Waterloo Place

Waterloo Place

 “And before he had time to speak she had slipped away, and the omnibus was turning ruthlessly down Waterloo Place.” “In Dull Brown”, Evelyn Sharp, 185

 

The story is all about transition, or attempted transition. Waterloo Place is only mentioned once in the entirety of the story, because it only needs to be mentioned once. The landmark itself acts as the transition between Jean leaving the bus for her stop at Picadilly Circus and him staying on the bus to wait for his stop, which comes later. Waterloo Place itself is a transitional place because of its reconstruction and it being almost a bridge between Regent Street and St. James Park. Edward Walford states in his article, “Waterloo Place and Her Majesty’s Theatre”, which can be found on British History, that around “the year 1815, some low and mean houses that stood between the market and Pall Mall were demolished…in order to form the broad and spacious thoroughfares of Lower Regent Street and Waterloo Place.” It now contains many statues and war memorials, such as “the Duke of York’s Column, the Guards’ Memorial, which was erected from the designs of Mr. John Bell… three bronze figures, representing a Grenadier, a Fusilier, and one of the Coldstream Guards” (Walford). Towards the East of the square is Her Majesty’s Theatre, or the Opera House, and “and extends north and south from Charles Street to Pall Mall” (Walford).

 

waterloo1

 

Waterloo Place used to be a poverty stricken area before it was entirely erased and rebuilt, all traces of filth and socioeconomic struggle conveniently removed from the architecture, designed by a Mr. Nash. As it’s shown on the Charles Booth online archive, in the years between 1898 to 1899, Waterloo Place was surrounded by middle class, upper middle class, and wealthy people.

 

Waterloo Place 1898-99

Jean wants to keep her origin a secret from him just like Waterloo Place wants to keep its origin secret from all of London It doesn’t want anyone to know that it came from slums and poverty and was torn town and rebuilt into wealth and stature.

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