They gave us an easy one: Ye Olde Mitre was around then and still stands today.
No idea. The I Am The Only Running Footman pub in Mayfair and the Biblical Parable of the Three Servants both seem unlikely leads.
I admit I do not think this has a real equivalent, and just wanted to share this astoundingly delicious phrase.
Definitely the Royal Opera House, which overlooks the glass-roofed Covent Garden marketplace. (Thank you Azothi.) It first performed the Ring cycle in 1892, which contributed to the decision to shorten the full name, the "Royal Italian Opera House". The word colatura is Italian of course, but I cannot find a deeper connection to the building. It means "elaborate ornamentation of a vocal melody, especially in operatic singing" or a soprano skilled in such.
Based on the travel map this might be near Ladybones (Marylebone) or the University. I haven’t found any likely old pubs in Marylebone, but I only did a cursory search. edited by TheThirdPolice on 5/28/2017
Don’t know if someone has already said this, but I think Elderwick could easily be Bloomsbury. One of the sidebars claims it’s famous for its booksellers, as is Bloomsbury. Then there is the fact that Bloomsbury was, of course, home to the Bloomsbury Group, who were all writers, artists, philosophers and so on, which fits in rather nicely with the Bohemian nature of the place.
I am as certain as I can be that Elderwick isn’t Bloomsbury, and that the (ahem) ‘booksellers’ to be found thereabouts sling more lurid stuff than the Bloomsbury set would ever own up to writing. But because of a certain questionnaire that couldn’t possibly be a lightly-garnished ploy to locate anyone who still deals in London Street Signs, I won’t just come out with the name.
Like a certain eccentric Mr. Muybridge, the people who gave London’s districts their first Anglo-Saxon names were highly partial to dipthongs. But they were not nearly so keen on the letter k.
These adjustments, plus a consultation with the Persona Engine or other algorithmic cross-referencer of your choice, should lead in the approximate direction of the answer. edited by Vexpont on 7/21/2017
Some new placenames to contend with - the Polyoptic, a prestigious theatre, and Carthorse Circus - presumably a road junction - just to its south. The Polyoptic reminds me of "panopticon" - I think we’ve had a Panopticon Theatre mentioned somewhere before, but anyhow, I’m wondering if, in this case, it might be the Alhambra Theatre, which replaced the Royal Panopticon? But that wasn’t north of a circus…
Edit: Carthorse Circus is joined to Printer Circus by the lengthy Magisterial Street, and I do believe Failbetter are doing this just because they know it teases. edited by Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook on 9/28/2017
Well, the presence of a statue of Anteros confirms that one of the circuses is Picadilly. That suggests that the other might be Oxford Circus or Cambridge Circus (and I’m sure they’re eager to compete as to which it might be). If Cambridge is Carthorse Circus, the Polyoptic might be the Palace Theatre (sister theatre to the Antimacassar, then?), and Magisterial Street is Shaftesbury Avenue. Or, Oxford Circus is Carthorse, Regent Street is Magisterial Street… or, Picadilly is Carthorse, one of the others is Printer Circus, and I don’t know where the theatre is. edited by Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook on 9/28/2017
"Magisterial" suggests legal to me. A long street that runs through the legal heartland of London passing through circuses - Holborn (starting at Holborn Circus) that then continues to New Oxford Street and the Oxford Street passing through Oxford Circus. But then no Anteros…
ETA: Holborn circus is also near Fleet street - a printers’ heartland in Victorian London edited by genesis on 9/28/2017
May I throw Haymarket into the mix? Which has an association with horses, and runs from Piccadilly…
Oh, and has the Theatre Royal. edited by Jermaine Vendredi on 9/29/2017
Ooh, I possibly have some of it. Just north of Oxford Circus is the Regent Street Cinema, Britain’s first cinema opened in 1848. It is housed in what then was the Royal Polytechnic Institution.
[quote=Vexpont]
I am as certain as I can be that Elderwick isn’t Bloomsbury, and that the (ahem) ‘booksellers’ to be found thereabouts sling more lurid stuff than the Bloomsbury set would ever own up to writing. But because of a certain questionnaire that couldn’t possibly be a lightly-garnished ploy to locate anyone who still deals in London Street Signs, I won’t just come out with the name.[/quote]
I would argue that it is. Bloomsbury contains Brunswick, named for Bruno, the elder son of Liudolf of Saxony.
Not an impossible match.
I am not from Great Britain and never visited London personally, so forgive me if there is some huge flaw in my assumption that i am just not able to see, but wouldn’t it be possible for Elderwick to be Portugal Road aka Picadilly?
The Street was known as a famous location for bookshops in the late 18th and 19th century, including Hatchards, Londons oldest still existing bookstore. In this cause the unnamed church in Elderwick could be St. James Church, where the marriage of Phillip Hardwick took place. He lived around the time of the Fall (1972-1870) and was the descendant of a long lineage of masons and architects that had a huge impact on Britains and especially Londons architecture. So Elderwick could be a play-on-words with a family name instead of the old street name. The location would also be next to Covent Garden.
Precisely so. Elderwick is (as this thread shows) a name open to numerous interpretations and identifications. Lusitania Row, not so much: Lusitania is the western seaboard of Iberia, and little else. Finding another address (as it were) for Lusitania Row would be much more difficult than finding an alternative location for Elderwick.
I am pretty sure Elderwick is the Strand. Ealdwic is the name of the original Anglosaxon settlement in London, formerly known as Lundenwic, that was discovered during the excavation of Covent Garden running north of the Strand. It’s unlikely to be Covent Garden itself as that’s Veilgarden. But the Strand makes a lot of sense.
Like the Strand, Elderwick is at the edge of Veilgarden (and numerous other references that Elderwick is, less specifically, in Veilgarden).
Part of the Strand was converted into a new street called Aldwych, itself a newer name for Ealdwic.
The Strand, although now a landlocked street, back then was the street running along the bank of Thames. Hence it would have been a good place to sell eels.
The Strand was well known for its mansions and palaces, some quite possibly ballustraded.
According to Wikipedia, “The Strand was also notable in the 18th century as a centre for the British book trade, with numerous printers and publishers along the street. The prominent bookseller Andrew Millar is an example of one of the most successful publishers who owned a shop there.”
It does. I’m still in two minds on Elderwick = Wych Street v. Elderwick = the Strand. I didn’t want to just say ‘this is it’ when I’m not certain myself – and also, there should be a proper hunt for the answers. So, hints over and done with, I’ll put the possibly-wrong case for vanished Wych Street.
"What do they say about Veilgarden? A haunt of poets, prostitutes and other low types, and location of the notorious Singing Mandrake. Elderwick is famous for its booksellers. Hollow Street offers the best honey-dens in the city." [from the Travel Map tooltip text for Veilgarden]
This made me suspect that Elderwick and Hollow Street could be the ancient twin thoroughfares Wych Street and Holywell Street, which both ran behind the Strand. Even in Georgian times, they were considered picturesque but seedy remnants of London before the Great Fire:
Both were home to many booksellers, sometimes though not always disreputable (the smut trade started in Holywell Street in the C18, but by the mid-C19, it had largely migrated to Wych Street), and both were demolished in 1901 to make way for the lunking Edwardian redevelopment of Aldwych.
The name Ealdwic – roughly, the ‘old town’ – survived into Medieval times as the ‘Via de Aldwych’, which also included what’s now Drury Lane, but by Queen Victoria’s day Drury Lane had been its own thing for ages, and the stub of the ‘Via de Aldwych’ had settled into the name ‘Wych Street’.
In favour of Elderwick = the Strand:
Elderwick is known not just for booksellers, but for mansions (given that the Masters centralise trade ferociously, it’s odd to me that booksellers are allowed to exist away from the Bazaar, but I guess Pages has a delicate task: too much censorship, and the juicy stories will never even be written). There were no mansions in ancient Wych Street. The Strand was posher – swarming with commerce, and a trendy place to live; a splashy new arrival styling herself ‘Countess’ might well live in a Balustraded House there.
I’m still quite undecided. Wych Street has the more direct toponymic link to Elderwick/Ealdwic, and was a true Bohemian warren of mostly second-hand booksellers; but the commercial hub of the Strand was also home to many booksellers, and fashionable enough to boast something approaching mansions. St. Clement Danes is located ambiguously enough to be the Church of either.
A minor Thing that still bugs me, and to which knowledgable Light Fingers players may know the answer:
This, from Light Fingers 35:
“…finding a way in [to the Orphanage]. It can be done, but it aint easy. The way in starts at Elderwick, at a little side alley marked with an eye.”
This is exactly the sort of twisty little passage you’d find in Wych Street, and I have some difficulty imagining the secret entrance to one of Fallen London’s blacksites being in the Strand. But in the end it doesn’t seem to matter, because when you’re starting your trip into The Orphanage, at Light Fingers 37, you’re actually not in Elderwick at all, but in Flowerdene in Spite. I wonder if this is a minor continuity oversight, or if I’m missing something.
[quote=Vexpont] A minor Thing that still bugs me, and to which knowledgable Light Fingers players may know the answer:
This, from Light Fingers 35:
“…finding a way in [to the Orphanage]. It can be done, but it aint easy. The way in starts at Elderwick, at a little side alley marked with an eye.”
This is exactly the sort of twisty little passage you’d find in Wych Street, and I have some difficulty imagining the secret entrance to one of Fallen London’s blacksites being in the Strand. But in the end it doesn’t seem to matter, because when you’re starting your trip into The Orphanage, at Light Fingers 37, you’re actually not in Elderwick at all, but in Flowerdene in Spite. I wonder if this is a minor continuity oversight, or if I’m missing something.[/quote]
That definitely sounds like an oversight, and something to contact support about.
Is there any reason that the British Museum, with all its questionably-acquired antiquities, couldn’t be the Museum of Mistakes? Do we know anything about the latter museum’s geography?
(I’m an American who hasn’t played most of the Museum of Mistakes-related content, so please correct me if I’m wrong. I did visit London once, but I was nine years old at the time :))