Charring Cross, within the Central estate of the Earls court is the official centre of London from where all distances to other cities are measured.
KENSINGTON
GREEN PARK
REGENTS PARK
ST JAMES PARK
BLACKFRIARS
COVENT GARDEN
THE TEMPLE
The Temple consists of a series of buildings associated with the legal profession that lay between Fleet Street and the Embankment in the City of London and is mainly divided into the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, two of the four Inns of Court, which are controlled by their respective barristers' societies. To the northwest, in the City of Westminster, are the Royal Courts of Justice, while in Holborn (Camden borough) are the two other Inns of Court; Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn. Each section of The Temple-Inner and Middle-has its own halls, gardens, courts, and library collections, but the Temple Church (1185) is held in common by both.
The complex of buildings is named for the Knights Templar, a medieval religious and military order for whom London is a major capitol (along with Edinburgh and Glastonbury), and whose descendants still own the property. The Temple Church on the site dates to the late 12th century, though it has often been restored. Within its crypt the Templars carried out their secret initiation ceremonies and Chorister Mages continue to conduct thier Occult rites. With the suppression of the Templars in the 14th century, the Prieuré de Sion arranged for another of their offshoots, the Knights of Malta, to obtain control of the property. Law professors subsequently began to rent a portion of the space, and in the early 17th century James I, himself a member of the Prieuré de Sion sponsored Freemasons, granted control of the complex to their societies. The dominance of this Occult society over British law and thus the majority of western law from America to Africa has led to the Christian bias in Court rulings, the so called Victorian values that judge violations against human life and human rights as less deserving of punishment than crimes against property.
The Templars power within the city is well respected, the core of the Organisation, the Prieuré de Sion, are powerful Christian Mages with their tentacles of power wrapped around every throne in the Western world. For centuries the Templars have upheld an alliance with both the Tremere and the Toreador Vampire Clans in England, and while the Toreador have not extended this coalition beyond the Scottish borders, the Tremere of London play this ace for all it is worth. The Library within the Temple is perhaps the largest resource the Undead have on the Fae nations and members of the Wyck would sorely like to prevent the Celestial chorus from sharing it with such dangerous foe. (A full write up for the Templars can be found here).
The Territory once designated as belonging to house Dougal was never contested after the resurgence, the Sidhe in question simply make no claim upon their return. Nobody is quite certain why this should be but suspected reason include the high level of vampiric presence, a general disinterest in matters politic, orders from their Gwydion masters and rumours of something altogether more terrifying. The estate has long been the source of incredible rumours and those scholars of Gate myths remember that the Aldgate was once the focus of similar tales. Rumoured to connect not only with the furthest Dreaming, but to have once allowed Angels and Demons access to the world, the Gate features in the most fantastical tales of Chimerical beasties.
SLIMELIGHTS: Vampire central
ANGEL
LIVERPOOL STREET
BARBICAN
STRATFORD
ALDGATE
The Buttery Spirit
At the end of the nineteenth century there were 10,000 cottage industry companies producing sweets of variegated colour and taste, from toffees to Humbugs, cough candy to liquorish sticks in the UK. Across the length and breadth of Britain, small cosy shops, usually owned by rosy cheeked and elderly couples, sold these candies to the sweet-toothed public. These establishments slowly disappeared in the face of franchised stores, and supermarkets or became newsagents and tobacconists in order to weather the harsher times. Not far from Old Street, in the Central East estate, a small glass fronted shop still sells sweets in the traditional way, from jars and weighed on antique scales. The owner of this little piece of childhood innocence is the Boggan Madame Pontefract.
Madame Pontefract and her Dreamers spend hours creating the sweets in the traditional ways and then cutting them up for sale, producing huge quantities by dint of the Boggans Birthright and old family recipes. The shop window displays are an art form in themselves and with a tiny dusting of Glamour can inspire bittersweet memories of a better time in passers-by. Madame Pontefract has even been known to create tokens of enchantment to mix in with the assorted sweets when the need arises. Freebies for overly anal civil servants and pick me ups for those with a despondent aura.
She also has a wide selection of customers who come back time and time again for the sugary delights and the unhurried atmosphere of her shop. Many of her regulars hold important and influential jobs, and they find it easy to unburden themselves of their daily stress to this motherly and sympathetic ear of Madame Pontefract. Her Eavesdropping ability has served her well and she has often arrived at the Fionna court to impart snippets of Gossips to Lady Evelynn and to pass out sweets for the Childlings. If Madame Pontefract ever asks for payment for this well timed intelligence, it appears to be aid for the waifs and strays that seem to drift into her shop and tug at her heartstrings with their tales of woe.
