Cole's London: Then and Now
Insight into the London of Adam Cole, as it was then and how it is now….
In these short articles, readers will learn about small details that pop up within the short stories and novels of Adam Cole. Unlike the parallel articles available under Notes on Victoriana which give a broader overview of the Victorian Era, these vignettes are geared specifically toward the places and things Cole visits or experiences, and their impact on his time and ours. Certain spots he wanders into within the Nineteenth Century settings of the stories often still exist, and visitors to London can use some of these write-ups as guides to see things as they were versus how they are now.
Each new article will be released on an unfixed schedule, often coinciding with a specific reference within the newest story or chapter release. Hopefully they will give the reader deeper insight into Cole’s world: a London long gone, but not so different from the London of today.
So please subscribe to read each new weekly chapter in the life of private investigator Adam Cole, and keep an eye out for every new look into Cole’s London. Return to this page, as new releases will be updated below as they come out!
Cole's London - 001
In Chapter VII of Sweet Things Dying, private enquiry agent Adam Cole continues his search for the missing Heather Bloom by tracking down a hansom cab driver who may have been one of the last men to see her. This takes him to one of London’s many cabmen’s shelters, resting places for cab drivers to warm their bones over a meal and an alcohol-free beverage. These shelters also offered reading material in the way of books, newspapers, and magazines for drivers to peruse in lieu of the more raucous past-times offered at local pubs. Cole’s visit to one such shelter occurs in December 1887, around the time that a popular magazine published its annual Christmas edition. This issue of
Cole's London - 002
In Chapter VIII of Sweet Things Dying, Adam Cole is on the job, tailing his quarry through the streets of Spitalfields to one of its most prominent and recent landmarks, the Spitalfields Market. While the large structure of the covered market was new in 1887 (and would continue to be constructed through 1893), the basic market itself was a l…
Cole's London -- 003
In the stories that appear on The Casebook of Adam Cole, the title character is a jobbing private investigator, or “private enquiry agent” as they were often known in the Victorian-setting they inhabit. Most of his cases are handed to him through the legal chambers of Mr. Edward Sacker, a solicitor in Middle Temple Lane, located down a vault…