‘The King’s Arms turned out to be a picturesque Victorian corner pub the entrances of which were surrounded by a mixture of professional young men in suits and what looked like students, all smoking and drinking.’
Galbraith, Robert. The Silkworm: Cormoran Strike Book 2 (p. 71)
‘They do reasonably decent food,’ said Matthew. ‘Thai. It’s not the Mango Tree, but it’s all right.’ Strike smiled without warmth. He had expected Matthew to be like this: name-dropping restaurants in Belgravia to prove, after a single year in London, that he was a seasoned metropolitan.
Galbraith, Robert. The Silkworm: Cormoran Strike Book 2 (p. 72)
The King’s Arms, where Strike meets Robin and her fiancé Matthew, sits in a miraculously preserved Victorian corner of Lambeth, not far from the Thames, which escaped both bomb damage in the war, and being wiped out by the expansion of the railways. It is still close enough though to the busy interchange at Waterloo for Strike to smoke in the shadows of the railway arches when he steps out to phone journalist Dominic Culpepper. Originally many of the houses held several families, and the census records of its early years note blacksmiths, butchers, nurses and bakers living in the street.
The street is named for the man who originally developed it, John Roupell, and some of the surrounding streets were once named after his family members. His eldest son fell in love with a carpenter’s daughter, Sarah, and thinking his father would not approve the match he lived at home, while visiting her once a week and having several children. When his father died, he married her, then left his fortune to the first of his legitimate sons. Their eldest child destroyed the will and claimed the fortune for himself. After serving a prison sentence, he became a respected horticulturalist and valued member of the community.
