Dean Street, London

When the novel opens, Angelica has taken an apartment on Dean Street in Soho, a place in central London where the sex trade is active. The street is depicted as lively in the novel. "A washerwoman with a bundle on her back hisses through her teeth, but her apprentice, hair scraped up under her cap, stands stock-still and stares," Gowar writes when the inhabitants see Mrs. Chappell and her prostitutes. "Four boys set up a whooping, and men raise their hats."

Mrs. Chappell's Nunnery

Mrs. Chappell's whorehouse is filled with finery and opulence in the novel. It is the place where Angelica met Mrs. Frost when they were both girls sweeping the floors, and also the place where she meets Mr. Hancock at the mermaid party. Mr. Hancock finds Mrs. Chappell's house to be overwhelming in its grandeur. He observes, "It is a relief to find...