THE CITIES
LONDON
When Kitty goes to London, she stays with her rich great-aunt in Grosvenor Square. Then, as now, it was a very fashionable place to live. The buildings were five stories high, including basement and attic, all built on a grand scale. In the centre of the square was a garden for the residents to enjoy and providing somewhere for the children to play outside.
It took Kitty and her maid, Martha, less than half an hour to walk from this elegant setting into the St Giles Rookery, situated close to The Haymarket. It was a teeming slum, overrun with hopelessly poor people as well as criminals and prostitutes. Kitty dreams of improving conditions there but Theo knows better.
Kitty also visits her friend Lady Caroline Bannister in Cavendish Square, another recently developed area in the wealthy and fashionable part of town. By 1810 London had a range of buildings in the neo-classical style, creating an impression of refined elegance, due to their clean lines and harmony of structure, as in Regent's Park Terrace.
BATH
Bath was an elegant Georgian city, with an unusual degree of harmony in its architecture. The warm, honey coloured local stone added an extra charm to the appearance of the buildings. Here is the magnificent sweep of the Royal Crescent displaying the grand, unified frontage typical of neo-classical design.
Sarah knows Bath well and enjoys staying there - until she finds that her unwanted admirer has arrived in town!
BRIGHTON
It was fashionable to spend a few weeks at the seaside during the summer months. Ramsgate was popular but the Prince Regent favoured Brighton. His unique creation, the Royal Pavilion, an exotic mix of various oriental styles, shows the tendency to excess that existed in this period.
Sea bathing was supposed to improve health, especially in winter. Ladies could bathe from the safety of a cabin drawn into the water by a horse, under the supervision of a local woman. While the ladies bathed, the gentlemen would watch through spy-glasses from the upper windows of their smart lodging houses along the sea front.