistakes. I’ve fixed.[/color]
[quote=Flidget]I protest! Benthic can’t possibly be UCL!
[quote]Omnes adsint, quamvis dementi, quamvis nefasti
Benthic College is the younger, more modern of the University’s colleges. As the motto says, all are welcome here. The demonic, the soulless, the radical, even the poor.[/quote]
Younger? Younger?! We were founded three whole years before those bastards at Kings!
Also, there’s the obvious absence of Tomb Colonist Jeremy Bentham shuffling around campus.
[li][/li][li]
edited by Flidget on 2/27/2014[/quote]
[/li][li]
Well, of course he’s not shuffling about. He’s locked in his little cupboard.
Your gracious rectification of the mistake of some unknown and probably villainous person is much appreciated!
[li]
Oh come on! Even in modern non-fallen London he’s occasionally allowed out to attend important meetings.
(Although if he were actually undead maybe he’d prefer the security. One too many student pranks stealing his head and all that.)
The London - OS Town Plan 1893-6 that can be found here is also an amazing resource and one of the most detailed maps of Victorian London I’ve found.
The proximity to embassies and the fact it’s named after a battle and has a statue of one of the generals leads me to think this is the Fallen London counterpart to Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar Square was constructed between 1835 and 1843 (although the Stone Lions weren’t added until 1867), so it does (mostly) pre-date the Fall.
I think it fits with the general theme of disillusionment towards the Empire after the Fall that it was revised from commemorating a British victory over the French to reflecting a British defeat at their hands.
edited by Dave Mongoose on 8/6/2014
Excellent point - very likely indeed! And I’ve been looking at Winter’s map and trying to figure out precisely where Ladybones ends and Veilgarden begins. I’ve got Hollow Street down as the Veilgarden/Spite border, but I’ll happily accept correction from anyone who knows London better than I do; i.e., at all.
I am temporarily obsessed with identifying Fallen London’s bridges. We know Waterloo Bridge is now Hood’s Bridge. The other bridges I can find named in the text are Dead Monk’s Bridge and Soakwood Bridge. From the names, I’d guess that’s Blackfriars and Southwark. The in-game map shows four bridges across the Stolen River - the first three fit Waterloo, Blackfriars and Southwark fairly well, if we allow for much of the landscape north of the river having basically been skewed eastward. The last is presumably London Bridge, though I’m not sure if it’s ever named.