An American oversight in my "British" stories

[breakinglight11]

Due to my research and my media preferences, I am pretty well-versed in the conventions of Victorian British people. As such, I'm pretty good at depicting them in my writing such that they feel reasonably authentic, not just as people of a bygone era, but as people of a culture different than my own. I have been particularly complimented on my dialogue, which captures the feel of the time and dialect effectively, and of which I'm very proud.

Every now and then, though, my Americanness causes an oversight. I needed to have lilibet point out to me for Base Instruments that the term was "interval" for the break between acts of a show instead of "intermission," for example. And every now and then somebody will disagree with my word choice, like Isaiah did with Reginald Hawking's use of the word "phonies."

It's also a sign, perhaps a more subtle one, of my American sensibilities that when referring to Mrs. Hawking's house, none of the characters ever refer to it by its street address. Americans tend to identify houses by their owners, as in "So-and-so's house" but in the absence of a name, like Downton Abbey or the Burrow, the English will at least part of the time call residences by their street name and number. See Sherlock Holmes's 221B Baker Street, and Harry Potter's Number 4, Privet Drive and 12 Grimmauld Place.

The trouble is, I never exactly chose a location for the Hawking home. I know it's downtown, not too far from the river— not that anything in London is —in an upper-middle-class but NOT upper-class neighborhood, one of those close-set, narrow, multi-story red brick buildings with a small garden in the back. Unfortunately I don't know my London geography all that well, particularly as it would have been back in the 1880's. Most of the neighborhoods whose period reputations I know are either too tony— Belgravia, Eaton Square —or too rough— Whitechapel, the East End.



I have to do a little research, of course, but I really ought to pick something. For that matter, I should probably know where Nathaniel and Clara live too, as he's in a similar position. I've found what could be a really useful research, this interactive map marking out the economic status of the various neighborhoods of Victorian London. I think the Hawkings need to be somewhere in a red "middle class, well to do" section. I'm open to recommendations if anyone has them, but I think I need to do some digging, to see if I can find the right location, with the right vibe, and the right sort of architecture I'm imagining. It's kind of a mistake that this still doesn't have an answer.

Comments

[lillibet]

I think of her as living in Kensington, west of Hyde Park, for whatever that's worth.

[breakinglight11]

Oh, my God. That just might be perfect. Thank you!!!