Literary Walk in London

Once, Chelsea lay outside London. Thomas More had a large residence there, and I imagine it may have stood where Chelsea Old Church stands today. In the film A Man for All Seasons, More travels back and forth to Westminster by a small boat on the Thames. 

 

Chelsea Old Church

Thomas More's Statue

Battersea Bridge


If you cross Battersea Bridge near Chelsea Old Church to the south bank of the Thames and turn right, you come to Battersea Church Road. In The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, the orphaned twins Eliza and Sammy lived here in a tiny, dark, damp room above the Swindells’ bottle shop, working like servants. One day they played the “Jack the Ripper” game. Eliza walked toward the Thames, turned around, and Sammy had vanished. Today, Battersea Church Road is a quiet residential street, and nothing remains of the world described in the novel. 

 

Battersea Church Road

The Thames from Battersea Church Road


 

Jake lived in the attic of Magdalen’s house with Finn, who was like his servant and shadow. When Magdalen found a new boyfriend, she suddenly told Jake he had to leave—today—because she was going to marry him. Thrown out of the attic without warning, Jake wandered through London looking for somewhere to stay. Iris Murdoch’s first novel, Under the Net, begins on Earl’s Court Road, where Magdalen’s house stood.

Jake and his friends, Finn and Dave, went looking for his friend Hugo in pubs around St Paul’s Cathedral. They never found Hugo, but Jake met Lefty, a socialist leader. Together they walked to the Thames and swam in the river at dusk—one of the book’s most memorable scenes. But the streets between St Paul’s and the river are now a business district, and I couldn’t find any place where one could go down to the Thames.

 

Earl's Court Road

Peter's Hill

The Thames River


Perowne is a successful neurosurgeon; his wife is a newspaper lawyer; her father is a distinguished poet. Their daughter Daisy is a gifted young poet, and their son Theo is a talented blues musician. In contrast, Baxter—the young man Perowne encounters—is uneducated, unlucky, and suffering from Huntington’s disease. He has no hope, and none of it is his fault. Ian McEwan draws a sharp contrast between the fortunate family and the unfortunate young man in his masterpiece Saturday. On the day of the massive anti–Iraq War demonstration in London, Perowne turns into University Street to avoid the march. At the crossing with Huntley Street, his Mercedes has a minor collision with Baxter’s BMW. Saturday begins at this intersection. 


the Crossing of University Street and Hurtley Street


UCL is close to this spot. More than a century ago, Soseki Natsume studied there. I wasn’t able to visit the Soseki Museum in London. 


UCL


 Tavistock Square Gardens lie just east of UCL. A bust of Virginia Woolf stands there, along with a statue of Gandhi. The Charles Dickens Museum is not far from the park, but I couldn’t make it there. I simply didn’t have enough time to enjoy London as much as I wished.


Virginia Woolf Bust

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