Walking along Fleet Street, London

These days, Fleet Street looks like any old street with tons of little boring shops, like banks and eye-glass stores and shops that sell newspapers and candy. If you look up, however, you can see how things used to be:

Some shops and a few pubs have stuck around, though. I took note of this pawn shop–it seems like I could possibly use this in a novel, or at least refer to it:

And then there was this old building (below), which represents a stunning missed opportunity. I took this photo because the building looked so old and there was a little alleyway to the right which just seemed ripe for dark, dangerous encounters. We noted that it said Cheshire Cheese (yuk–the husband and I don’t like cheese). And then we walked along. Well, goodness go ahead and slap us upside the head since it turns out this old pub, Ye Old Cheshire Cheese, had been around since before the great fire and “has all sorts of literary associations” like Richardson, Dickens, even Mark Twain! Curses!

Speaking of pubs for my characters, we also noted the Tippery, The Cock and Bottle (as it was called then–hehe) and The Old Bell:

Last but not least, the real quest was to find #57 Fleet Street. I thought The London Weekly needed an address and made that up because I thought it sounded good. The husband and I were actually quite excited to see what it might be! This is it:

I’m pretty sure this is newer construction, but I kind of like it. Had I been able to do more in-depth and on the spot research prior to writing my books, perhaps I would have selected another building. But then again, maybe not. Can’t you just see Knightly’s office behind those bow windows?

Any of those pub names sound like a good character hang-out?