We’re coming up on our last stop of our Amy Levy Literary London Tour! Across from Baker’s Street, you’ll see the beautiful Regent’s Park with its lakes, gardens, theater, zoo, cricket fields, and, of course, the beautiful Sussex Place estate. The infamous King Henry VIII hunted the woods once called Marylebone Park that were here before being converted into farmland after the British Civil War. In 1811, Prince Regent, more commonly known as King George IV, envisioned creating a summer palace and a park for royalty and aristocrats to drink tea and gossip. King George hired John Nash, a famous architect at the time, to design the park and its residencies. King George did not know when he hired Nash that the architect would be so bad at budgeting. Although King George’s summer palace was never built, the gorgeous Sussex Place fit into the budget and became a sought-after place to live for ladies and lords (royalparks.org.uk).
Sussex Place, named after the Duke of Sussex, was first established as one of the eight residential estates within Regent’s Park. Those of you who have read Amy Levy’s The Romance of a Shop will remember Sussex Place as where Lord Watergate and eventually Gertrude reside. Here you can see what Gertrude first noted about the estate: “the white curve of houses with the columns, the cupolas, and the railed-in space of garden which fronted the Park” (Levy, ch. 5). For all of you architecture enthusiasts, the columns are inspired by Roman Corinthian columns, and the cupolas are the domed structures making up the roof of parts of Sussex Place (National Heritage List for England, Oxford English Dictionary). Gertrude knew of Sussex Place and that the rich Lord Watergate lived there before going to the villa, establishing that it was already a well-to-do, somewhat famous structure by 1888. At first, residents of Sussex Place and surrounding villas were the only people who could access Regent’s Park. In 1835, however, the park became open to the public, allowing common people like Lucy, Gertrude, and Frank to pass through on their way to the photography studio or lunch at Sussex Place with Lord Watergate (Levy, ch. 14).
A lot has changed since 1888 when the book was published, however; as of the 1960s, Sussex Place is the London Graduate School of Business, and in 1970 it was listed as an official historic building, protecting it from destruction or dramatic renovation (historicengland.org.uk). Hopefully, they have replaced the “shabby furniture” that Aunt Caroline judged so harshly in the epilogue of The Romance of a Shop (Levy)!
This completes our tour of the central London locations where your favorite characters from The Romance of a Shop spend their days. Thank you for joining us!
“1 To 26 Sussex Place London Graduate School of Business Studies, Non Civil Parish - 1264092: Historic England.” National Heritage List for England. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1264092?secti.... Accessed 22 Sep. 2022.
“Cupola” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2022, https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/45903?isAdvanced=false&result=1&rskey=JdS.... Accessed 22 Sep. 2022.
Google Earth, Google, https://earth.google.com/web/.
“John Nash.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 1 Jan. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/John-Nash-British-architect.
“Landscape History.” The Royal Parks, https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/the-regents-park/about-regents-park/.... Accessed 22 Sep. 2022.
Levy, Amy. The Romance of a Shop. The Algonquin Press, 1889
“Sussex Place, Regent’s Park, London, UK, Illustration by Th. H. Shepherd, 1826 Stock Photo.” Alamy, www.alamy.com/sussex-place-regents-park-london-uk-illustration-by-th-h-…. Accessed 25 Feb. 2024.
“The Regent’s Park.” British History Online, www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol5/pp262-286. Accessed 25 Feb. 2024.