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Posts Tagged ‘Pall mall’

Interactive Maps of Regency London and Bath

Posted in Bath, jane austen, Mayfair, Regency London, Regency World, tagged , , , on September 2, 2008| 1 Comment »

Ah, London. If I were rich, I would visit this city every month. So I shall simply have to rely on interactive maps and panoramic views to satisfy my yearnings.  Wikimapia is an online collaborative mapping system that combines google maps with a wiki system, allowing users to add information. Click here to see an interactive image of a portion of London that shows Hyde Park, Mayfair, and Green Park. The square grids provide detailed information about the mapped area when you move your cursor over them.

Green Park, London

Static map of Green Park, The Mall, and Victoria Monument, London

The exciting part about this project is that if you have visited this part of the world (or better yet, live there) you can add your knowledge about a particular area. This interactive image depicts Green Park and Pall Mall. You can see Buckminster Palace at the lower left, the Victoria Memorial and the Mall leading from it, and St. James’s Palace in the upper right. To view greater details I keep clicking on the images until I see such details as people walking in the park and cars parked in the streets. Amazing.

Bath, England

Static map of Bath, England

Let’s not forget Jane Austen and her world. This link leads to an interactive map of an arial view of Bath, England, and this link leads to an interactive close up of Pulteney Bridge (see static map below. The details are so fine that you can see cars parked on the streets. Spectacular.

Pultney Bridge

Pultney Bridge, static map

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Male Bastions: Regency Clubs in Pall Mall

Posted in Dandy, jane austen, Regency Life, Regency London, Regency World, tagged , , , on August 5, 2008| 1 Comment »

Dear Readers, As long as my computer woes continue I will be resurrecting old posts. Originally published in 2007, this post describes the gentlemen’s clubs in St. James’s:

As Pall Mall and the immediate neighbourhood of St. James’s have been for a century the headquarters of those London clubs which have succeeded to the fashionable coffee-houses, and are frequented by the upper ranks of society, a few remarks on Club-land and Club-life will not be out of place here.As Walker observes in his “Original,” the system of clubs is one of the greatest and most important changes in the society of the present age from that of our grandfathers, when coffee-houses were in fashion. “The facilities of life have been wonderfully increased by them, whilst the expense has been greatly diminished. For a few pounds a year, advantages are to be enjoyed which no fortunes, except the most ample, can procure. … For six guineas a year, every member has the command of an excellent library, with maps; of the daily papers, London and foreign, the principal periodicals, and every material for writing, with attendance for whatever is wanted. The building is a sort of palace, and is kept with the same exactness and comfort as a private dwelling. Every member is a master without the troubles of a master. He can come when he pleases, and stay away as long as he pleases, without anything going wrong. He has the command of regular servants, without having to pay or to manage them. He can have whatever meal or refreshment he wants at all hours, and served up with the cleanliness and comfort of his own home. He orders just what he pleases, having no interest to think of but his own. In short, it is impossible to suppose a greater degree of liberty in living.”

From: ‘Pall Mall; Clubland’, Old and New London: Volume 4 (1878), pp. 140-64. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45188. Date accessed: 07 January 2007.

  • This link Will lead you to views of London today. Explore the sights in panoramic views.

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Male Bastions: The Clubs of St. James’s

Posted in Dandy, jane austen, Regency Life, Regency London, Regency World, tagged , , , on August 30, 2006| 1 Comment »


Found on the Internet, an abstract of the following article:

The Clubs of St. James’s: places of public patriarchy – exclusivity, domesticity and secrecy, Jane Rendell

“The male clubs of St. James’s, specifically the four at the top of St. James’s Street; Boodle’s, Brooks’s, Crockford’s and White’s, were frequented by men of the same class who used their control of space to assert social and political allegiances and rivalries between men. The exclusivity of the first floor gambling room, a place of secrecy and privacy, is contrasted with the ground floor bow window, a site of public display and exclusivity. Male leisure pastimes, such as drinking, sporting, gambling, are explored as social and spatial practices which, by establishing shared codes of consumption, display and exchange, represent public masculinities.”

During the period of his greatest popularity and influence, Beau Brummell (depicted above) held court in the Bow Window at White’s in full view of the public. White’s was founded in 1693 as a Chocolate House. By the end of the 18th Century, the popularity of chocolate houses declined, and many of the exclusive chocolate houses became Gentleman’s Clubs.

Find more information about Gentlemens Clubs in the following:

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