Hello Everyone!
It is I, your friendly neighborhood dramaturg. I now have the ability to post on the Rorschach Neverwhere Pinterest Board, so please send me what you would like me to pin and a description of what it evokes for you. I know many of you have started boards of your own so you can link me to those and I can pin either the entire board, or certain pins that you feel are appropriate for the whole group.
I will also start sending you information I think you might find useful! Those with images, I will pin as well, but I will also e-mail you the items I think are particularly interesting. To start off with, I have attached the map of the London underground from my copy of the novel Neverwhere. It includes the dates of when certain stations opened, closed, and reopened. I have highlighted the stations mentioned in the book in yellow, and put a green dot next to the ones that were still closed when this book was published.
Speaking of the closed stations in the London Underground, here is a fantastic article from Io9 about abandoned subway stations, including a video that takes you into the abandoned Strand station in London (which has been privatized since the last time I watched it, but there are pictures!). They talked about how each closed station is frozen in time the moment they are closed, decorated and littered with ephemera from that specific decade. Little bubbles of time below London.
Also, here is a timeline of the history of London. It is fascinating to see how many different cultures lived there, how many times it was built up and raised to the ground through invasion, fire or plague. If you want further information about a particular time period, please let me know.
If you have any questions, any secrets you wish me to uncover, any paths you wish me to take, any depths you wish me to delve, please let me know! What character names mean, the history of how the Fleet ditch became Fleet Street which had sewers into which the man that inspired Sweeney Todd threw bodies, (speaking of I could find out where all the plague victims are buried), or the archetype of your character and what that might mean for the story, etc.
I am here to give you information, and you are welcome to use or not use it as you see fit.
Thanks!
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And because I am a huge nerd and got excited at the idea, here is a history of the River Fleet/ the Fleet Ditch/ Fleet Street/ the sewer. How a once great and vibrant river turned rotten and was consumed by the bowels of London. Lots of great pictures and this phrase caught my interest: "Even today there are stories of wild pigs living on its hidden shores."
That warrents further investigation.