London is a city which has shaped its country, and shaped the world, for nearly two millennia. There’s so much to see and do there, but whenever I visit I particularly like to follow in the footsteps of the Brontë sisters – and I was lucky enough to do that earlier this year.
The Brontë sisters are most associated with Yorkshire, of course, but between them they travelled to locations including Belgium, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and London. Charlotte visited the capital many times, firstly in 1842 alongside her father and Emily Brontë en route to Brussels, and Anne visited in 1848, alongside Charlotte – in fact, Anne Brontë’s journey to London and back was the only time she ever left Yorkshire. In September 1848 Charlotte Brontë wrote to her friend Mary Taylor (affectionately known as Polly) to describe what happened after she and Anne arrived in London:
“We arrived at the Chapter Coffee House (our old place Polly, we did not well know where else to go) at around eight o’clock in the morning. We washed ourselves, had some breakfast, sat a few minutes and then set off in queer inward excitement to 65 Cornhill. Neither Mr Smith nor Mr Williams knew we were coming. They had never seen us – they did not know whether we were men or women, but had always written to us as men.”
It is this journey I recreated in the latest video on my House Of Brontë channel on YouTube. The weather turned rather severe at one point, and the total sum of technology I had was my mobile phone held in my hand, but I hope you enjoy the journey nonetheless:
I hope you can join me next week for another new Brontë blog post.