“In Dull Brown” by Evelyn Sharp tells the story of Jean and Tom, who walk many of the streets of London, one of them being Oxford Street. Oxford street was known to be one of the busiest streets in London. It was known as “one of the world’s longest shopping streets, consisting of over a mile of uninterrupted commercial development, now almost exclusively Victorian or more recent in date.”

Besides being just a busy street for shops, Oxford also “…consisted almost uniformly of modest, irregular Georgian houses with shop fronts; only at the very west end close to Park Lane, where there was a scatter of substantial private houses and their outbuildings…”.  This description of location helps describe how Jean’s choice of dress did not make her feel as if she stood out in comparison to her location, which shows us an insight look on how Jean feels about herself. After her meet up with Tom she says “he was being most dreadfully unconventional, and I couldn’t help wondering if he would have spoken to me again, if I had worn my new tailor-made gown and looked ordinary.” One of the themes of the story is gender inequality and in this quote, Jean is describing how Tom may have been “unconventional” towards her because of how un-ordinary she is.

In order to get to Oxford Street, the characters had to walk across Green Park. In one end of the park was Buckingham Palace Gates and in the other is Oxford Street. These high class and very well known places further explain the wealth that is in Oxford Street. According to google maps, Oxford Street continues to be a local street for expensive stores such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Prada.

  Sharp, Evelyn. “In Dull Brown.” The Yellow Book 8 (January 1896): 181-200. The Yellow Nineties Online. Ed. Dennis Denisoff and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. Ryerson University, 2012. Web. [Date of access]. http://1890s.ca/HTML.aspx?s=YBV8_sharp_dull.html

Oxford Street: Introduction.’ Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings). Ed. F H W Sheppard. London: London County Council, 1980. 171. British History Online. Web. 8 September 2015. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol40/pt2/p171.