London Sights of Good Omens

It doesn’t take long to realize that Good Omens is a British novel set in London and the surrounding areas. Having traveled to London before, I pick up on the places that are mentioned within Good Omens and in many cases can visualize what place is being discussed. In some cases, I have pictures from these places.

The first place I noticed was Buckingham Palace that was on page 31. This instance was used as a reference to the royal family as Buckingham Palace is the London residence (Windsor Castle is another residence of the royal family, located outside of London) of the King or Queen. Currently, Queen Elizabeth II resides there.

Buckingham Palace on a wet, snowy March day.

After Buckingham Palace, St. James Park was mentioned. In the book-page 44 to be exact-, Crowley and Aziraphale are feeding the ducks at the park. St. James Park is next to Buckingham Palace and is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, of the royal parks. On my trip, we didn’t spend very much time there but the park is definitely on my list of places to visit when I do get to visit London again.

Overlooking St. James Park and the pond.

The next ‘spot’ I noticed is not a place in the book, but in actuality it is. On page 49 it is stated the “Charing Cross Bible”. After spending several days navigating the London Underground, or Tube, Charing Cross is a street and has a stop on the Underground. In addition, Charing Cross eventually turns into Tottenham Court Road.

Tottenham Court Road is mentioned in the footnotes of page 67, referring back to the line “of the old school” and saying that this old school, or night school rather, was located just off Tottenham Court Road. This is a road in central London. It’s a busy place with a fair amount of shops and places to eat. The underground station is just as busy as the actual road since several lines stop there.

Soho, page 52’s “book shop on Soho” is a district within London. Soho is a district known for its entertainment, both appropriate and inappropriate. This makes me wonder just what kind of books could be found here. The inappropriate (which I’d rather not discuss, just google Soho London England and you should come up with it) is being run out by more upscale establishments.

Oxford is a city north of London, probably about a two hour drive unless Crowley’s driving! In the book, Oxford is mentioned as a location of the hospital where the baby switch took place. In real life Oxford is the location of the famous Oxford University. Unfortunately I was unable to visit Oxford so I have no pictures of any of the university’s historic buildings.

Oxford Street, on the hand, is not located in Oxford, although if followed long enough it will go there. It is what is can be assumed it is from the book, a busy street in central London. This is the case, though technically it is Westminster that the road is going through. Almost every kind of store imaginable can be found here. On a lighter note, Oxford Street can also be a bear to cross, especially if you’re new to England and which way the traffic runs (luckily no one was injured in this discovery).

Classic London Doubledecker: not hard to find zipping around all of these mentioned streets.

The traditional British phone 'box', now only found in Central London, specifically around Westminster (ie: Oxford St. )

For me, finding places within the book that I had been not only had the book a lot more interesting and fun to read, but it also made it easier to understand. I always like to know where things are going on at, and since I've been to these places, I can visualize better how they happen.





*All of these pictures were taken by me in March of 2008 and were not copied from any other source.