It involves the Order of the Golden Dawn, and I knew that they met at what is now the Horniman Museum, back in 1896. So that was the first place to look at.
And it just shows the value of going to the places you're researching, because the original villa no longer exists. The original Museum was opened in 1890, but the collection continued to grow, so in 1898 a new Museum was built on the site of the house in Forest Hill, which opened in 1901. There are also extensive gardens - a Farmer's Market was taking place by the bandstand when we were there - and the museum has had various extensions over the years.
Here's the mosaic over the original entrance (the Young Man remembers going in that way as a child) and the bandstand, which has a fine view over the city.
So we had fun looking round the free exhibitions - the music gallery underground is absolutely brilliant, crammed with all sorts of instruments from all around the world, including experimental instruments like a harmonica/flute. We also said hello to the walrus, in the middle of the natural history gallery, which is famous enough to appear in a mural under a bridge near the station.
I'm going to have to use my imagination for the scenes in my story that take place at the Horniman residence, though, since the house no longer exists.
The Horniman family were tea merchants, as shown on a brick frieze further down the hill:
It's quite long, and seems to show scenes related to local history.
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