Wednesday 29 August 2018

Following Peter Grant's Trail

Ben Aaronovitch uses a lot of real locations in his Rivers of London series, about wizard policeman Peter Grant, so we had a lot of fun tracking down some of them, mostly from Moon Over Soho.
The first murder in Moon Over Soho took place here:


This is on Cambridge Circus, and the theatre showing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is just next door.
And while we were in the Soho area, we also had to try to find the entrance to the Mysterioso club, a basement bar on Bateman Street, which we think may be under a Japanese restaurant.

We also had to stop at Patisserie Valerie to sit at the Peter Grant table and eat cake. The scene is on page 93 of Moon Over Soho:
"Simone grabbed my hand and practically dragged me inside, where the display cases glowed in the afternoon light.... [she] had a favourite table by the stairs, just the other side of the cake displays. From there, she pointed out, you could watch people coming and going and keep an eye on the cakes - just in case they tried to make a run for it....I wondered if I was being seduced or driven into a diabetic coma."
Like Peter, I had the chocolate cake with cream and more chocolate. It was, as Simone would say, scrumptious. The Young Man has to be more careful about his diet these days, and had something savoury.

We also went to Russell Square to try to find the Folly, where Peter and his boss Nightingale (not forgetting Molly the scary maid and Toby the dog) live. This was our best guess for the Folly's front door, though I think most of this row is actually owned by the British Museum:


And while we were walking round Russell Square, we found the perfect place for lunch:


This is the Little Green Hut, built to serve the hackney cab drivers who had a taxi rank there, and now open to the general public. We had delicious rolls so full of Cumberland sausage, bacon and egg that my nose was bumping on the fried egg every time I bit into it!
There were some trailers parked along one side of the square too, belonging to Monumental Films, who were filming there - but we didn't see anyone famous!

Covent Garden is another site we visited - in the first book, Peter Grant is guarding a murder site just by the church when he finds himself taking a witness statement from a ghost. The Punch and Judy pub is just opposite.

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