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Locations from SS&M3:
The Nostradamus Curiosity
(beware: contains spoilers!)
THE ALTAZIMUTH PAVILION, GREENWICHHere's where Ronathan Chafeskin, the new assistant to the Astronomer Royal, is found dead. Two years in the construction and completed in 1896, the Pavilion was almost brand new when Michael and Phoebe investigated the bizarre circumstances of Chafeskin’s demise. The Pavilion’s architect was William Crisp. Crisp, who designed for the Admiralty, added the porthole windows on the first floor. The golden weather vane atop depicts Halley’s Comet as it appears on the Bayeux Tapestry. | ALTAZIMUTH PAVILION, SOUTH ENTRANCEThe author seen here, supposedly on a recce and research visit, but clearly still finding time to pose for the camera. | THE WINDOW OF DEATH......through which the Royal Observatory’s porter Nigel Donaldson saw the body of Ronathan Chafeskin. |
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THE NORTH ENTRANCE......depicting the splendid terracotta detail of Crisps’s design. | THE PAVILION NAME......highlighted in carved terracotta. | LOOKING SOUTH......along the straight stretch of Blackheath Avenue, leading along to the Blackheath Gate entrance of Greenwich Park. The Altazimuth Pavilion nestles on the right. It's here Michael and Phoebe parked the Steamo. |
PORTRAIT OF SIR WILLIAM CHRISTIE......which is displayed within the Pavilion. He was not happy that Special Branch insisted Michael and Phoebe looked into the Chafeskin mystery. | ALSO ON DISPLAY IN THE PAVILION......this lovely photograph taken at about the time of Michael and Phoebe’s investigation, and which demonstrates the skill and beauty of the recent restoration work. Note the onion dome roof open and the lens of the telescope peeping out. | THE HOTEL CECIL IN THE STRANDThis facade is all that remains of what was the grandest hotel in Europe. Completed in 1896, amid a scandal involving the developer (a crooked M.P.!!), of whom the Professor tells more in the book. It was demolished in 1930. |
THE GRAND ENTRANCE......through which carriages would arrive. | FROM ANOTHER ANGLE......again highlighting the detailed workmanship involved. It was here that Michael collapsed. | 1, DORSET STREET, LONDONWhere Charles Babbage M.A. lived. Mr Babbage was a mathematical genius. Along with Herschel, he was a founder of The Astronomical Society and one of the longest serving Fellows of the Royal Society. He died here aged 79. In the 1820s he designed two huge machines for solving complex mathematical problems: The Difference Engine and an Analytical Engine, marking Mr Babbage as the pioneer of modern computing. |
MR BABBAGE'S HOUSE THEN......a large detached mansion at the corner of Dorset Street and Manchester Street. It became the property of a builder, James Barron Simpson, whose housemaids were frequently attended to by Father Connor O’Connor. For the reasons of communion. He said. | MR BABBAGE'S HOUSE NOW......at least the site of - but still showing the original Georgian houses to the left and right. | A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NEW BUILDING......offers a glimpse of the area out the back. |
REAR OF 1, DORSET STREET......at it is now. In outhouses built on this site, Mr Babbage conducted his experimental work on computers and other advanced technologies, with the help of Ada Lovelace. The workshops were later used for storing building materials by the new owner James Simpson – and where Father Connor O’Connor discovered the Babbage/Lovelace design concepts for a mechanical man… |
Locations from SS&M2:
The Lazarus Curiosity
(this contains spoilers, too!)
BANK OF ENGLAND DOOR PLUS COLUMNS AND CURTAIN WALLBartholomew Lane entrance to the Bank of England. It was through these doors Flatus Knosh witnessed Dr. Phunn, Spindle and Lazarus ‘walking through’. Sadly, the black metal doors shown replaced the original wooden door during the 1920s makeover. | BANK OF ENGLAND BARTHOLOMEW'S LANEBartholomew Lane, London EC2, looking south, with the Bank of England on the right, nicely showing architect Sir John Soane’s original curtain wall. Little of Sir John’s magnificent building remains but at least the wall was spared the Bank’s brutal redesign in the 1920s. | RULES EXTERIORRules Restaurant on Maiden Ln., London WC2, to where Supt. Melville brought Michael and Phoebe for their fateful meeting. |
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RULES PRIVATE ENTRANCERules’ special side entrance, for the use of Lillie Langtry and the Prince of Wales. | RULES SHIELD BY PRIVATE ENTRANCERules’ shining shield – showing the original placing of the apostrophe in Rule’s. The restaurant was established by Thomas Rule in 1798, 101 years before Michael and Phoebe pitched up there. | MONTAGUE PLACE WHERE ACD HAD HIS FLATMontague Place, London WC1, where Arthur Conan Doyle kept an apartment. It was here Michael and Phoebe brought the injured Father Connor O’Connor. |
MONTAGUE PLACE OPPOSITE THE BRITISH MUSEUMThe site of 23 Montague Place, opposite the north flank of the British Museum, Arthur Conan Doyle’s London apartment and where he nursed Father Connor O’Connor back to health. | BART'S ENTRANCE TO PATH LABSt. Bart's Hospital, London, EC1. The entrance to the Pathology Lab where the long-suffering Dr. Harrison Cripps took Michael and Phoebe to examine the severed arm. Note the quotation above the door. | BART'S PATH LABSt. Bart’s Pathology Lab. (photo © St. Bartholomew’s Hospital) |
BART'S PATH LABThe author visiting the magnificent St. Bart’s Pathology Lab, blocking the view of the spiral stairs and landing where Phoebe battled the acrobatic intruder. (A great website to visit is bartspathology@qmul.ac.uk) | BART'S HENRY VIII ARCHThe Henry VIII archway entrance, pictured from inside the St. Barts’s courtyard, where Michael and Phoebe parked the Steamo. | MACCLESFIELD BRIDGEMacclesfield Bridge looking towards Regent's Park. Beyond the trees in the distance was where Dr. Phunn set up his 'Carnival of Mechanical Miracles'. |
OVERLOOKING REGENT'S CANALMacclesfield Bridge, overlooking Regent's Canal, where Drago and Skrill encountered P.C. Whurld. | MACCLESFIELD BRIDGE ENTRANCE TO REGENTS PARKThe entrance to Macclesfield Bridge, Regent's Park, replaced in 1958. | REGENTS PARK SITE OF DR PHUNN'S CARNIVALRegent’s Park, the site of “Dr. Phunn’s Carnival of Mechanical Miracles”. |
EAMONT STEamont Street, London, NW8, as it is now, the side road by Regent's Park where Michael and Phoebe hid the Steamo before their night time visit to “Dr. Phunn’s Carnival of Mechanical Miracles”. | LYCEUM THEATRE MEMORIALSAt the side of the Lyceum Theatre, in Burleigh St., WC2. The name of Bram Stoker is memorised in stone, enjoying equal billing with Sir Henry Irving and Dame Ellen Terry. | LYCEUM STAGE DOORThe Lyceum Theatre Stage Door, through which, in their time, Irving, Terry, Bram Stoker and Pamela Colman Smith passed in 1899. |
LYCEUM THEATRE EXETER STREETAt the back of the Lyceum Theatre, the corner of Exeter St. and Burleigh St., close to where Michael and Phoebe parked the Steamo when they visited Bram Stoker. | SOUTH STREET BUILDING15 South Street, Mayfair, London, W1, the famous high class bordello, where Wicko visited Madame Desiree O’Gasm. | SOUTH STREET FRONT DOORThe front door, with the blue plaque memorial to The Last Victorian Courtesan, Catherine ‘Skittles’ Walters. |
SIDE OF SOUTH STREETThe side street entrance to 15 South Street in 1899 was a cul de sac called King’s Mews. Now it’s a thoroughfare re-named Rex Place. It was here the ‘Clear-Up Squad’ parked their wagon. | SOUTH STREET MAYFAIRSouth St., looking east, incidentally from outside the house where Florence Nightingale was living in 1899. She turns up in SS&M3 The Nostradamus Curiosity, but that’s getting ahead of myself. | FLORENCE NIGHTINGALEFlorence Nightingale’s blue plaque memorial on the site of her now demolished house, 10 South St. |
ALEISTER CROWLEY RESIDENCE CHANCERY LANEThe building beside which stood 67 Chancery Lane, London, the flat occupied by occultists Aleister Crowley and Alan Bennett, and raided by Michael and Phoebe. Crowley’s building was demolished in 2006 and the original site, to the right, is now a car park. | ENTRANCE TO KENSAL GREEN CEMETERYKensal Green Cemetery, London, W10, on Harrow Rd., the entrance through which Drago and Skrill followed Wu Hu Phunn. | KENSAL GREEN JOHN EPPS GRAVE VISITED BY WU HUIn Kensal Green Cemetery, the grave of John Epps, the Father of Homeopathy, visited by Wu Hu. |
KENSAL GREEN BEHIND THE SCENES AT EPPS GRAVESS&M’s Director of Photography Stephen Smith snapping the grave of John Epps. | BLONDIN GRAVEAlso in Kensal Green, the ornate grave of the world-famous tightrope walker Blondin (Jean Francois Gravelet, d. 1897), visited by Wu Hu. (another great website to visit: www.blondinmemorialtrust.com) | KENSAL GREEN LOCATION OF WU HU'S KIDNAPPINGThe spot in Kensal Green Cemetery where Wu Hu was kidnapped by Drago and Skrill. Note Blondin’s grave on the right and the Kensal Green Anglican Chapel in the distance. |
Locations from Steam, Smoke & Mirrors
(er, spoilers here as well!)
LILLIE LANGTRY'S GRAVESaint Saviour's Churchyard, Jersey. Lillie died in 1929. (Photo: Stephen Smith) | SIR WILLIAM MELVILLE'S GRAVESaint Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Harrow Road, Kensal Green. Sir Wiiliam died in 1918. | SIR WILLIAM MELVILLE'S GRAVESTONENow sadly cracked and weather-beaten. But the name 'Melville' is just visible towards the top on the right. If you squint. |
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SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE’S GRAVEAll Saints Churchyard, Minstead, Hampshire. Sir Arthur died in 1930. | SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE’S GRAVESTONE"STEEL TRUE BLADE STRAIGHT ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE KNIGHT PATRIOT, PHYSICIAN & MAN OF LETTERS 22 MAY 1859 - 7 July 1930” | THE THEATREEdgware Road, North West London: it was on this now sorry looking site that The Metropolitan Theatre of Steam, Smoke & Mirrors stood. It was demolished in 1962. |
ARCH AT HANWELL ASYLUMUxbridge Road, West London, outside which Michael and Phoebe park The Steamo. (Photo: Pat Smith) | ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, COVENT GARDENIt was on the roof of this church that Michael saved 'Connie'. | ROUPELL STREET SIGNRoupell Street, South East London |
ROUPELL STREETIn South East London, near Waterloo Station: it was here that Lez Warzo lived - and died | CEPHAS STREETIn East London: it was here that Annie Saunders, 'The Gal With The Golden Gullet' lived - and died. (Photo: Barry Down) | ST. PETER'S CHURCH, CEPHAS STREETIt was in this church that Annie Saunders married Anthony Graveolens (Photo: Barry Down) |
LITTLE VENICEWest London: it was here that Michael's canal boat 'The Legerdemain' was moored. | LITTLE VENICEThe spot where Michael's canal boat 'The Legerdemain' was moored. | PADDINGTON GOODS YARDPaddington Goods Yard once stood on this site. Looking east, now beneath the A40 Westway flyover and replaced by new office and retail developments. It was here that Phoebe's railway carriage stood. |
FORMER SITE OF PADDINGTON GOODS YARDThe now sorry looking spot where Phoebe's railway carriage was parked, adjacent to Harrow Road, West London | WARWICK CRESCENTWest London: it was on this spot that Lillie Langtry's carriage parked when she visited Michael on 'The Legerdemain' | STEPS DOWN TO 'THE LEGERDEMAIN'It was these steps that visitors, like Lillie Langtry, used to reach 'The Legedemain' |
STEPS DOWN TO 'THE LEGERDEMAIN'It was on this spot that Lillie Langtry was stopped by D.I. Walter Pym | THE GREEN MAN PUBOpposite the Metropolitan Theatre of Steam Smoke & Mirrors, Edgware Road, West London: this was Father Connor O'Connor's favourite hostelry - now rebuilt. | WARWICK STREET CHAPELWest London, near Piccadilly Circus: was it here that Father Connor O'Connor was taken by D.I. Skindrick? |
ST BART'S HOSPITAL ARCHWAYThe Henry VIII Archway at St. Bart's Hospital through which Michael and Phoebe drove 'The Steamo'. | ST. BART'S INNER COURTYARDIt was here that Michael and Phoebe parked 'The Steamo' | ST BART'S WEST WING ENTRANCEIt was through this entrance that Michael, Phoebe and half a dozen others entered to access Martha Ward, in which Connie lay following her accident |
ST BART'S ESCAPE ROUTEIt was down the drainpipe on the right that the murderer made their escape from Martha Ward and St. Bart's Hospital | ARLINGTON STREETWest London, off Piccadilly: it was here Lord Salisbury lived - at number 21 - one of the few Prime Ministers not to use 10 Downing Street |
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