Posted by Peter Ceresole on October 12, 2003 at 17:13:33 from 80.177.22.49 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Are the D's the real heroes? bourgeois charm posted by Katharine on October 12, 2003 at 15:46:06:
(Gower Street)
I associate that part of London with the Ds now, though I don't think it was ever resolved whether Professor Callum worked at London University or somewhere more northern.
I don't think there are any hard clues, but it seems reasonable. As we discussed before, I tend towards the School of Oriental and African Studies, but it's next to University College and both have lively Egyptology departments. I'm just not quite sure at what time SOAS settled in their present location, but both are near the London University Union, which has a large swimming pool. For an ice rink, they'd have had to go a bit further afield, but London must have had several in the 1930s already. Time was, I'd have rung up the SOAS historian and asked; I spent a working lifetime doing that kind of thing. I'm not sure I have the energy now... Off to read PM again... Both that and WH have the most wonderful atmospheric openings- the other 'best start' in my book is WDMTGTS.
In my mind's eye, I do see the Ds walking those streets, although it's quite hard to abstract the more recent buildings and road schemes. I do remember them from the '50s though, before most of the latest developments took place and when the gaps were left over bomb craters, and I do remember the look and feel of London from the '40s. Funnily enough, my other favourite novel sequence, Anthony Powell's 'Dance to the music of Time', takes place partly in the same location in the '20s to the '60s. Also quite wonderful.