Poldark Trail in London

I recently visited London and went on a Poldark Trail while there.  Didn't know there was a Poldark Trail?  My friend Gill Roffey has been researching the places mentioned in the books and found them!  Many are still there.  Quite amazing actually!

So instead of the promised blog about Inns and the food and drinks that were served (I will do that one later), this blog will be about the Poldark Trail in London which I think you will find just as diverting.

Although the Poldarks are a fictional family of Cornwall, Winston Graham places Ross and friends in real life locations.

The following may contain SPOILER information as some of this will go through books not adapted yet for the show.

Toward the end of The Four Swans, Ross will be elected as a Member of Parliament by beating George Warleggan by one vote!  George is not happy about this, "George was standing with his hands behind his back, the icy sweat of anger and frustration soaking through his shirt, so upset that he could hardly memorize the way the voting had gone or which of his expected supporters had let him down."

If you have read The Four Swans and the next book, The Angry Tide, you will know that there is a traumatic event at the end of The Four Swans so Ross goes to London to begin serving as MP and does not come back to Cornwall for eight months!  I love this quote from Demelza when Ross asks what has she been doing while he was away: "What have I been doing? Demelza stared at him in indignation at the change of subject.  "Seeing to your mine and your affairs of course; trying to bring up your children in the way they should go! Doing all the ordinary things of living and breathing and - and looking to the farm and the rest! And - and waiting for your letters and answering 'em! Living just as I have always lived - but without you! That's all I've been doing." (The Angry Tide)

When Ross finally returns, Demelza asks about his lodging.. "No, they were good rooms. Mrs. Parkins is a tailor's widow. George Street is off the Strand, near the Adelphi Buildings, and quiet after the noise of the main streets.  Eighteen shillings a week I paid - did I tell you? - carpeted and furnished.  Mainly I ate at the coffee houses and such.  But Mrs. Parkins made me a meal when I asked.  It's a way from Westminster, but there were always ferries at the foot of the steps to take me there." (In actuality, it is not that far...)

#6 George Street

This is the Georgian townhouse, #6 George Street (now called York Buildings ) where Winston Graham said Ross lived while an MP.
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Two streets over on Craven Street is where American diplomat and founding father, Benjamin Franklin lodged.  We toured the house as it is very original to the time period and was probably similar to the house where Ross stayed.

Side long view of George street. Down where the trees are is the Thames and around the corner the Adelphi building(s).

Demelza asks "And where you meet - in Parliament?"  "A hybrid, born of a chapel for a father and a bear-pit for a mother.  You go to the chamber, you approach it, through Westminster Hall, which is a fine lofty building, but the chamber itself is much like Sawle Church, except that the benches face each other instead of the pulpit and are banked so that each may see over the one below.  At times it is insufferably crowded, at others nearly empty.  The business usually starts at three and can go on till midnight.  But the business itself is most of the time so parochial that one wonders it could not have been settled locally............"(The Angry Tide)

First Day of Term, Westminster Hall, 1738

Roof of Westminster Hall taken August, 2016

George Canning

William Pitt

St Stephen's Chapel, sometimes called the Royal Chapel of St Stephen, was a chapel in the old Palace of Westminster which served as the chamber of the House of Commons of England and that of Great Britain from 1547 to 1834. It was largely destroyed in the fire of 1834.  This is where Ross would have sat, listened and sometimes even spoke.

Demelza asks Ross about the slave debate..."And you spoke in it?"  Ross turned and stared.  "Who told you that?"  "I met Wilberforce twice in February," Ross said. "He is a likeable, warm, religious man, strangely blinkered.  You know the saying charity begins at home.  Well, not with him.  Quite the reverse. Charity begins overseas. He will work up in a fine rage about the condition of the slaves and the slave ships - as who would not? - but can see little in the condition of his own countrymen to take exception to. (more at the end of Book One, Chapter Three of The Four Swans)

In Warleggan, Ross goes to London to see Caroline who is staying at her aunt Sarah's home.  Warleggan is one of those books, you must read multiple times and I have!

"It was snowing the following day when Ross set out to find Caroline.  Her address was No. 5 Hatton Garden, which he knew to be a superior residential district; but he had to ask many times on the way."

No. 5 Hatton Garden today. Was once a residential district, now commercial.  In later books, Ross and Demelza's daughter Bella (Isabella-Rose) also stays here.

While in London Ross was staying at the Mitre in Hedge Lane.

We found the Mitre just a couple streets over, down a "close" from Hatton Garden! Not open on a weekend, so could not go inside.

Ross is successful in his mission to bring Caroline back to Cornwall with Dwight (yea!) and then the epic part of the story when Ross tells Demelza it is her he truly loves (duh Ross!) and then Demelza makes a confession about McNeil at Sir Hugh's party and all hell breaks loose as Demelza packs her bag and is saddling Darkie to ride out of his life.........Did you realize during all this Caroline is sleeping in their house and Dwight is in the barn? How could they not have heard all this going on?

So Ross convinces Demelza to come back inside the house and if not for a fomenting cask of beer, well she might have been gone. ... "And there's one other thing I want you to know," he added.  "That is how deeply sorry I am that I ever hurt you in the first place - in May, I mean.  You were so undeserving of any harm.  All these months.... I know how you will have felt.  I want you to know that.  If you had gone off with McNeil, I should have had only myself to blame."  She dropped the reins and put up her hands and covered her face with them in a sudden gesture of distress.  She wanted to say something but could think of nothing at all.  After a minute or two he said, "Does it upset you now to be told that I love you?"

Oh Ross! So what does he do? Gives her two pieces of jewelry purchased in Chick Lane... unfortunately that part of the city was probably destroyed in WW2.  Its rather far away from Hatton Garden as well.

This is the Georgian part of Grosvenor Square where George Warleggan stayed while in "town" ie London. The American Embassy is at the end of the street. It was called King Street then, now Culcross.  This is an educated guess.

This is Hyde Park (a small portion actually) where Ross fought a duel with that rake Monk Adderley.  Oh what a twisted web is that story! Ross and Demelza are in London (Demelza's first time) and this Monk Adderley takes a liking to her and makes a bet with George Warleggan he had get her into his bed.  Demelza being Demelza, she didn't want to be totally rude to this man, but kept trying to put him off, but not sufficiently enough for Ross....   Adderley invites Ross to a duel in Hyde Park  and Ross takes a hit to the arm and Adderley later dies of his wounds.  This is from towards the end of The Angry Tide.

The Angry Tide ranks up there as one of the best books of the series, I love this as it shows the depth of the connection and love for each other:

 “What I have seen last night – makes me sick at heart – sick for all the charm and beauty that is lost – in Elizabeth. But most of all it makes me afraid.”  “Afraid, Ross?  What of.”  “Of losing you, I suppose.”  “There’s little chance.”  “I don’t mean to another man – though that was bad enough.  I mean of losing you physically, as a person, as a companion, as a human presence being beside me and with me all my life.”  Her heart opened to him.  “Ross,” she said, “there’s no chance. Unless you throw me out”  “It’s not a chance, it’s a certainty,” he said.  “Seeing Elizabeth like that….We are at the end of a century, at the end of an era…”  “its just a date.”  “no, it isn’t. Not for us.  Not for anybody; but especially not for us.  It’s – it’s a watershed. We have come up so far; now we look down.”  “We look onwards, surely.”  “Onwards and down. D’you realize there will come a time, there will have to come a time, when I shall never hear your voice again, or you mine?  It may be sentimental to say so but this – fact is something I find intolerable, unthinkable, beyond bearing….”  Demelza moved from her chair suddenly, knelt to the fire and picked up the bellows and began to work them.  It was to disguise the tears that had lurched to the edge of her lashes.  She realized that he had reached some ultimate darkness of the soul, that he struggled in deep waters, and that perhaps only she could stretch out a hand.” (The Angry Tide)

Drury Lane Royal Theatre

historic illustration of interior of Drury Lane Theatre

 This is Drury Lane Royal Theatre. Ross and Demelza go there in The Angry Tide. "They took a box at Drury Lane, which cost Ross twenty shillings and held four seats, there saw Mr John Kemble, Mr William Barrymore and Mrs Powell in The Revenge, a tragedy in five acts by Edward Young.  Demelza had not seen a play since the one performed in their library  more than ten years ago, and that was a mere charade compared to this."


Ross and Demelza's son Jeremy finally convinces Cuby Trevanion, the love of his life, to run away with him and get married.  By this time Jeremy has joined the military and is on leave.  The whole story is too convoluted to relay here, but needless to say, Jeremy has shades of his father in this near fatal romance!  While only taking part of his father's antiquated advice, he climbs in the window of Caerhays (her family home) to convince Cuby to run away with him.   Jeremy and Cuby are married in January, 1815 at St.  Clement in The Strand.  The church was heavily damaged in WW2, but is still there and is lovely.

St. Clement in The Strand

The Twisted Sword, which originally I am sure was to be the last Poldark novel was published in 1990. I consider The Twisted Sword another seminal book in the series and have read it several times.  Again Ross is asked to serve his country and go to France as an "observer," but instead of leaving Demelza and the children at home (Isabella-Rose and Henry by this time), they go with him and then Dwight and Caroline and their two girls are to follow in a few weeks. Of course it ends up not as easy as that! But you will have to read the book to learn the whole story. It's quite good and I do hope the books will continue to be adapted.

Part of the story is that Ross finally is made to accept a baronetcy for his mission which makes Demelza, Lady Poldark (much deserved too!).  All is going well at first. She is enjoying herself, this strange society and goes on a shopping trip.  Although at first I was confused about this quote, I understand it now:

“Demelza died at the thought of the expense but died with pleasure at the thought of wearing them.  And like many of the men, Ross approved of the result; and unlike the other men, he was able to prove his approval when he got home at night or most often early in the morning.  It was many years since he had been out of love with his wife, but now he fell in love with her over again.” (The Twisted Sword)

Bonaparte gets free from Elba and sets off to reconquer Europe and all hell breaks lose.  Ross is taken prisoner but Demelza and the children escape with a friend just in the nick of time before Bonaparte arrives back in Paris!  Exciting stuff!

Eventually Demelza heads back to London after a trip to Brussels to visit with Jeremy and his wife Cuby.  In London she was invited to stay at Lansdowne House by an old suitor of her daughter, Clowance.  Although altered somewhat, Lansdowne House is still there and a private club so we could not see the inside.

Lansdowne House where Demelza stayed on Berkeley Square. From 1763 to 1929 it belonged to the Petty-FitzMaurice family.

 
 Around the corner is the home belonging to George Canning, statesman and friend to Ross.  They corresponded much and he sent Ross on many "missions" for the government.  Demelza knew Ross needed the adventure and didn't complain....much!

George  Canning's home in Berkeley Square

There are approximately 900 of these blue signs throughout London

So that is it for this blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading this and learning about the real places that are in the books.  I had a wonderful time in London with my friend Gill and then we attended the British Film Institute preview of Season Two!  Even saw Aidan and Eleanor upclose although I was too shy to say anything to them!

Until next time!

Bonny Wise, I am
Inspired by Poldark