Friday 4 September 2009

Entering 18th-century London


I've been trawling through my picture archive, looking at the snaps that my partner and I took on various research trips for the novel I'm writing. This one was for a scene at the historic 'entrance' to the city of London, Temple Bar.

Part of Wren's original gateway is pictured above. It's no longer at its original location on The Strand (there's a modern-day marker outside Royal Courts of Justice to show where it once stood), having been shifted to Paternoster Square in 2004. It must have been a gruesome sight in the 18th century, when you consider that the heads of traitors were mounted on pikes on the roof; quite a sight for my Catholic heroine, entering London for the first time.

Photograph © Memoirs of the Celebrated Mrs Woffington.

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4 comments:

Halldor said...

What manner of traitors? Those damnable Jacobites, I'll wager!

Mrs Woffington said...

Indeed, sir, 'twas the Papists.

Lauren R said...

love love love! man, I miss London.

Mrs Woffington said...

Hi Lauren - I'm trying to re-start my enthusiasm for my novel, which is set in London, so I've been doing quite a lot of thinking about it lately!