A little help with London history please

[rgraham666]

I'm working on a story set in London in 1788 and I need a little help with geography.

I've four major characters at this point of the story. I've got the hero residing in Cheapside which I gather was an upper middle class area. He's a vampire and quite wealthy. Because of this he can't have a manor or anything fancy. So I'm imagining he owns a townhouse or small house, something comfortable with privacy. Would this be so?

The heroine has a house on Grosvenor Square. She's English nobility, human and very wealthy. Does this work?

Another character is also a vampire and I'm having him live in Roehampton. He's what my co-author and I call an Elder, the center of vampire society in London. So he does own a mansion and has servants, albeit just a couple and they are vampires. Does this work?

The last character I can't find a place to live. Like the hero he is a vampire and wealthy but going to live alone and rather small compared to his station. I don't want him in Cheapside. Vampires like their distance from one another. Is there another upper middle class area I can use?

Thanks in advance.

 

[neonlyte]

Rob,

I'd swap Grosvenor Square for Cavendish Square, it has remained an up-market residential area through to today and will heve greater resonance with readers.

Cheapside was on the fringe of what might be called middle-class London at the period. It will probably work. You need to 'talk the location up' for today's readers by mentioning something as simple as a 'garden'. No current Londoner would dream of having a personal garden, so it kind of adds to the up-market value of the residence. House owners would have been Doctors, Lawyers, Architects... professional men rather than businessmen who would have lived in more salubrious locations.

If you can, try and read Peter Ackroyd, 'The House of Dr Dee' or 'Hawksmoor'. He is both a novelist and a London historian. He paints the scene like no one else.

Roehampton, I suspect, was but a hamlet in your writing period. Richmond would be better, slightly further out but with the advantage of the river allowing simple transport into London.

For another location, I'd suggest Hampstead. Famous today for its 'cottage' activity and summer open-air concerts, but on high open ground overlooking London which might create 'atmosphere' for a vampire scenting London from on high and swooping down into the metropolis.

 

[rgraham666]

Thanks Will.

ETA: The hero is a businessman. Do you have a suggestion for an area to live?

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

Chelsea, Knightsbridge or Kensington would be fashionable addresses for your hero.

 

[rgraham666]

Merci.

 

[neonlyte]

Thanks Will.

ETA: The hero is a businessman. Do you have a suggestion for an area to live?

For your era, Mayfair. It is near to the 'Gentlemen's Clubs' essential for a businessman to entertain colleagues and politicians.

 

[rgraham666]

Thanks Will.

I'll stick the hero in Mayfair, the Elder in Richmond and the homeless vampire in, lessee, Chelsea.

The heroine stays in Grosvenor Square because she's my co-author's character.