London

Note: This material is chiefly adapted from 19th-century editions of Baedeker’s Great Britain and The London Quarterly Review ''and other sources. As such, it is written from an in-world perspective and flavored with a Victorian Londoner’s voice, idiosyncrasies, and biases.''

London, the metropolis of the British Empire and the largest city in the world, lies in the southeast of England, spanning both banks of the mighty river Thames. A center of industry and history reaching back more than a thousand years, it embraces parts of the four counties of Middlesex, Essex, Kent, and Surrey. It is a city recognizable not only for its verdant and peaceful parks, filled with brave statues of heroes, but its tiny dank alleys and the cobwebbed mews that overlook its cobblestone streets.

Few Westerners would deny that London leads the world in education, cultural sophistication, and entertainment. It is also a city of mystery, wrapped in shadows, whether to hide the decaying slums of Cheapside and Billingsgate or the secret machinations of the great Evil and its minions.

The Populace
The population, swollen by the advances of the Industrial Revolution, is more than four and a half million. The city has doubled in size in the last half-century, now about 15 miles long from east to west, and 9 miles wide from north to south, and covering 122 square miles of ground.

As the capital of a massive empire, London draws immigrants from both the colonies and poorer parts of Europe. A large Irish population settled here after the Great Famine (1845–1849); at one point, Irish immigrants made up about 20% of London’s population. London is also home to a sizable Jewish community (estimated to be around 46,000) and a very small Indian population consisting largely of transitory sailors known as lascars.

History
Victorian London is a modern city with ancient roots. Gaslights limn the twisting cobblestone streets each night, bringing light to the darkness of ages. People rush from place to place using the Tube, underground railways that travel beneath the Thames, no longer needing the many bridges so integral to travel for centuries before.

The Romans garrisoned the site of what is now London nearly two millennia ago, but who can say how long the native Britons lived here before that? After Rome’s retreat, it was first the capital of a Saxon kingdom, then the nation’s leading city in the era of King Canute. Finally, after William the Conqueror was crowned here, he made London the center of royal power. The following centuries brought pestilence, fire, rebellion, and civil war. In the three years from 1664 to 1666 alone, the plague carried off 100,000 Londoners, and the Great Fire destroyed 13,000 homes.

After each disaster, however, London rebuilt and grew. Legendary architects such as Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor erected public buildings, palaces, institutions of learning, and many grand churches. By 1700 London was the largest city in Europe. An influx of immigrants expanded the city to the east and south, although those with wealth and power chose to live in the north and western sections and have continued to do so for centuries.

Currency
The pound sterling is the currency used in London. The pound divides into shillings and each shilling into pence. The symbol for the pound is £, for shillings it is s., and for pence it is d.

Accommodation
There are many options for accommodation in London. Good hotels include the Metropole Hotel, the Grand Hotel, the Savoy Hotel, and Morley’s Hotel. Average hotels include Burr’s Hotel, Rowland’s Hotel, and the Bedford Hotel. (Per the Lifestyle rules, the cost of lodging is generally included in the cost for maintaining the appropriate Lifestyle.)

Boarding Houses and Private Lodgings are readily obtainable in London, through application to a respectable house-agent or by advertisement. The dearest and best are in the West End. The neighborhood of the British Museum is another convenient quarter for boarding and lodging houses at more moderate prices.

Restaurants
The Holborn and the Criterion are two of the largest and best-known restaurants in London. St. James’s Hall, the Verrey, and the Cafe Royal are all first-class restaurants and expensive. More reasonably priced options include the Monico, the Frascati, and the London Tavern. Cafés include the Vienna Café, the Café de Paris, and Baker’s Café.

Transport
There are nearly 200 railway stations in London, including those of its famous underground railway. Horse-drawn cabs stand in waiting for new visitors at all the railway stations and landing-stages, and may be secured nearly anywhere else in the city as well. The faster, more comfortable hansom cabs are designed to seat two people, though they carry three just as often. The humbler four-wheelers carry twice as many passengers for half the price. Cab transportation is more expensive in Central London than elsewhere, adding 5 d. (or .05 £) per mile to the cost.

Omnibuses (large enclosed horse-drawn vehicles stabilized with springs) traverse the streets in predetermined routes going nearly all directions, and fares are much cheaper than a cab ride, though travel by this means takes twice as long. Most omnibuses have enough benches to seat one or two dozen people, though the multi-level double-decker omnibuses may seat even more. Horse teams pull these great vehicles on steel rails, much like trains, allowing them to move so many people, though fresh horses from the stable are required every 4 or 5 hours.

In the outlying districts, cable-drawn tramway lines supplement the bus systems. These cable cars are comfortable and the fares are equivalent to those of omnibuses.

During summer, well-appointed stage-coaches ply the routes to various places of interest around London, affording, in good weather, a delightful way of seeing the scenery.

Steamers from all parts of the world make port in London. Those steamships hailing from the Continent or from other close ports such as Scotland and Ireland land their passengers at wharves below London Bridge, while the larger oceanic liners enter docks lower down the river. In this latter case, the passengers often finish their voyage to London proper by special trains.

Numerous smaller steamboats ply the river Thames, calling at about fifty intermediate piers between Hampton Court to the west and Southend and Sheerness to the east. In Central London (between London Bridge and Chelsea), these steamers are usually available every 10 minutes, while intervals of 30 minutes are more common elsewhere.

Weather
Light showers, cloudy skies, and the famous London fog are common in the city all year round. The temperature often fluctuates greatly over the course of single day. A frequently heard saying is, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” Even in the summer, one is advised to pack a light jacket or sweater, in case of sudden breeze or nighttime chill.

Fashionable Londoners consider the lightweight black umbrellas sold by the Ordog-Utterson Umbrella Company to be an absolute necessity. This attitude is reinforced in advertisements, which usually feature a young woman approaching a gentleman in one London’s upper-class neighborhoods as storm-clouds threaten, always with the words: “A cold wind blows from the east. Have you got your Ordog-Utterson?”

Newspapers
At least 400 newspapers are published in London and its environs. The principal morning papers are the Times, Daily News, Daily Telegraph, Standard, Morning Post, Morning Advertiser, and Daily Chronicle. The leading evening papers are the Pall Mall Gazette, St. James’s Gazette, Evening Standard, Globe, Evening Post, Star, Evening News, and Echo.

Clubs
One of the greatest and most important changes in modern society is the present system of clubs. The facilities of living have been wonderfully increased by them in many ways, whilst the expense has been greatly diminished. For a few pounds a year, advantages are to be enjoyed which no fortunes save the most ample could otherwise procure.

The Clubs are chiefly devoted to social purposes. Most of the club-houses at the West End are very handsome and admirably fitted up, affording every possible comfort. Members are admitted by ballot, and the introduction of guests by a member is allowed in some, but not in all the clubs. The cuisine is usually admirable.

Principal clubs include: the Albemarle, the Alpine Club, the Athenaeum Club, the Carlton Club, the City Liberal Club, the Conservative Club, the Diogenes Club (of which Mycroft Holmes is a member), the East India United Service Club, the Empire Club, the Isthmian Club, the Lord Nugent’s Windham Club, National Club, the Oriental Club, the Orleans Club, the Prince’s Club, the Reform Club, the Savage Club, the Travelers’ Club, and the Union Club.

As an example of what these institutions are like, the Athenaeum consists of over 1,000 members, drawn from nearly every walk of life (excluding those living in true poverty). Civil servants and politicians socialize here with clergy members, scientists, artists, and merchants. Many of these are to be met with every day, living with the same freedom as in their own homes. The building is a sort of palace, kept by staff and servants with the same exactness and comfort as a private dwelling. Every member has the command of an excellent library (including many maps as well as the daily papers and principal periodicals) and the resources for writing anything from casual correspondence to expansive novels. Meals and other refreshments are available to members at all hours.

Theatres
London boasts about sixty-five theatres, most of which are in or near the Strand. Opera is performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre and the Covent Garden Theatre. The most significant theatre is Drury Lane, which features spectacular plays and pantomimes. Among the other leading theatres are the Lyceum, the Haymarket, St. James’s, Princess’s, the Adelphi, the Globe, and many more.

Music Halls
World class concerts are performed at the Alhambra, the London Pavilion, St. James’s Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Crystal Palace, and many others.

Amusements
Favorite places of entertainment include Tussaud’s Waxworks, the Egyptian Hall, the Royal Aquarium, and the Olympia exhibition center. Picture exhibitions may be seen at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Dori Gallery, and other places.

Libraries and Museums
In the area of Westminster, the London Library stands on St. James Square. An independent lending library with nearly 100,000 books, it was founded in 1841 on the initiative of Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish author and social commentator who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the British Museum Library. The Library’s collections, which range from the 16th century to the present day, are strong within the fields of literature, fiction, fine and applied art, architecture, history, biography, philosophy, religion, topography, and travel.

Burlington House is the headquarters of the Royal Academy, Royal Society, and several other learned bodies. Next door is the Museum of Practical Geology.

South Kensington Museum includes a museum of ornamental or applied art, a national gallery of British art, an art library, an art training school, and a school of science.

A handsome and most convenient structure, the Natural History Museum contains the extensive natural history collections of the British Museum. The British Museum, a huge building with an Ionic portico, contains a series of extensive and highly valuable collections, including several excellent libraries. Its most well-known exhibits may be its Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Assyrian collections.

Mudie’s Select Library, a gigantic establishment, also possesses hundreds of thousands of volumes.

Lambeth Palace, for 600 years the residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury, has an excellent old library (admission by special permission only).

Other Points of Great Interest
The Tower of London is an iconic castle that has served as a secure ancient fortress, a royal palace, and an infamous state-prison. Beyond its prominent role in the nation’s history, it has also served variously as an armory, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England (now kept in the Record or Wakefield Tower). At least six ravens are kept at the Tower at all times, in accordance with the belief that if they are absent, the kingdom will fall. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. Many have been beheaded within these fortifications, including Anne Boleyn, said to haunt the tower now as a ghost, alongside other apparitions such as Henry VI, Lady Jane Grey, Margaret Pole, and the two murdered heirs to the throne known as the Princes in the Tower.

Trafalgar Square, one of the most excellent open spaces in London, contains the Nelson Column and statues of Sir Henry Havelock, Sir Charles Napier, George IV, and General Gordon. To the northeast is the church of St. Martin’s in the Fields.

The open space to the South of Trafalgar Square, between the Strand and Whitehall, is Charing Cross, the center of the city. It is from here that the routes to London destinations are officially measured, radiating from this common point as recorded in the authorized Book of Distances all cab drivers are required to carry (to be referenced by customers upon request to prevent overcharging). For most sightseers, if not native Londoners, Charing Cross is the central hub of the city they experience in their excursions.

On the north side of Trafalgar Square stands the National Gallery, erected in 1832–38 and enlarged in 1860, 1876, and 1887. From the large number of artists represented, the collections it contains are of the highest value to the student of art, and there is no lack of masterpieces of the first rank. About 1100 pictures in all are exhibited.

Whitehall, leading to the south from Trafalgar Square, passes the Admiralty, the Horse Guards (headquarters of the military authorities), and the various government offices (all to the right). To the other side are Scotland Yard (headquarters of the police), the United Service Museum, and the banqueting hall which is the only relic of what was once the palace of Whitehall.

To the left, a massive building in the richest late- Gothic (Tudor) style, the Palace of Westminster, contains the Houses of Parliament. The exterior is adorned with many statues, and the interior is fitted up with great taste and splendor. The Victoria Tower, the largest of the three which adorn the building, is 340 feet high. The clock tower is at the north end of the palace, with its great bell known as Big Ben, and since its 1859 completion has become an important landmark.

Buckingham Palace is the London residence of the Queen, and contains a fine picture-gallery (access to this is difficult to obtain).

Westminster Abbey is said to have been founded in the 7th century, rebuilt by Edward the Confessor (1049–65), and dating in its present form mainly from the latter half of the 13th century, with numerous important additions and alterations. It has many royal burial-vaults and a long series of monuments to celebrated people.

Hyde Park is the most famous and fashionable of the London parks, covering an area of nearly 400 acres. The large body of artificial water is called the Serpentine. To the west, Kensington Gardens adjoins the park.

One of the chief landmarks of the city stands a few yards south of Newgate Street. This is St. Paul’s Cathedral, an imposing Romanesque building with a beautifully proportioned dome, erected in 1675–1710 on the site of an older building destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666.

Erected in 1825–1831, London Bridge commands a good view of the river and much of the city itself. It is the most important of the bridges over the Thames and the scene of immense traffic.

Forbidden Lore
London, with its massive population, attracts evil creatures of every kind. In the sunlight hours, nannies walk with their charges, but in the dark corners of the night, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, hags, golems, trolls, zombies, and demons can all be found. Its ever-increasing population and nexus for world travel make it a rich source of potential victims, while beneath its streets, there yet remain broken temples to dark gods of the Roman Empire and other ancient powers.

Those who fight the Red Death know that this city contains some of the oldest and most deadly horrors human beings have ever seen, or even dreamed of in their worst nightmares. Rare encounters with the sidhe, a race of fey who once ruled the British Isles, are mostly reported in Ireland, but a group of them have claimed misty corners of the labyrinth of tunnels beneath London as their domains. Most of the sidhe (also known as eladrin) left Gothic Earth, and the majority of those who remain are chaotic evil and savage in temperament, great masters of magic tainted by the Red Death. Other fey creatures attend them as servants. A few sidhe who resisted evil by giving up spellcasting hide under London as well, hunted for sport by their corrupted kin.

Yet the most numerous servants of the Red Death in London are its human agents. There is no shortage of cultists, zealots, and fanatics looking to inflict their iniquitous schemes upon the unwitting populace. Sherlock Holmes himself is said to have uncovered an occult conspiracy among London’s criminals, a network he spent much of his career trying to dismantle. The British Empire pillages many ancient nations. Whether brought back by conquerors, archaeologists, or simple thieves, relics and other treasures find their way here from all corners of the globe. Many such items are poisoned by the Red Death’s corruption.

Yet at this point in history, London may also have more defenders against this darkness than any other city. Many qabals call London their home base, and it was here that the brave fellowship formed which eventually dealt a meaningful defeat to the powerful Count Dracula.

As the 1890s begin, the great detective Sherlock Holmes is presumed dead. Before his descent at Reichenbach, Holmes secretly inspired and recruited many to the cause of humanity’s defense. Today, Holmes’ associates Doctor Watson and Professor George E. Challenger continue this work as best they can. At the time of his death, Holmes had also secured evidence that has since led to the arrests of leading members of the highly organized and extremely secret criminal force masterminded by Professor James Moriarty, resulting in a recent reduction in London's crime rate.

The associates recruited in England by Professor Abraham van Helsing during his struggle against Dracula all now live in London or visit the city regularly. Two of them—the educator and notable suffragist Mina Harker and her solicitor husband Jonathan—have been recruited to van Helsing’s qabal, Die Wächtern. Few qabalists can be said to have had more direct confrontations with the Red Death’s lieutenants, nor to have won more astonishing victories. In fact, Mina has recently been made the overall leader of the qabal’s London cell, and the bearer of a holy relic. Passed down from the founders of Die Wächtern, it is said to be the bowl of Bartimaeus, the beggar healed of blindness by Jesus in gospel accounts. This plain wooden bowl allows Mina to cast true seeing once, regaining the ability to do so each Sunday at dawn, but once the spell ends, she is blinded until the next time she finishes a short or long rest.

Other qabals based in London include the Ghost Circle and the Scions of Alchemae. Sherlock Holmes himself never joined any established qabal, despite his efforts against the Red Death and his own alliance with van Helsing (to whom he was introduced by Pope Leo XIII himself, during the affair known as “The Case of the Vatican Cameos”). Some might argue that Holmes’s personal network (including his Baker Street Irregulars and other intelligence gatherers) served the same function for the Great Detective.

Sherlock’s older brother, government official Mycroft Holmes, is said to exercise tremendous influence over all of Britain, though his true position is a highly sensitive secret. This is despite his seldom going anywhere aside from his own home and the nearby Diogenes Club (notable for its misanthropic rules allowing no one to talk at all except in a single room set aside for that purpose). Possessed of a flawless memory and inhuman analytical faculties, Mycroft is likely the more intelligent Holmes brother, but unlike Sherlock he has no desire to venture out into the world, whether to search out mysteries or to perform any other task.

However, perhaps as a posthumous recognition of his brother’s secret work, Mycroft has caused the establishment of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch Section 13, tasked with investigating strange and supernatural threats. A secret London telephone network created by the government links Section 13 to Mycroft and other high-level assets. As of yet, this new branch of Her Majesty’s government has little more than a fraction of the occult expertise possessed by the qabals, and its understanding of eldritch matters remains woefully incomplete.