BOROUGH OF COINS

District of Inns

The King in Flames
This chimerical statue commemorates the last king of Albion, Dallin Cynefrid, who perished in combat against the solimond of the Great Fire. It depicts the great troll with an upraised axe, while a serpent of flame continually twines around his body.

District of Gaols

River Fleet
This tributary of the Thames was originally used for transporting goods further inland to the towns north of London. Over the centuries, three prisons were built along is path (giving the District of Gaols its name), and the waterway became a dumping ground for refuse, waste, and even corpses, which corrupted the ondine into a twisted, hideously Krofted being. Attempts to clean the waters up following the Great Fire of 1666 failed, and the area continued to draw nightmares, wraiths, nervosa, and the worst of the city's Unseelie fae. In later centuries the river was buried, one stretch at a time, so that now its entire length has been hidden underground. Its terminus is somewhere in the vicinity of Blackfriars Bridge.

Charnel House
Heavy rainfall used to flood this basement tavern with the noisome waters of the River Fleet, but when it was dry (as dry as it ever got), it was a gathering-place for the worst criminals, mortal and fae, in the City, wherein they could drink and consume food that even redcaps chose not to question. The establishment went out of business in the late nineteenth century, which was generally considered to be a relief.

District of Meats

Bacchanal Fields
The open greenery of Smithfield outside the city walls long served a mortal purpose for executions livestock pens, jousts, and other such events, but every full moon, the fae gathered for nighttime revels that drew visitors from miles around. The expansion of the City during the nineteenth century finally overran the last vestiges of this tradition and the space it occupied.

Bartholomew Fair
This annual August gathering on the western side of the city drew together mortals and fae alike. Originally a two-day festival honoring St. Bartholomew, by the eighteenth century it had grown into one of the grandest spectacles Europe had to offer, a fortnight-long spectacle of sideshows, prize-fighters, musicians, wire-walkers, acrobats, puppets, freaks, wild animals, and more. Though the more temperate mortal residents of the City decried its excesses, most found it to be a welcome outlet of revelry.

District of Books

Cinderwall
The district freehold for Books, founded in 1400 by the Scathach Starr Rowan, and destroyed in 1666 by the Great Fire. Hearthstone owners included Lady Vivata Arcanorum, Lord Ifarren Vidar, and Lady Vivienne Melita.

St. Paul's Cathedral (Trollwatch Cathedral)
The warped imaginations of the craftsmen who decorated the cathedrals of Europe once gave rise to hosts of gargoyle chimera who flocked to this location. Rumours spread in the fifteenth century birthed stories that Philip Tallaxe, the "Troll Who Waited," stood on the cathedral's spire to await the return of the sidhe following the Shattering, but these are false. Lightning destroyed that spire in 1561, and in 1666 the Great Fire damaged St. Paul's badly enough that it was rebuilt by the architect Sir Christopher Wren in a radically different style; the new cathedral is often considered a monument to mathematics as well as religion, and the chimera disapprove mightily of its gargoyle-less facade. The nickname "Trollwatch Cathedral" has stuck even though the spire featured in the story is gone. In recent years, encroaching Banality has struck hard at the gargoyle chimera, thinning their numbers considerably.

The Library of Albion
Founded during the medieval period in conjunction with mortal mystics and scholars, but destroyed during the Great Fire of 1666, the Library of Albion was a collection unparalleled anywhere in the Isles. The central room of the Library contained the general collection, under the watchful eye of a stained-glass window of the Spirit of Albion. Three rooms to one side were dedicated to the fae trivium (kenning, Arts, and gremayre), while four to the other were dedicated to the quadrivium (oaths, inspiration, questing, and divination). Each of these contained a stained-glass window of one of the seven sacred trees. Further underground chambers held the closed collections; to gain access to these, fae petitionedd the Library's caretaker. The Library was guarded by fierce eagle chimera, and its collections maintained by chimerical bookworms, who were carried to safety during the fire by several local fae. A trod to the Library of Morbon had an entrance through the Spirit of Albion window.

Caretakers of the library over the centuries included: the kinain Edward d'Alencon, Lady Muriel Neassa ap Beaumayn, Vivata Arcanorum, Jaime Ellair ap Scathach, and Bridie Lindserney.

District of Friars

Dripping Hearth
The district freehold for Friars, founded in 1400 by the troll Dællin Cynefrð and destroyed in 1666 by the Great Fire. Hearthstone owners included Chelle Au-Dessous, Dame Madlyn Digleish, and Clang-Tom Wodgerman. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it also served as the local Bes Din headquarters.

Chapter-House of the Honorable Order of Arcadians
When the power and influence of the Order declined in the fifteenth century, the original chapter-house in Graves was abandoned, and the remaining members of the Order moved to a location in the District of Friars, under the leadership of the troll Sir Filus, called the Gate-seeker.

District of Moots

Rose House
The district freehold for Moots, founded in 1400 by the boggan Mae Arden and destroyed in 1666 by the Great Fire. Hearthstone owners included Richard Seastone, Sir Tormi Cadogant, and Lady Seline Petalskin. Traditionally, this was the location of all commoner courts, and a place of negotiation between the City's inhabitants and its ruler. The freehold also had a "Rose Room," a chamber which enforced the old folklore that things said sub rosa (under the rose) are held in confidentiality. The Rose Room was available to any fae who needed to hold private conference.

District of Coins

Silver Door
The district freehold for Coins and occasional freehold for the City, founded in 1400 by the crow pooka Robin White and destroyed in 1666 by the Great Fire. Hearthstone owners included Lord Brock Silvermouth, Baron of the Tower; Lord Broderick Bobbin; and Jenelle Eydissdottir, Lady of the Tower. The Silver Door stood just off Cheapside Street, long the heart of London's commercial life.

Bobbin's Dross Exchange
Is it time to pay the Raven Fee, but your only dross is an old armchair you found in a dumpster? Bring it to Bobbin's Dross Exchange, just off Cheapside Street, and Broddy Bobbin will swap it out for something the ravens can carry. The establishment is also a generalized pawnshop. Rumours that Broddy also carries on shadier dealings are entirely untrue.

District of Roads

The Traveller's Rest
The district freehold for Roads, founded in 1400 by the sluagh Daschabethalina and destroyed in 1666 by the Great Fire. Hearthstone owners included Petyr Sopston, Raasi, and Dame Olympia Mor. The Traveller's Rest stood along Bishopsgate Street, just inside the gate.

District of Fishes

Bridgeside
The district freehold for Fishes, founded in 1400 by the redcap Bonecruncher and destroyed in 1666 by the Great Fire. Hearthstone owners included Cosh the Brash, Harrow Bonecruncher, and Sir Edmund Wheels. Bridgeside lay just off the northern end of London Bridge.

The Monument
Designed by the mortal architect Sir Christopher Wren in the 1670s, this monument to the Great Fire is truly impressive. The stone spire stands 202 feet tall, 202 feet from the Farynor house where the fire began, and serves as a scientific device as well as a memorial to the disaster.

BOROUGH OF GRAVES

District of Fairs

Trollwatch Rock
A large boulder in Hyde Park has two oval depressions on its top, with a small, circular hole next to them. The nickname comes from a story that Philip Tallaxe, the "Troll Who Waited," stood on this stone to await the return of the sidhe after the Shattering; some speculate that the stone is the entrance to a trod, whose opening conditions have been lost. In truth, the stone guarded the passage to a sheltered Dreaming pocket, which was once home to the central chapter-house of the Honorable Order of Arcadians.

Chapter-House of the Honorable Order of Arcadians
The Order of Arcadians was founded immediately following the Shattering with the purpose of re-opening the trods to Arcadia (or, less commonly, discovering or even creating new ones). Chapter-houses of the Order existed all over Albion, and even in other lands, but this one, concealed just outside the City of the Tower, stood chief among them in the late fourteenth century. The Order during this period was led by the troll Philip Tallaxe.

District of Greens

Fairspring Glen
For a short time following the Shattering, this natural source of Glamour persisted a small distance from the City, under the care of of the ghille dhu Amadis Shirreen.

District of Hunts

Westmanor
The baronial freehold of Graves for centuries, it was at one point destroyed, but restored in a new location under the same name. Hearthstone owners have included Lord Cedrych Wisperswerd ap Scathach, Lord Valentin Aspell, Baroness Nianna Areforn ap Eiluned, and others.

Lady Lina Lightfeathers' Philosophic Salon
Once a month, this eighteenth-cntury lark pooka (a lady in mortal life) opened her house in the District of Gardens and played hostess to a salon, a gathering where select individuals met to discuss literature, science, and philosophy. For mortals, it was a fascinating and confounding chance to exercise their brains; for the pooka of the City, it was comedy gold, as they tossed out just the right mix of interesting ideas and utter nonsense to keep the mortals reeling.

District of Gardens

Begonia's House
This stately Victorian house is the home of the influential sluagh matron Begonia. She does not welcome unexpected visitors -- but odds are she knew you were coming . . . perhaps even before you did.

Merriman Booksellers
This bookshop, specializing in poetry, was jointly owned by the nineteenth-century brothers Henry and Christopher Merriman. The former toured the continent finding works to translate while the latter operated the business, catering to an upper-middle-class clientele.

BOROUGH OF MARKETS

The Goblin Market
On the three nights of the new moon every month, the Goblin Market opens its doors for business. Anything and everything may be bought and sold there -- the darker, the better. Its location shifts each month, to prevent interfering Seelie fae from putting an end to its ancient business. The Goblin Market reached the height of its power in the unrest of the early nineteenth century, culminating eventually in the Saints' Day Raid of 1829, which brought its Unseelie practices back in check.

Dragonfly
London's best and most secure nightclub, owned by the cat pooka Ranae.
Monday: Two Pound Drink Specials
Tuesday: International Rave
Wednesday: Birds Get In Free!
Thursday: Blokes Get In Free!
Friday: Featuring DJ KIDD
Saturday: Fetish Night
Sunday: Punk your Heart Out

BOROUGH OF ANGELS

The Cauldron of Plenty
The Cauldron of Plenty has been continuously owned and operated by the Goodemeade Boggans since 921 A.D., and they may still be running the place after the rest of the world has ended. Originally a comfortable inn in the village of Islington, along the north road out of London, it has now been reduced to a tiny pub crammed in between a stationer's and a chemist's. The basement remains in place, if smaller than it once was; there fae can gather around the balefire or the titular Cauldron, a treasure that produces the finest mead in all of Albion or England. It is from this that the Goodemeade Boggans draw their name.

The family has retained its coherence through six hundred and fifty years of reincarnation; some speculate that they always retain enough memory of previous lives to find their way back to the Cauldron, while others assume the family possesses a Soothsay treasure that helps them find their newly-Chrysalized kin and bring them home. Either way, the Cauldron of Plenty is a minor freehold that has been manned by a series of Goodemeade Boggans since the Shattering, including Billin; Tuck and his wife Agnes; Gertrude and her sister Rosamund; Robin; Dickon; Gertie and her four sons Jocko, Billy, Robbet, and Tuck; Molly; Rosalie and her brother Dickon; and finally Jocko and the young childling affectionately known as Great-Auntie Rosalie. Jocko is one of the only freehold owners in the City of the Tower to have retained his commoner status, having laughed in the face of the first Baroness of Angels when she attempted to offer him a lordship. Now as in 921, the Cauldron of Plenty is the perfect place for comfortable, unassuming companionship, and a little bit of gossip.

BOROUGH OF DITCHES

The High Kick
If the mortal prostitutes of Hackney aren't exciting enough for you, then odds are you can find what you're looking for at The High Kick. It's not a freehold, but if sex is your dream, then this is a good place to find Glamour.

The High Kick has been a notorious brothel since the late nineteenth century, catering to all but the darkest Unseelie tastes. Its special highlight, in tribute to its history, is a weekly can-can show in the old style. The proprieters have always kept every imaginable kind of toy on hand, and some of them are treasures; for a fee, you can have cantrip-assisted sex (and they've thought up every possible use for cantrips, then invented a few new ones). The High Kick also houses a treasure that cures diseases, so you needn't worry about coming home with some unwanted souvenirs.

Past madams have included the Unseelie boggan Sarah-Sue Sin and the satyr Madam Curvy.

BOROUGH OF RAVENS

The Tower of London
Standing on the border between the Borough of Coins and the Borough of Ravens, and forming part of the city walls of London, the White Tower has served as both a royal residence and a political prison. Its balefire was created when the Tower was built in 1078, and provided the spark for the other freeholds in the Web of London; it was the only one of the seven to escape the Great Fire in 1666. Often an Unseelie freehold owing to the practice of torturing, imprisoning, and executing traitors nearby, the Tower was often held by either the ruler of the City or some close ally. Rickard Seastone, a troll thane, held it for a short time following the Shattering, when his lord departed, but it was soon claimed by the Aesin volva Kajsa Sunnive. Subsequent holders included Thom, Lord Magistrate of the Tower; Utz Hengsin, Count of the Tower; Dame Sigrún Ros Ríona, Lady Magistrate of the Tower; Harrow Bonecruncher, Master of the Tower; Aldon Highpeak, Lord of the Tower; and Edgar Whitestone, Lord of the Tower. Banality finally destroyed the freehold in 1962, after the Tower was opened up to tourism.

The White Tower is also the home of the ravens which give the borough its name; so long as they remain at the Tower, England will not fall. Their recent disappearance, engineered by Charcoal Eddie, caused considerable panic. Chimerical ravens likewise nest at the Tower, from which they conduct their messenging service, set up in 1399 by the crow pooka Robin White and the raven pooka Edward Black. The dross fee, fed into the Tower balefire, supported the Web of London during its existence, and the Tower itself after the Great Fire. Following the death of the freehold in the twentieth century, the ravens simply stockpiled the dross they collected in a chamber somewhere beneath the structure.

Hag's Bend
In the river between Ravens and Clocks lives a river hag named Blacktooth Meg. Since she took up residence in the water, the chimerical boatmen have all but deserted the eastern parts of the Thames. The Baroness of Ravens suspects she may be, not just Ravaging area mortals, but Reaping some of them, and rumour has it that the baroness may be thinking about throwing Blacktooth Meg out.

BOROUGH OF CLOCKS

Albion Temporal Experimentation Society
This distinguished scientific establishment was founded in the seventeenth century by the German nocker Wilhelm Clockmaker. Its charter purpose was to provide space and resources for nockers to experiment with the manipulation of time, and as such, it fostered a series of staggeringly demented projects, ranging from the reversal of the Shattering (through the reversal of time) in an attempt to bottle negative time as a beauty treatment.

The most impressive achievement of the Society came in the mid-eighteenth century, when its members took advantage of the 1752 shift to the Gregorian calendar, which skipped eleven days. They harvested this lost time from every man, woman, and child in Albion, and stored it in a room in the basement of the Society headquarters. This time was used to prepare for the predicted return of the solimond in 1759, which threatened to destroy the city. Every day a single person spent inside used up one of the stored days (multiple people used multiple days), but no matter how long a fae spent inside, he emerged only one day later -- but potentially many days older.

Following that heydey, the Society declined, and had largely ceased to exist by the time the sidhe returned in 1969 -- a shame, given that they brought with them knowledge of Chronos, which could potentially have been of great use. In modern times, its headquarters were little more than a museum, which were burned to the ground by members of the Purification Institute. The basement survived, however, and the last remaining days in the room there were spent in the creation of the Philosopher's Stone.

The head of the Society was known as the Master Temporist, a position held by such deranged luminaries as Nick o' th' Tick (head of the Anti-Solimond Project), Pip Pop Pesterton, Manny Geartwist, and Willie Clockmender, the last active member of the Society.

BOROUGH OF ASHES

The Boar's Head
Since the fifteenth century, this pub has attracted a seedy and unpleasant clientele of mortals and fae alike. The beer tastes like cow piss and you have to search for a table that sits straight, but if you want to get plastered for cheap and don't mind a fight (or are looking for one), this has always been a good place to go.

BSU Pyrotechnics
London's premiere fireworks company exists in a warehouse district of Lewisham, where it will endanger as few people as possible if it explodes. Those who know to go to the back door will find a doorbell rendition of "The 1812 Overture" and the fae half of the company waiting there.

BOROUGH OF STAGES

The Crossroads Inn
Standing at the Southwark end of the London Bridge, this inn was established in the fifteenth century to welcome travelers to the City, whether they came by river or by road. Along with the District of Gypsies in the Borough of Boats, it soon became one of the primary places to find the exotic eshu fae. Changes in the city's traffic during later centuries meant the inn no longer lay in a prime location, but it persists as a pub, and on any given night one may usually find at least one eshu telling stories, and sometimes more than that.

River's Edge
Traditionally the baronial freehold for Stages, this building commands an excellent view of the City of the Tower from the southern bank of the Thames. Hearthstone owners have included Lord Torthen Cachemayd, Lord Lewan Erle, Baroness Alicia Corson ap Fiona, and others.

Copper's Bookshop
This little, hard-to-find, hole-in-the-wall establishment has earned quite a reputation. It is known for carrying a wide variety of out of print and rare books, both mortal and chimerical. It is also plagued by persistent legends that mortals who visit there may sometimes come back with a book containing more than they bargained for . . . say, a little enchantment.

The Round
This small inn (later a pub), founded in the early 1400s by the Scathach sidhe Starr Rowan, has frequently returned to her keeping throughout her lifetimes in the City. Following the Great Fire of 1666, there were attempts to take it from her control, but the influence of House Scathach kept it from being commandeered by other fae of the City. Over time, it came to attract a largely working-class mortal clientele, which often included soldiers and policemen in its numbers.

BOROUGH OF BOATS

BOROUGH OF OARS

The Long Duel Memorial
Standing in the center of a small Hammersmith park (not that any of the mortals can see it there) is a twelve-foot sword, point-down in a pedestal, that consists of flame by day and glowing ice by night. According to the plaque at its base, it commemorates an eighteenth-century duel between two Scathach sidhe -- one Seelie, one Unseelie. (Few remember that the combatants were Tatha Sky-Eyed and Derwood Corr.) The plaque doesn't say how long the duel lasted; most stories agree that it went on for ten straight years, with neither warrior willing to concede defeat. These days, the city's duellists sometimes congregate there to talk business and solicit work.

BOROUGH OF SHADOWS

The Onyx Hall
This powerful freehold was created in 1549 by a coalition of fae, headed by the sluagh Suspiria, who sought to break the curse that forbade her to derive any benefit from a freehold; it failed to do so, but remained in her control when she became Invidiana, the Lady of the Tower and eventual Queen of Albion. The Onyx Hall encompassed virtually the entirety of the catacombs that riddle the earth beneath the City. Consisting of interconnected sewers, crypts, and tunnels dug by fae, one may often find pieces of London's past in the warren; here there is a fragment of a Roman wall, and over there, a medieval knight's tomb. Once the center of the Onyx Court of Albion, it was well-protected by cantrips and guards, and played home to several dozen fae, kinain, and enchanted mortals, though only a select few slept in the chambers of the hall where the balefire burned.

The freehold was destroyed during the Scathach uprising of 1589, when Invidiana Reaved the balefire for power. Rumours of the freehold persisted in later centuries, mistakenly indicating that the Onyx Hall lay somewhere in the Borough of Shadows, and that it might still survive, well-hidden in the catacombs.

NEWHAM (Outer London)