The Albany in Piccadilly

The Albany in Piccadilly Circus is an apartment complex built in the late eighteenth century.  The Albany appears in chapter three of The Picture of Dorian Gray, when Lord Henry goes to visit his uncle who resides there.  The Albany was intended to house bachelors, which is fitting of Wilde’s description of Lord Fermor as “a somewhat rough mannered old bachelor” (Wilde), and it had its fair share of famous residents both real and fictiona (Victorian Web)l.  The Albany serves as the backdrop for when Lord Fermor tells Lord Henry about Dorian’s family tree.  Fermor reveals that Dorian came from a wealthy lineage, and his grandfather presumably left him a large sum of money.  He also talks about how Dorian’s beautiful, wealthy mother married a poor man, who died shortly after they wed.  He said Dorian’s mother was a well-liked woman amongst elite social circles, and she had her fair share of potential suitors.  It was a shock for her to marry someone so poor.

One of the most suiting features of placing this scene in the Albany is that it is home to a large community of bachelors.  Fermor is mostly telling the story of Dorian’s mother when she was a young bachelorette.  It is likely that many men who were residents of the Albany were potential suitors for her.  The other aspect that is interesting are the crimes that The Old Bailey has reported involving the Albany.  They are almost all acts of theft.  This may be an echoing of how Dorian’s father was murdered.  Just as many people have personal items taken, Dorian’s father had his life taken from him.  This is also similar to how Dorian’s soul has been stolen into the portrait of himself.  The Albany represents the luxury of single-life, but it also shows the darker side where things are simply taken without any meaning.

 

Works Cited

“Albany, Piccadilly, London.” Albany, Piccadilly, London. Victorian Web. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

Booth, Charles. “Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive).” Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive). LSE Library. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

“The Proceedings of the Old Bailey.” London History. Old Bailey Online. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New ed. Wikisource, 1891. Print.

Mayfair

 

Mayfair is a large wealthy neighborhood in London.  According to the Charles Booth Online Archive, it was occupied almost exclusively by the wealthy, with only a handful of those that were not as well off.  Today, it is much more business oriented and less residential, as opposed to the Victorian era.  In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry has a home in Mayfair.  It is here that Dorian first tells Lord Henry of his love of Sibyl Vane.

 

Prior to Lord Henry’s arrival, Dorian converses with Henry’s wife mostly about music.  Dorian declares his love of the young actress Sibyl Vane once Lord Henry arrives.  He tells Lord Henry of the young lady he found performing in a cheap theatre.  The conversation taking place in Mayfair may have a plethora of different meanings.  One may be contrasting the high-end wealth of Mayfair residents with the found love in a lower-end theatre.  This contrast may be foreshadowing to Sibyl’s impending suicide to hint at the fact that she does not belong in Dorian’s company without her interest in theatre.

More optimistically, this contrast may be showing how this high-end, aesthetic lifestyle is not more important than that of a lower class citizen.  Sibyl is one of the more admirable characters in the novel, and this perhaps shows that the poor may be more likeable than the likes of Dorian.  This contrast may also show that there can be beautiful people, ideas and objects found in places that are not as nice or as a wealthy area like Mayfair.  Mayfair merely serves as an echo and a backdrop for the lifestyles that aesthetes like Dorian Gray or Lord Henry to demonstrate the aesthetic lifestyle they lead, and it serves as a contrast for the lifestyle someone like Sibyl Vane is used to.

 

Works Cited

Booth, Charles. “Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive).” Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive). LSE Library. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

“The Proceedings of the Old Bailey.” London History. Old Bailey Online. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New ed. Wikisource, 1891. Print.

 

The Marble Arch was put in place in 1851, after standing outside Buckingham Palace (Historical Eye).  It is a large gateway structure constructed out of Marble.  According to the Old Bailey Online, a wide variety of crimes occurred in the region ranging from the relatively benign treason and larceny to manslaughter and infanticide.  Despite the beauty and the luxury that the Marble Arch may represent, the neighborhood itself was relatively rough.  Despite the varieties of crimes taking place in the area, most residents living near the Marble Arch were upper middle class and wealthy citizens, which is fitting for such a luxurious landmark (Charles Booth Online Archive).

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the Marble Arch is referenced in a brief anecdote by Lord Henry.  He talks about “a little crowd of shabby-looking people listening to some vulgar street-preacher” (Wilde).  The preacher is a Christian ranting and raving about the consequences of the soul.  Henry considers making a snide remark to the preacher, but assuming the preacher will not understand, he does not.  This opens up a conversation between Henry and Dorian about the soul and the price of it.  Henry listens to Dorian and tells him not to grow old, ironically.

 

Wilde tries to echo the whiteness of the Marble Arch with the faces in the crowd, which he has Henry describe as a very pale white.  Wilde also uses this location to show a great degree of contrast.  Like the violent crimes occurring in a relatively wealthy neighborhood, Wilde places Lord Henry, a somewhat dilettante atheist, walking past a group of people listening to a lower class, dramatic Christian preacher.  It is placing two extremes side by side.  Also, Wilde describes the weather as relatively grey and rainy, typical ugly London weather, but he places this beautiful monument in it.  Similar to how Dorian’s soul has been placed into a grotesque painting.  The portrait and the actual Dorian are the greater context that London’s weather and the Marble Arch mirror.

 

Works Cited

 

Booth, Charles. “Booth Poverty Map (Charles Booth Online Archive).” Charles Booth Online Archive. Charles Booth Online Archive. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.

“Marble Arch and Kensington Gardens.” The Historical Eye. The Historical Eye. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.

“The Proceedings of the Old Bailey.” Old Bailey Online. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.

Wilde, Oscar. A Preface to “Dorian Gray” London: [Chapman & Hall], 1891. Print.

Berners Street plays a large role in Evelyn Sharp’s “In Dull Brown.” It appears to have been a strange little area suiting for Jean’s run in with Tom. Actually, Jean’s run in with Tom appears to mirror a similar real life event from 1779. One victim named Thomas Harris Carzey recalls a man who, “when we got to the corner of Berners-street he catched hold of me by the collar, and asked if I knew who I had been talking to” (Old Bailey Proceedings Online). Still, it differs in that this court case ended in a violent robbery, while Jean appears merely played by a cunning man. Still, much of the crime that occurred on Berners Street during this time period appeared to be cases of theft. Scrolling through The Proceedings of the Old Bailey most cases that mention Berners Street are listed as some sort of theft whether it’s grand larceny or pickpocketing. This makes it appear to be an area one may wish to avoid traveling alone and talking to strangers on.

 

Also, in Charles Booth’s notebooks, he mentions how Berners Street is a bit of a “center for music establishments” (Booth). This would make sense for certain people who are more artistically inclined such as Jean to spend time in an area like this.

 

Upon further exploration, Berners street seems like a fairly standard street. There’s the Berners’ hotel, which is not listed in most sites besides the map of London. It is close to Middlesex hospital and various entertainment establishments. It appears to be relatively standard. Looking at more modern photos, it appears to have modernized pretty standardly while maintaining aspects of the Victorian architecture, except it is much cleaner looking.

The use of Berners Street in “In Dull Brown,” appears important to show Jean’s artistic lean, but also some of the sketchy individuals that Jean encounters seem fitting for some of the crimes that occurred on Berners Street at the time.

 

 

Works Cited

Booth, Charles. “B355.” Charles Booth Online Archive. London: London School of Economics and Political Science. 80-81. Print.

Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.2, 10 September 2015), October 1779, trial of JOHN STAPLES (t17791020-13).

My name is Jimmy Crowley, and I’m a senior English major. Reading about the growth in London during this time period is fascinating. It is always difficult to fully grasp that cities are not definite, permanent things, and they need to be developed. I had spent a brief time in London a few years ago, but the London of the Victorian era appears completely different. One of the most interesting things in the reading is learning about the division of classes in geography of the city. Learning that the south was much rougher, the west was very wealthy, but the east was much more working class. Seeing that divide is not very different from how other cities like New York tend to work. It also seems the development of the train is not very different from how the invention had affected American cities. That being said, hearing the term “suburb” to describe areas of London is also a bit strange, because “suburb” seems to be a very American idea. Yet, it makes so much sense to have the same thing all over the world. It shows how important industrialization was to the development of London.