Kensington Gardens are home to Kensington Palace, where Queen Victoria was born and lived until she became queen. The Gardens were opened to the public in 1841 and are now among the Royal Parks of London. The Gardens are in west-central London, just west of Hyde Park.
"The Victoria Memorial is a monument to Queen Victoria, located at the end of The Mall in London... Designed in 1901, it was unveiled on 16 May 1911, though it was not completed until 1924." (Wikipedia)
Admiralty Arch is a landmark building in London providing road and pedestrian access between The Mall, which extends to the southwest, and Trafalgar Square to the northeast.
The University of Oxford is the oldest univeristy in the English-speaking world, and considered one of the most prestigious. October 1920 is when women first became fully eligible to take degrees from Oxford as full members of the university. In Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street" (1923), one of her friends attended Oxford: "dear old Hugh, thought Mrs Dalloway, remembering with amusement, with gratitude, with emotion, how shy, like a brother—one would rather die than speak to one's brother—Hugh had always been, when he was at Oxford, and came over...".
The City of Westminster is a city and borough in London. The Houses of Parliament as well as many other governmental buildings and famous landmarks are in Westminster. It is the main setting for Virginia Woolf's short story, "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street" (1923).
Big Ben is London's famous clock tower. Technically Big Ben is the nickname for the bell specifically, not the tower itself. It was completed in 1859.
In Virginia Woolf's short story, "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street" (1923), Big Ben is repeatedly referenced and helps mark the passage of time as Mrs. Dalloway goes about her day, but at the same time it marks a sort of somber or ominous reality, perhaps reflecting the theme of mortality that is introduced by references to the lives lost in WWI.
