“Nathaniel Tate clambered down from the Colchester Thunder and put his hands in the small of his back. After a thirty-mile journey over unmade roads there wasn’t a part of his six-foot frame that didn’t ache.  Outside the Golden Lion Inn at the east end of Romford High Street, two ostlers coaxed and cajoled the sweating horses out from between the shafts while another two brought a fresh team from the stables.”

Romford was on the main coach road from Colchester and Chelmsford to London and the coaches would run right though the High Streets and through market. This is the Golden Lion the coaching inn at the bottom end of the town. Although by the time Nathaniel got back to Romford there was a train connection to London the coach was cheaper especial if you tipped the driver and jumped on down the road away to avoid pay the full fair.

“The aged attendant had been sexton for as long as most could remember. He would rest on his shovel as Nathaniel and his fellow pupils from St Edward’s school marched past every Wednesday for the midweek service.”

This old Tudor building would have housed St Edward’s school would have been held when Nathaniel attended. I made him a pupil of the historic Church school in Romford because my daughters went.

“However, a small fly hovered over the day’s ointment. Cecily was adamant that she wanted gas installed throughout the house plus the parlour and dining room redecorated, which was putting a considerable strain on his pocket.”

I used these houses on Mile End Road as the model for Amos and Cecily Stebbins’s home. As you can see they are Regency and thankfully have survived Hitler and 1970s redevelopment. They would have been occupied by well-to-do merchants and businessmen as the docks and the city are only a 30 minute walk away.

“By the time Josie nudged open the parlour door with her hip and carried the tea tray in, the children had already emptied half the toy box and were deeply involved in a made-up game while Mattie was busy chatting to her mother, who was sitting in her usual chair by the fire with her knitting already in her hands.”

I found this reconstruction of a mid-victoria parlour behind a sweet shop in Gurney. For those of you who met Josie and Patrick in my previous book, A Glimpse at Happiness, you will see that they have prospered since we last met them.  It isn’t high Victorian yet with heavy light fittings and china ornaments, but they have a few luxuries like wallpaper and pictures.

“Mattie’s thoughts turned to her appointment at Morris’s. No matter how she added the bills and subtracted them from her earnings it was clear that Maguire’s Coal Yard was only just scraping by.  If she wanted to ensure that her son would never have to wait in line for a mean-hearted foreman to pick him out, she had to persuade Mr Morris to give her the discount that other yards in the area enjoyed.  If she couldn’t, Mattie wondered how much longer she’d be able to stay in business.”

This is Cannon Street Road where I set Maguire & Sons coal yard. It is around the corner from St George’s church and The Highway. Coal was the petrol of the Victorian age. Every home needed it for heating and cooking and a yard like Mattie’s would be fully employed meeting the demand. Wagons, like the ones below, would have been seen rolling through the streets each day.

"Mattie yawned as she opened the back gate and walked into the coal yard from the house. Three of the four wagons were already loaded, with the drivers at various stages of harnessing the horses. They stood patiently as their leathers were secured and in the early morning chill their breath billowed out from their nostrils. Every now and then the crack of a large hoof on the yard cobbles would echo around. Flossy, Brian’s old horse, nudged at the canvas nosebags with her muzzle as they stood ready to be secured over her whiskery lips."

"Kate’s eyes opened even wider. ‘Freddie, are you...’ She put her hand on his bare arm.

Freddie screwed his face up into a forlornly expression. ‘Forgive me, Kate, I shouldn’t try to rush you. I respect you too much. Could I walk you out one night? I mean to somewhere respectable like Lusby’s. There’s an acrobat from Arabia and a clown with a little dog doing a turn on Friday.’"

This isn’t Lushby’s that’s long gone to make way for the ABC cinema on Mile End Road, no this is Wilton’s Music Hall off of Ensign Street. It has survived by chance and now money is being raised to restore it.

In truth when Freddie cajoled Kate into going to the local flea-pit with him Music Halls, as we know them now, did not exist and places like Lushby’s and Garrett’s in Leman Street  who put on nightly acts were more luck the riotous penny gaffs described by Henry Mathews’ London Labour and London Poor.

‘I’ll be back in a while, Queenie, and we’ll go to Watney Street to get a bit of something for tea,’ Mattie said, setting her bonnet on squarely and tying the ribbon to one side.

‘Perhaps we can find ourselves a nice bit of fish,’ Queenie replied, throwing another piece of washing in the rinsing bucket. ‘You know how Brian likes a bit of poached haddock.’

As in Mattie’s day Watney Street is a main shopping area and it still has with a market. The top image is looking towards Commercial Road and the lower one is looking under the Docklands light railway. The arches that carry London’s newest rail system actual were built for one of the oldest ones and first carried the London and Blackwall Railway. This opened in 1836 and was operated by a rope haulage system.

“Sergeant Bell led Mattie back to the charge room. He opened a leather-bound register atop a tall desk, flipped over a couple of pages and beckoned her over. ‘Make your mark here,’ he said, pointing at a clear line on the page.

Mattie signed her name.

Bell snapped the book shut. ‘Follow me.’”

Wapping Police station is the place where the present day system of police was born in 1798 by two magistrates, Patrick Colquhoun and John Harriott. It was set up to reduce the theft of cargo from the river and was so successful that in 1800 the government passed the Marine Police Bill and took control of it.

Although the old cells beneath Wapping Police station have been replaced by new one this is an original charge desk which is still in situ in the old police station’s boat workroom, which now houses the River Police Museum.