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I’ve been fascinated with Gunter’s Tea Shop lately. It now figures prominently in two of my stories. Located in Berkeley Square, it capitalized on the fashionable pastime of gentlemen taking ladies for rides in their carriages and provided one of the few places they could stop to socialize without risk to reputation. Besides, who doesn’t like ice cream and sorbet?
In my surfing, I came across a great resource for exploring Georgian (1714 to 1837) London: The Georgian Index. It’s a work in progress (and honestly what isn’t these days?) but it provides a great number of merchants and other public buildings at the time and describes many of the numerous fashionable addresses of the day. Just the place to browse when your heroine wants to go shopping and not just to generic old Bond Street or your hero needs something more than a new pair of boots from Hoby’s.
I’ve also updated my Regency Resources page with more information on vehicles and horses and maps from that period. I hope you find the information there as interesting and useful as I have.
I am fascinated by this kind of stuff, too. I don’t plan on ever writing something in an historical time period (other than my own), but I get a kick learning about clothing, transportation and customs. I guess that’s why I grew up reading historical romances–I learned more about history from reading torrid romance than in history class, lol!
Oh yeah. Stopping for an ice after the daily see and be seen in the park. I think I must have used Gunter’s too at some point because I remember it quite clearly. In fact, I’m sure I used it. Old stuff though. One day I’ll dust it off and fix it and submit it somewhere…