London


London
Category:	City
Region:	Great Britain
Continent:	Europe
Country:	England
Points of interest:	Chelsea; Hammersmith; Shoreditch; Spitalfields; Tower of London; Wandsworth; Whitechapel
Notable apperances:	EastEnders; Jekyll; Quatermass; Ripper Street; Sherlock

Points of Interest[]

4 Pall Mall: 4 Pall Mall is the location of the Explorer's Club, which was established by Major-General Robert Clive. Sir Malcolm Murray was a member of the club. In late September, 1891, he invited Victor Frankenstein to 4 Pall Mall to ask him to be a part of a secret group aimed at finding his missing daughter Mina, who had been abducted by a creature of the night.

8 Grandage Place: This is the location of a large mansion owned by Sir Malcolm Murray. He lived here along with his daughter, Mina, and his manservant, Sembene. After Mina went missing, Murray hired the spiritualist Vanessa Ives to stay with him to help him find her. Ethan Chandler visited here and Vanessa invited him to continue working with Sir Malcolm. She had him pick a card from the Tarot deck and he picked the lovers.

10 Downing Street: 10 Downing Street is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now invariably held by the Prime Minister. 10 Downing Street became the secret base of operations for an alien Raxacoricofallapatorian family known as the Slitheen. Using special compression suits, they assumed the identities of key members of Parliament and did away with their human namesakes, thus taking control of the United Kingdom. Three key figures that the Slitheen replaced were Oliver Charles, Margaret Blaine and General Asquith. Their plan was to create an international incident that would prompt a nuclear war, after which, they would gather up radioactive materials left behind in the carnage and sell them as energy sources to their Raxacoricofallapatorian rivals.

76 Totter's Lane: 76 Totter's Lane is a street that runs through Shoreditch. On the TV series Doctor Who, it is the location of the I.M. Foreman junkyard, which is where the TARDIS first materialized in the series. 76 Totter's Lane is also the registered home address of Susan Foreman, which is listed among her student records at the Coal Hill School.

British Museum: The British Museum is a museum dedicated to human history, art, and culture, located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection, numbering some 8 million works, is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. In the late 19th century, Ferdinand Lyle worked at the British Museum and was the head of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities. He had a butler on hand named Felix, whom Ferdinand believed had poor posture. On September 23rd, 1891, Sir Malcolm Murray and Vanessa Ives visited his office with a sample of Egyptian hieroglyphs that required translating. He correctly deduced that the writings originated with the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The source of these particular hieroglyphs though were taken from carvings upon the skin of a dead vampire. ^[1]

Coal Hill School: The Coal Hill School is a comprehensive school located in Shoreditch. Fifteen-year-old Susan Foreman attended classes there and learned science under her teacher Ian Chesterton and history under Barbara Wright. Ian and Barbara took note of Susan's unparalleled academic aptitudes, but found it curious that she was wholly ignorant of modern European customs.

Chelsea: Chelsea is a district of Central London that runs along the Thames River. On the 2005 Doctor Who revival series, it was the home of the character Rose Tyler, her mum Jackie Tyler and her friend Mickey Smith.

East End: The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, east of the Roman and medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary.

Explorer's Club: The Explorer's Club is an organization based out of London, England. It is headquartered in a square of townhouses owned by famed British explorer Sir Malcolm Murray. The residential area of the club is occupied by Murray himself as well as his close associates. Regular members of the club do not routinely have access to the residential areas. Murray lived there in the late 19th century with his companion, Miss Vanessa Ives. Murray invited Victor Frankenstein to become a member of the Explorer's Club, while Miss Ives entreated upon the services of an American sharpshooter named Ethan Chandler. Chandler was not a member of the club, but often visited Sir Malcolm and Miss Ives. Malcolm Murray employed an African servant named Sembene, who also lived at the club. The Explorer's Club was the sight of many strange instances in the winter of 1891, not the least of which involved the demonic possession of Vanessa Ives. Other supernatural occurrences that took place at the club included invasion by vampires, and appearances by vampiric servants and the mysterious Mina Murray, who hovered between the lands of the living, and the realm of the dead.

Hammersmith: Hammersmith is a neighborhood located in the city of London in England. Hammersmith is the base of operations for the Flying Squad - a branch of the Specialist Crime & Operations section, within London's Metropolitan Police Service as seen on the 1970s police drama, The Sweeney.

I.M. Foreman Junkyard: Presumably owned by someone named I.M. Foreman, this junkyard was located on 76 Totter's Lane in Shoreditch. It is here that the First Doctor first hid the TARDIS on Earth, disguising it as a police call box. Coal Hill School teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright followed their student, Susan Foreman, here and encountered the Doctor for the first time. Unwilling to compromise his identity and secrets, the Doctor felt it best to abduct Ian and Barbara inside the TARDIS whereupon they became his new companions.

Mariner's Inn: Mariner's Inn was a business located on the shore of the river and operated during the latter half of the 19th century. It consisted of lodgings and a bar, and catered primarily to sailors, stevedores and others working on ships. The prostitute Brona Croft had a room here. An American traveler, Ethan Hunt, visited the bar at the Mariner's Inn, which is where he first met Brona.

Putney's Family Waxworks: Putney's Family Waxworks was a wax museum owned by the Putney family. It was located in London, England in the latter half of the 19th century and was established to compete with Madame Tussaud's. Octavia Putney handled the business end of things while Oscar Putney worked as curator and took a hands-on role in the craftsmanship of the museum. By the year 1891, Putney's Family Waxworks had fallen upon hard times. Very few people were patroning the establishment, preferring instead to be entertained by the more well-known Madam Tussaud's. In the hopes of boosting sales, curator Oscar Putney attempted a new gimmick and created the Chambers of Crime", which were morbid tableaus detailing homicide scenes plucked from the headlines. Features here included the infamous Jack the Ripper killing Annie Chapman and the more recent Mariner's Inn Massacre. The reanimate known as John Clare went to the museum searching for work. In fact, Putney's was one of the few places in London that were hiring. Oscar attributed the lack of interest in employment to people finding the place "unnerving". Clare however, found it all quite familiar. Oscar offered Clare a job for pittance, but told him that he would have to get approval from his wife first.

Shoreditch: Shoredtich is a district located in the city of London in England. It is located in the East End of the city within the borough of Hackney. On Doctor Who, Shoreditch was the location of the Coal Hill School, which served as the vehicle by which the Doctor and his granddaughter Susan Foreman first met their future companions, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton. On the TV series Penny Dreadful, the character of Brona Croft used to work at a factory in Shoreditch, but was let go when advancements in automation made the need for human employees obsolete.

Spitalfields: Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The Liberty of Norton Folgate and the neighbouring Liberty of the Old Artillery Ground were merged into Spitalfields in 1921.

Tower of London: The Tower of London is a castle structure located in the city of London on the shore of the River Thames. It was constructed by William the Conqueror circa 066 as a fortification during the Norman Conquest. The tower has served as a grand residence and was also a prison from 1100 until 1952. In addition, the tower has been used as treasury and an armory. On the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, the Tower of London became the headquarters for the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, aka UNIT.

Wandsworth: Wandsworth is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated 4.6 miles (7.4 km) southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.

Whitechapel: Whitechapel is a British district located in the East London section of London, England. In television fiction, as well as in reality, Whitechapel has been typified as a poor and working-class neighborhood. In historical dramas, Whitechapel is best known as the area terrorized by the infamous murderer Jack the Ripper in the Autumn of 1889. Whitchapel is the primary setting for the 2012-2013 BBC television series Ripper Street.

London on TV[]

Doctor Who[]

London is a quintessential location featured in numerous episodes of both the original 1963-1989 Doctor Who television series as well as the 2005 Doctor Who relaunch series. In the original series, the First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan Foreman took up temporary residence in the district of Shoreditch, which was also where the Coal Hill School was located. They hid the TARDIS at the I.M. Foreman Junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane. Susan began attending classes at the school until her peculiarities aroused concern amongst her teachers, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton. This curiosity led Barbara and Ian to learn the truth about Susan and they became the Doctor's first human traveling companions. ^[2]

In the revival series, Rose Tyler, her mother Jackie Tyler and best friend Mickey Smith live in London. Before becoming a companion of the Ninth Doctor, Rose worked at a department store in Chelsea called Henrik's.

London was also presented in a parallel reality. In this alternate timeline, Great Britain was governed by a President, rather than a Prime Minister. It was largely viewed as something of a corporate state with the global juggernaut Cybus Industries dominating nearly every capital interest. Cybus CEO and founder John Lumic tried to convince the President of Great Britain to approve his project to grant humanity immortality through cybernetic conversion. When the President disapproved of his plan, he initiated his scheme by force, brainwashing more than 6,000 Londoners via ear pods into becoming his willing drones, whereupon they were converted into Cybermen. ^[3]^[4]

Programs[]

Penny Dreadful[]

London is the primary setting featured in the Showtime television series Penny Dreadful. The series also spotlights notable districts such as Westminster and Spitalfields. The show begins in September of the year 1891 where the streets of London share its dark history with a demimonde - an ephemeral place where the real world walks hand in hand with the shadowy underbelly of the supernatural.

Sir Malcolm Murray is a former explorer whose daughter, Mina, has been abducted by a creature of the night. He works closely with a spiritualist named Vanessa Ives who has her own dark secrets. Together, they recruit others to their cause based upon the value to Sir Malcolm's campaign to rescue Mina from the thrall of a vampire. To this end, he finds American wild west marksman Ethan Chandler and the young experimental scientist, Doctor Victor Frankenstein.

The gaslit streets of London prove to be a veritable hunting ground for a sadistic murderer who stalks random women, beginning with a vegetable trader and her seven-year-old daughter, Charlotte and continuing on to include a woman sitting on a park bench. In each case, the bodies of the deceased are found ripped to pieces, giving rise to the notion that perhaps the notorious Jack the Ripper has returned to haunt the back-alleys of Whitechapel once again.

In addition to the threat of vampires and sadistic serial murderers, there is also the enigmatic Dorian Gray, whose obsession with death draws him into Sir Malcolm's web of intrigue.