Good Morning all! Here’s the latest from

LONDON !

Spent a very busy two days in London visiting several places I’ve either used in my books or intend to use. And in one case, fulfill an item off my bucket list.

First full day I took the Underground to Green Park, first stop: The Albany.

A very prestigious address both during the Regency and now. Matthew, Lord Lathbury, the hero of What A Widow Wants, resided there when he first met Fanny. Their first liaison took place in his apartment there.

From the Albany I crossed the street and had a peep into Fortnam and Mason’s at all their fabulous foodstuffs. (I’m going back there to send good home when I return to London!).

Then I was off to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.  This a a recreation (and as close as they could possibly get it) to the actual theatre of Shakespeare’s time. I’ve been wanting to see this for 20 years, ever since one of my dissertation advisers, Dr. Frank Hildy, talked about it and showed the pictures. He was a consultant on the building of it because he is an architectural  theatre historian. They built it using the same materials and techniques available in the late 16th century, including wooden pegs instead of nails and thatch for the roof (the only current thatched roof in London).

The only difference with this theatre is that because of the thatched roof (which was the reason the original Globe burned to the ground), the insurance company made them install a sprinkler system.

Inside, the theatre is as close to being what Shakespeare’s audiences would have experienced as possible. Today’s audiences can pay 23-47 pounds (just like the middle classes in the 1590s) for a seat in one of three tiers of galleries. Or for 5 pounds (in the 1590s it would have been 1 penny) you could be a groundling and stand in the courtyard around the stage.

Having already walked over a mile that day, I opted to be a middle class person and gladly paid 23 pounds for a ticket to see The Merry Wives of Windsor  at the matinee. I also wisely rented a cushion for the performance (if you don’t, I swear your bum will go numb on the hard oak benches). You can also buy a seat back, but I braved that one out.  The play was wonderful and afterwards I took a tour of the theatre and got even more pics of the theatre.

Day 2 in London was all about parks: Vauxhall Pleassure Gardens and St. James Park.

Vauxhall has been used as a setting in Georgian, Regency, and Victorian romance novels so I absolutely had to see it. It is a far cry from what it was in its heyday (then it was sort of a Disney World for adults). Today it’s a very quiet park, with people playing bowls and walking their dogs mostly. However I detected a remembrance of days past in the park and spent a bit of time sitting and thinking about how ladies and gentlemen had used that place for courting, trysting, and all kinds of shenanigans. 🙂

St. James Park, in contrast, was teeming with people (although I managed to miss most of them in my pictures). I did find one spot, by the lake in its center, that was the exact place I had in mind for the duel that didn’t happen between Lord Manning and the Marquess of Dalbury in Only Scandal Will Do. The Marquess describes the place where he’s dueled before as “by the duck pond.” And I found it!

The Duck Pond

I took many, many more photos of these places, as well as ones of Bow Street, what I believe to be Whites Gentlemen’s Club (under construction so I couldn’t get a good picture of it), and Brooks. I’ll be using these on my blog in future posts and maybe even in some promo. But just seeing these places with my own eyes has given me ideas about how to describe them for my readers.

I was off early on August 1st, headed to my next destination! I’ll post about that tomorrow!

Cheers!