Of course not all of the action in my books takes place in Saltbury. Hazel goes to university in London, Róisin later lives there. The Mums have a London flat and even Sofie eventually plays London gigs, so here are a few of the places that appear.

The Admiral Rodney pub, Limehouse.  This is a typical Victorian East End pub.  It is just round the corner from the tug basin and is Skipper Chantel Barham’s local.

The Aeres Rock Arena.  This is a large 15,000 capacity concert hall in Battersea that specialises in major scale Rock gigs.

The ‘Agra Lal Qila’ (Red Fort) Restaurant.  This is another of Hazel’s favourite Indian restaurants.  It has picked up the challenge to find the Vindaloo too spicy even for her, but so far without sucess.

The motor-tug ‘Anne Lister’.  Not really a place, but Chantel Barham spends more time aboard than virtually everywhere else.  She is both owner and skipper and the ‘Anne’ is a powerful, fairly modern, twin engine diesel river tug, which Chantel mostly uses to tow strings of barges up-river into the city from the new deep water docks down on the estuary.  Chantel treats the thing almost as her child and does most of her own maintenance.

The ‘Bird in the Bush’, Enfield.  Another small Rock venue where ‘Fauld’ become regulars.  The dreaded Fiona Capnall turns up regularly, trying to get Rachel back, especially once she and Hazel have split.

Brentside Recording Studios.   Shepherds Bush,  This is the recording studio ‘Xeroed’ generally liked, until years later, when they came to prefer Old Hall studios, near Saltbury.  It’s not far from Abbey Road, where the Beatles recorded.

Bromsgrove Park, Brentford.  Penny Clearwater chose this as the neutral place to meet her mother after their long enforced separation.  It has a pretty lake with benches round it.

Bridewell’s Supermarket.  This is where Ruth Gregory (later Guptah) works when we meet her in 1976 at a time when she was still dreaming of the Rock stardom she eventually achieves.

The ‘Coal Man’ pub, Mile End.  This is a pub with regular live music nights.  ‘Lex Fem’ were regulars and ‘Fauld’ rapidly become so.  It is run by married couple, Lambert and Irene Popperwell.  Irene is the dominant character of the pair, despite her severe alcoholism.

3 Coppersmith Row, Beckenham.  This is the much larger house that Roisin and Rachel buy once their first child is born.  It is quite the little palace, and very close to Annie’s parents’ house.  Haze is astonished they can afford it.

17 Diurnal Street, Debtford.  This slightly oddly named property is the student home of Brenda George (Weird Brenda).  It is a typical high=end Victorian terrace which would once have been home to a prosperous family with servants, but is now divided into student accommodation, with shared kitchen and bathroom.  And yes the spelling mistake is deliberate.

‘Drinx’.  This is a rather trying-too-hard trendy wine bar just up the street from ‘Faulds Fashions’ in Cauldyne Street.  Haze occasionally goes there with Roisin.

The ‘Drummerdary’ pub, Kilburn.  Another pub with regular live Rock nights and Fauld were booked to play there once. Hazel looks forward to it, being the drummer, however, owner Reggie Trimpton proves unable/willing to keep his hands to himself and the band refuse ever to play there again. Not before Rachel’s knee comes into contact with Reggie’s important little place, though.

43 Etruria Street, Whitechapel,  This is Chantel Barham’s house, and her parents’ before her.  It is a typical Victorian terraced house: three up and three down.

‘Faulds Fashions’, 3 Cauldyne Street, London, W1S.  This is the fashion house founded by Martine Fauld and her two business partners, Penny and Hazel Clearwater.  Despite the name it is an equal partnership.  The founders just thought that ‘Faulds’ made a good pun on ‘folds’.  The three have build a global brand which now occupies a prestigious West End property (a bit like New Bond St, above) with it’s own in-house design and photographic studios.

Gerald’s Wine Bar.  Was a popular bar near Queen Ann’s University in the 1970s.  Martine and Hazel the older first meet Penny’s mother Cynthia here.

46 Girton Street, Whitechapel.  By the time of ‘Wyeburn Station’, this is Weird Brenda’s house and studio.  It’s every bit as much a mess as her old student bed sit.

The Gordon Street Swimming Baths, Tower Hamlets, London.  Ruth and Aleyse love swimming here.  They actually became a couple when Ruth was recovering from an accident here.

The ‘Goth Queen Victoria’, Acton Vale.  This is a theme pub, formerly called simply the Queen Victoria.  It has what looks at first sight like a traditional pub sign, but showing, as the name suggests, Queen Victoria in Goth dress and make-up.  It’s a Goth pub which has regular live music.  Fauld play there sometimes.

Greenwald Park, Southwark.  The finish line is here for a half marathon that Carol enters.  Tina and Haze go to watch her.

The ‘Highwayman Inn’,  Queen Ann’s Green, London.  This is a pub near Hazel’s university, much frequented by students, and which hosts live Rock gigs.  Hazel and Aimee love it and ‘Fauld’ later play there regularly.

The Iolanthe Theatre, Rehearsal Centre, Shadwell.  This is an old theatre now used as a rehearsal centre, largely by large touring Rock bands who need to perfect and rehearse with large light shows, etc.  ‘Xeroed’ use it.

The ‘Jack Sprat’, Fulham,  is a rather artsy live Rock club with decor to make it look like the set of a pre-school age children’s TV show: ‘all primary colours and blockiness’.  The place tends to go more for the avant-guard jazzy end of Rock, but they book ‘Fauld’ because of Roisin’s growing fame as a model.  As Haze puts it, rather cynically: ‘a near supermodel is a near supermodel, so who cared what she played.  How’s that for feminist thinking?’

Jacques’.  This was an attempt at a trendy cafe in Docklands in the mid 1960s.  A late teenaged Chantel Barham was a regular, mostly so she could see her first girlfriend Janet, who was a waitress there.

The Karachi Restaurant.  This is a glorious and long established Indian restaurant a couple of streets from the Fauld’s flat in Wapping, owned and run by Mr. Khan, who knows the Faulds of old.  Deb has been going there since she first moved into the area with Nicky in her teens.  She still goes at every chance and so does Hazel who has loved it since she was little more than an infant.  She says her taste buds didn’t get the memo that small children aren’t supposed to like strong spicy flavours.  Roisin once bet Mr. Khan that he couldn’t make a curry too hot for Hazel to eat.  He lost the bet.

Limehouse Tug Basin.  This a dock basin on the edge of Docklands proper, reached via a lock from the Thames.  Chantel Barham moors her tug the ‘Anne Lister’ here.

15 Oldburn Close, Brentford.  This is a modern semi-detached house, convenient for the M4 Motorway and the Tube where Roisin Fauld and her husband Colin set up home when they first move to London.

16 Opal Gardens, Hackney.  The is Jilly Evans’ house, formerly with her husband, Josh Oakham.  It is a large three story terraced town house, with a professional standard recording studio in the basement.

9 Park Way, Beckenham.  (Annie’s house)  This is a large 1930s mock Tudor house in a knot of similar prestige properties.  It belongs to the engineering firm that Crystal and Barry Roberts work for and is used to house senior staff who are assigned to the area.  Annie lives there when the family get back from their mission in Los Angeles.

14 Parsonage Green, Brentford.  This is Penny Clearwater’s deeply unhappy childhood home, where her grandmother beat her.  Her best friend at the time, Jasmine, lived at No’ 6.

Pete Burrows Music.  Birrens Muse, Hackney. This is a really top flight guitar etc shop near Jilly Evans’ house, owned and run by the eponymous Pete.  Debbie Stewart comes to love the place, becoming a regular customer and Pete always makes a special fuss of her.

The Prince Hal.  This is a pub in the Beckenham district of South London which Hazel and Annie discover on one of the set walks Annie is supposed to do after her discharge from hospital with heart trouble.  It is run by a distinctly grandmotherly figure, Vera Oats. who retains a broad East London accent despite her pub’s location in a posh suburb.  They have live bands on occasionally and Hazel talks her into giving Fauld a try, largely on the strength of her model sister’s sex appeal.

Queen Anne’s University, Ealing, London W5.  This is a newish university, founded in the great rush of new institutions founded in the 1960s.  It specialises in sciences, and applied arts areas such as design.  Martine, Penny and Hazel (snr) were there in the late 1970s to study fashion design and production.  Carol Baxter did Sports Science here in the 1990s, while her girlfriend Loren did PPE.  Later Hazel Fauld, Aimee and Michelle did fashion and industrial design in the 2000s.  It is very concrete and glass, but has a good reputation.  It has superb sports facilities.  Many of the students live in halls of residence, which tend to be named after saints.  Penny and Hazel were in St Hildegard’s Hall.  Carol and Loren were in St Bernadette’s Hall, as, ten years later, was Aimee.  Hazel’s first male one night stand, Paul, was in St. Quentin’s Hall, while her second, Baz, was in St. Bertram’s Hall.

The ‘Rigger’ pub, Bermondsey.  This is a rather nice pub/restaurant near London Bridge railway station.  Haze met Crystal here for coffee when Crystal wanted to explain why Annie suddenly turned on her.

The ‘Ring o’ Bells’ pub,  Kilburn, London NW6.  Another pub that has regular gig nights.  Haze plays her first proper London gig here when she sits in as drummer for ‘Lex Fem’.

The ‘Rock Hole’.  This is a cellar Rock venue in London a bit like ‘Cheapies’ in Saltbury.  It can take several hundred people so is a bit more of a prestige booking for bands starting out than the usual pub gigs.  ‘Fauld’ first play there as support act for an arrogant male trio called ‘Badinage’ and manage to show them up.

The Roundel Gallery.  Chelsea.   Is a small commercial art gallery which has frequent two to three week exhibitions.  Debbie first sees Philip Mancetto’s work here and meets the photographer himself.

St. Quentin’s Hospital, Clapham.  This is the hospital where Annie finally recovered her identity over two years after being poisoned.  Later she almost died there after her heart stopped.

The Saltair Hotel.  The British Olympic team stay here on getting back from the 2008 Hobart Olympics.

Sappho’s Nightclub.  Tunstall Street, Whitechapel, London E1.  This is outwardly a rather scruffy cellar dive in an East End back street.  However it is much treasured by its devoted clientele.  It is that rare thing, a dedicated lesbian club.  Oddly it was never founded with that in mind.  It gives the impression of having been there for ever, and it has certainly existed since the 1960s, but it was meant to be just a night club and dance venue, but somehow, lesbians were what came and the more they did, the more its reputation grew and so the more lesbians came.  It has never actually declared itself to be a lesbian club even now.  All are welcome of whatever gender and sexuality, but lesbians are still what come.  In the early 1990s the original owner went bankrupt and the regulars were heartbroken, thinking their beloved club was going to close, but it was bought up by Debbie Stewart’s friends and fellow Rock stars, Aleyse and Ruth Guptah who were rather more entrepreneurial and it now goes from strength to strength, operating a cafe in the day time as well as the club at night.

Flat 9, Shinwell Building, Tower Hamlets.  This was Ruth Gregory’s home when we meet her in 1976.  She originally moved in with her girlfriend, Elaine, then when they split up, Aleyse Guptah moved in.  It is a 1960 five storey block of flats.

The ‘Sia Kangri’ Restaurant, Bermondsey.   This is a distinctly better than average Indian restaurant that Hazel comes to love.  It is very close to the ‘Rock Hole’ and when ‘Fauld’ play the venue, Aimee hits on a deal with the restaurant that if Roisin gives them an enthusiastic plug from the stage, they will send over free food.  They are very generous with the quantities, and all tax free!

Snape’s Solicitors, Brentford.  Beatrice Snape was the solicitor to Penny Clearwater’s grandmother, Lillian, and later became Penny’s in turn.

The ‘Two Sisters’.  is a pub that has live music.  ‘Fauld play there sometimes and love the quasi pun given they are a band led by two sisters.

Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets.  Deb likes to walk here to eat lunch beside the lake when recording or rehearsing in Jilly Evans’ home studio.

The ‘Warehouse’ flat, Wapping.  The flat is part of the former Dittington’s building, a riverside cargo warehouse.  Chantel Barham and her father used to bring cargoes for them on the Thames.  In the 1970s the firm moved to a much larger property down-river.  The top floor was converted into a flat, with a former storage space now an over sized living room and a line of offices at the south end converted into a kitchen bathroom and bedrooms, all of which have wonderful views over the river.  Locals thought it was a white elephant that would never sell, but Rock stars Debbie Stewart and Nicky Halton-Smith saw the potential. They thought the big living room would make a good rehearsal space.    They also bought the ground floor which remained in effect a warehouse and ‘Xeroed’ and ‘Aleyse’ still store all their tour PA and lighting gear here.  These days Hazel Fauld lives in the flat and ‘Fauld’ rehearse there. It has the great advantage, despite being in central London, of having no near neighbours, so there is no-one to complain about noise.  The flat still has its own jetty, although Martine fenced it off when a young Roisin fell off it. The flat is reached by a tall flight of stairs, from a street door. It has a very advanced security system to protect the gear in the warehouse.