VicLondon-Marylebone
Marylebone, the West End
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District Traits
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Notable Locations
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Class: xxx
Right across Edgeware Road from Paddington is Marylebone, an upscale neighbourhood in which reside professional middle-class, wealthy commoners, and the aristocracy. It is heavily policed, and like Kensington, sees most of its traf c on the main thoroughfares like Edgeware Road and Oxford Street. It is where one nds the famous Baker Street of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and the spectacular houses of the Duke of Portman and other noblemen. Wide, paved streets, much of it tar macadam by the end of the century, are tree-lined and orderly. The largest houses tend to front the squares in this area: Cavendish, Portman, Portland, and Dorset. Here also are the grounds of Harrow School, one of the nest public schools in the nation.
These squares are named after largest landowners in the district. Unlike Kensington, this is a Parliamentary Borough. While some people own their homes, most rent the land their houses stand on from the Duke of Portman and the Duke of Portland, providing those families considerable income. The area was developed in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and was part of an effort to create a “garden city” in the north of London. There are several grand churches, including the beautiful All Soul’s at Langham Place with its circular oor plan and spire rising out of a columned roof. The Ophthalmic Hospital and the Orthopaedic Hospital are located in Marylebone.
To the north, Regent’s Square separates St. John Wood and St. Pancras and creates the northern boundary of Marylebone (Oxford Street is the southern border.) It is Crown land, and is a popular place for a picnic or a moment’s peace. The Royal Botanical Gardens are here, and for a small fee, visitors can marvel at the exotic owers and plants there. The royal nursery is here, as is the house of the Taxonomical Society. A zoological park is in the northern part of the park, with all manner of exotic creatures that can be observed for a fee. Saturdays, this fee is reduced (and waived for children,) to allow the poorer people of the city to come and experience the animals. On the east side of the park the cavalry from the nearby barracks practice their drills in the park many days of the week. The park is surrounded by covered shopping arcades and open-air terraces erected during the reign of George IV to mark the end of the Napoleonic War.
Awakened Locales
- The Adamite Fraternity House: Sanctum (Acknowledged) • The Grail Society. A very spacious estate-home that acts as gathering space for a gentleman's society called the Adamite Fraternity, which is a front for the true masters here: the Grail Society cabal, focused on links to the land and occult bloodlines.
