‘The Quines’ family home was in Southern Row, a quiet back street of small brick houses, a short walk from a whitewashed pub called the Chilled Eskimo. Cold and wet, Strike squinted up at the sign overhead as he passed; it depicted a happy Inuit relaxing beside a fishing hole, his back to the rising sun.’
Galbraith, Robert. The Silkworm: Cormoran Strike Book 2 (p. 117)
Leonora Quine, who hires Strike to search for her missing husband, Owen, lives in a dilapidated house in this Ladbroke Grove cul-de-sac with their daughter, Dodo. The cul-de-sac is a mix of architectural styles and dates from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Several of the oldest houses used to be laundries. The pub Strike spots, The Chilled Eskimo, was once called The Prince of Wales and is a popular haunt with actors and performers. It’s co-owned by Nick Pickard, an actor who starred in the British soap Hollyoaks for more than twenty years. It’s not the only brush the street has had with stardom. The Pretenders, the iconic 70s rock group, filmed the video for Brass in Pocket on the road.
Ladbroke Grove, the part of London where Southern Row is situated, was once the site of the short-lived Hippodrome racecourse, and the travellers who bought and sold horses there were also among the first traders of nearby Portobello Road, offering herbs to the locals. The market now famously specialises in bric-a-brac and antiques. A set of stairs leads from the west end of Southern Row through an archway and on to Ladbroke Grove itself.
Robin forms a particular bond with Owen’s daughter, who Strike thinks might hold the key to the mystery of her father’s fate. One of the key discoveries of the case takes place on Southern Row as Robin and Dodo look through her pictures together, while Leonora is being held in Holloway, having been arrested for her husband’s murder.
