Georgian London

 Although I usually go to different places in Great Britain every time I travel there, one place is always constant: I always spend at least a few days in London, usually at the end of my trip before I fly out. The tricky thing about London for someone who loves history is that it can feel very modern in places. Bombing during the Blitz and just the general march of time have erased a lot of its history.

But the thing I've discovered is that if you're willing to do a little digging and a little (okay a LOT) of literal legwork, you can still find a lot of historic spaces. So I thought I would share some of the ones I saw on this trip.

First up in the neighborhood of St. James is Brooks's Club.

 

 

Also in that neighbourhood is Boodle's Club.

As well as this large townhouse with Coade stone accents including caryatids on the porch. Caryatids are figures that hold something up.

Here are some other lovely Georgian houses in Craig's Court.

 

And some in Manchester Square.

 

I also popped in to see the Wallace Collection, which is in Hertford House. It looks like they just did a lot of work on the facade because it does not look old AT ALL.

 

Passages are one of the places I feel like old London is most alive, and Crown Passage is no exception.

 

I also popped into Grosvenor Chapel, a very good example of Georgian church architecture.
 

You can really get a sense of how different Georgian church architecture is compared to the gothic churches that came before.

 

I also had a chance to see this very old and very rare Baroque style shop front.

 

Here's what it looks like from farther out. 

This is the York Watergate, all that remains of a former townhouse that would have been behind it. The Victoria Embankment, built as a means of cholera prevention by catching dirty water before it hit the Thames, drastically altered the waterline of the Thames River. In earlier times, water would have come right up to the gate and it would have served as an entry to the house from those arriving by river.

This vaulted area, Lower Robert Street, is near the watergate. It is part of the remnants of a Georgian terrace built by the Adam brothers called the Adelphi. The vaults brought the living area of the houses up out of reach of the river, and were meant to be sold as storage.

The Adelphi sold poorly despite the Adam brothers being leading architects of the Georgian era. They ended up needing to have a lottery to sell many of the units. Ultimately it was torn down and replaced by this art deco building. Some of the vaults are all that remain, however...

The rest of the houses on the street are still Georgian, and in the Adam style. I believe some if not all were also architected by the Adam brothers.

 

You can see some of the great details here.

 

And here.

 

And here.

One of the houses is the site of a day spa, so I was able to peep the ceiling (sadly painted).

One more house photo of the area as well as a video walkthrough below, before we go a little farther afield.

In a London suburb is Dulwich Picture Gallery, architected by Sir John Soane. It's the first-ever purpose-built gallery. Soane's style is distinctive and you really get a sense of it here.

 

Despite its age, the interior feels stark and modern. The one unfortunate thing is that they had artificial lights up where there used to be a skylight. It created a lot of artificial glare on the paintings; I'm guessing it might be less damaging to the paintings but I expect it looked better in Soane's time with natural light.

In the opposite direction is the suburb of Pinner, with this coaching inn, the Queen's Head.

This inn has been on my list for a while because it has a gallows sign. There aren't a whole lot of these still extant so it was exciting to get to see one.

The interior is still a gorgeous pub.

It was a bit of a jaunt up the Metropolitan line to get to the Queen's Head but I'm very glad I went.

I hope you enjoyed this look at some different historic sites in central and greater London! If you're interested in more on townhouses, you can sign up for my newsletter to get access to the video of my townhouses talk. There's a form at the top of this blog or you can sign up here.

Richmond Georgian Theatre

Hello, dear readers! First off, registration for the virtual component of the JAFF Writer / Reader Get Together is now open. If you haven't done the Get Together before, it's full of informative talks about the JAFF genre and other related topics. I will be there in person and will be speaking this year on service spaces and country house technology. 

 And now for the main topic of today's post, I am back from England and have some things to share with you! I thought I would start with one of the most fascinating places I saw on my trip, the Georgian Theatre in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

This is a fascinating space that seems almost untouched by time, although restoration was done on it. While over the years the building had a number of functions, nobody ever removed the theatre fittings. So it's a remarkably intact example of a more provincial Georgian theatre. But I'm going to let the photos do the talking because the space is remarkable!

View from the upper gallery

 

View of the stage from the upper gallery

 

The somewhat precarious original stairs

 

This mural was added to capture the atmosphere of Georgian times but is a layer on top of the original theatre walls in this listed building

 

View from one of the boxes 

 

View from the stage

The theatre also had some Georgian era painted scenery on view backstage

 

As you can see, this was an amazing space to tour. It's been on my list for many years, but Richmond is not the easiest to get to, so I'm glad I was able to fit it in to my itinerary this time. Beyond the theatre, it's a lovely town with loads of Georgian buildings and atmospheric castle ruins. I'll leave you with some photos and video of the town itself.

Town square

Another view of the town square

Alley leading to the Georgian Theatre

Un amor constante

 I am extremely excited to announce that the Spanish language translation of A Constant Love is live! 

Un amor constante: Una continuación de "Orgullo y prejuicio" is now available in both Kindle (including Kindle Unlimited) and paperback on all Amazon sites. Many many thanks to Cristina Huelsz of Cris Translates for all of her hard work on translating this one, as it's longer than many in the genre. I've been considering doing a translated version ever since she spoke at the JAFF Reader / Writer Get Together about how readers are looking for more continuations in this space, and it's so wonderful to see this finally come to fruition.

 I am really hoping that we will be able to translate the entire series but that will depend on how this one does, so please share with anyone you think might be interested!

Weald and Downland Museum

 I'm back with another post about my 2023 travels in England, and this time I thought I would share the Weald and Downland Living Museum. This place first came onto my radar during the pandemic, when I watched Tudor Monastery Farm, and I knew I had to put it high on my list for when I was able to return to England.

This is a living history museum with buildings gathered from different places and eras of history (and in some cases reconstructed), and it particularly gives a sense of what rural life was like during those eras of history. In addition to vernacular architecture of various eras, they also demonstrate many different trades. I feel like the pictures paint a thousand words here, though, so I am mostly going to let them do the talking!

The striking market square

Market square from another angle with a jettied building in the foreground

One of the market shop spaces

 

 

One of my favorite buildings, a Regency-era toll gate

The toll list!

15th century medieval house

Medieval house interior

Mid-17th century cottage

 

 

15th century farmhouse

 

 

Hall including mid-floor hearth of 15th century farmhouse

Victorian bakehouse with some delicious fresh bread!

 

 

1807 Cottage orné ornamental dairy taken from the Eastwick Park estate

Interior of ornamental dairy
 

 

Recreated Anglo-Saxon hall

Interior of Anglo-Saxon hall
 

Central hearth of Pendean farmhouse

I've shared just a fraction of the amazing details of this place! I found it a tremendously inspiring place for me as an author. I've visited many country houses and I'm sure will visit many more in the future, but there are fewer places like this dedicated to more middle and lower class domestic architecture and life, and I like to spend time in places these characters would have inhabited. I was particularly keen to see the Anglo-Saxon house, as I have a thought (at some point in the probably very distant future) of doing Pride and Prejudice retellings set farther back in the past rather than in the Regency or later time periods, and I want to start with the Norman Conquest.

I'll leave you with two videos, one inside one of the medieval houses, and the other a lengthy walkthrough of the site. I suspect this won't be the last you see of photos from the museum, though, as I'm sure I'll be drawing on them to illustrate topics in the future.