P. G. Wodehouse locations
The following is a list of recurring or notable fictional locations featured in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse, in alphabetical order by place name.
Angler's Rest
The Angler's Rest is the fictional public house frequented by irrepressible raconteur Mr. Mulliner. At the beginning of each Mulliner short story, Mr. Mulliner and his companions are having a conversation in the bar-parlour that touches on a variety of topics, often unconnected to the previous one. As one patron put it in "Archibald and the Masses": "We range. We flit. We leap from point to point. As an erudite Gin and Angostura once put it, we are like Caesar's wife, ready for anything." The conversations lead Mr. Mulliner to have a recollection of a similar event introducing some new members of the very large Mulliner family. The story then leaves the pub to enter into the narrator's world.The landlord of The Angler's Rest is named Ernest Biggs, and his amiable barmaid is named Miss Postlethwaite, who is never given a first name even though she appears in most of the stories. She is a romantic type fond of motion picture and romance novels, described as "erudite" and "sensitive." Every Sunday afternoon, she retires to her room with a box of caramels and a novel from the circulating library, and on the following night, she places the results of her reading in front of the habitués of the Angler's Rest and invites their judgment.
The Angler's Rest takes in residents for longer stay, as in "Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court", it is mentioned a poet is spending the summer at the place. Across from the bar-parlour there is a larger room where they sometimes give smoking-concerts.
The Angler's Rest is located in a small English town, the name of which is never given. Some details given are that there is a High Street with a Bon Ton Drapery Stores, whose efficient sales assistant is named Alfred Lukyn, and a cinema named the Bijou Dream. The village also contains a resident doctor and a church, with its inevitable Choral Society. About a mile or two up the river from the Angler's Rest stands an ancient and historic public school. The neighborhood also includes a golf course, and also a racecourse.
Mr. Mulliner's pub companions never have a real name but are named after the beverage they are drinking. Mr. Mulliner's own signature beverage is a hot Scotch and lemon. Here is a list of some of these names:
- Gin-and-Ginger-Ale
- Draught Stout
- Small Bass
- Double-Whisky-and-Splash
- Lemon Squash
- Tankard of Ale
- Pint of Stout
- Pint of Bitter
- Pint of Half-and-Half
- Whisky Sour
- Mild and Bitter
- Stout and Bitter
- Rum and Milk
- Sherry and Bitters
- Gin and Angostura
- Lemonade and Angostura
- Port from the Wood
- Eggnog
Aspinall's
Barribault's Hotel
Barribault's Hotel is a fictional hotel in London. It is a posh, dignified establishment, and may have been modeled on Claridge's. Barribault's first appears in Full Moon, in which it is located in Brook Street. In Spring Fever, the hotel is in Duke Street. In Ice in the Bedroom, it is in Clarges Street. Bertie Wooster has lunch there with Ginger Winship in Much Obliged, Jeeves. Barribault's also features in other novels including Something Fishy and Frozen Assets. It is also featured in Uncle Dynamite.Beckford
A fictional school, setting of the novel A Prefect's Uncle, and several short stories.Belpher
A fictional small coastal-village in Hampshire, and the setting for the novel A Damsel in Distress. Belpher was once a prosperous fishing-town made famous by the oyster trade, until it was discovered that the local bay had been polluted, thus driving away much of the tourist and fishing trade.Local points of interest mentioned in the novel include The Belpher Arms, the village tavern, and Belpher Castle, the home of the aristocratic Marshmoreton family since the Wars of the Roses.
Berkeley Mansions
Berkeley Mansions, Berkeley Square, London W1, is a fictional Mayfair residential building in the Jeeves stories, being the residence of Bertie Wooster. In an early story, Bertie lives at 6A, Crichton Mansions, Berkeley Street, W. but is later residing at Berkeley Mansions in Thank You, Jeeves, though he is obliged to leave after making noise with his banjolele. Bertie apparently returns to the building, as he is residing in Berkeley Mansions in the later novel The Code of the Woosters and specifies that he lives in 3A Berkeley Mansions in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit. In the 1979 What Ho! Jeeves radio adaptation of Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, the telephone number for Bertie's flat is Mayfair 2631, though no telephone number is given for the flat in the original stories.In A Pelican at Blandings, Galahad Threepwood lives in Berkeley Mansions, on the fourth floor. Galahad had previously lived in a flat in Duke Street, St James's.
Wodehouse briefly lived in a flat in Berkeley Street in 1922, the same year that the story showing Bertie living in Berkeley Street, "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch", was published.
Blandings Castle
Blandings Castle is a fictional location central to many P. G. Wodehouse stories. It is an idyllic country house.Blandings Parva
A small fictional hamlet near Blandings Castle. The people of the village enjoy much revelry at the annual School Treat, held on August Bank Holiday every year in the grounds of the Castle, much to Lord Emsworth's horror. Blandings Parva is also known for taking in children from London in need of fresh air, such as Gladys and her brother Ern.Brinkley Court
The fictional country house of Tom and Dahlia Travers, Brinkley Court is located near Market Snodsbury in Worcestershire, near Droitwich, eight miles from Pershore and about a hundred miles from London. In one instance, it takes Dahlia Travers about three hours to travel from London to Brinkley Court. The residence of the Traverses' children Angela and Bonzo, Brinkley Court is also a popular destination for Bertie Wooster, Dahlia's beloved nephew. Brinkley's butler is named Seppings and its chauffeur Waterbury. Its most famous domestic employee is the gifted French chef Anatole. The Travers family also owns a house in London, located at 47 Charles Street, Berkeley Square.Brinkley Court is the primary setting of "The Love That Purifies", Right Ho, Jeeves, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Jeeves in the Offing, and Much Obliged, Jeeves. Jeeves works there temporarily in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.
Brinkley is said to be modelled on Severn End, Hanley Castle, in Worcestershire. In the television series Jeeves and Wooster, exterior shots of Brinkley Court were filmed at Barnsley Park, Gloucestershire in series 1 and Hall Barn, Buckinghamshire in series 4. All interior shots of Brinkley Court were filmed at Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire.
The Travers family's address in London, 47 Charles Street, was the same address where Ian Hay, who collaborated with Wodehouse on three plays, lived in 1926.
Bumpleigh Hall
Bumpleigh Hall is a fictional location appearing in Joy in the Morning, being the Hampshire residence of Bertie Wooster's Uncle Percy and Aunt Agatha. It is located near the village of Steeple Bumpleigh. Usual residents include Lord Worplesdon's children Florence Craye and Edwin Craye.[|Chuffnell Hall]
Chuffnell Hall is the fictional country house of "Chuffy" Chuffnell, located near [|Chuffnell Regis] in Somerset. The house is featured in Thank You, Jeeves. Eventually, Sir Roderick Glossop opened his clinic at the Hall, after his marriage to Lord Chuffnell's aunt.Bertie Wooster stayed in the nearby cottage called Seaview Cottage, which was burnt down because of Brinkley.
Chuffnell Regis
Chuffnell Regis is a fictional village featured in Thank You, Jeeves. The nearest village to Chuffnell Hall, it is located in Somerset. In the village is the Seaview Hotel, which has the telephone number Chuffnell Regis 294.Corven Abbey
See [|Dreever Castle] below.Demosthenes Club
The Demosthenes Club is a fictional gentlemen's club in Cocktail Time and Ice in the Bedroom. A respectable and dignified institution, it is located across the street from the more boisterous [|Drones Club]. Members of the Demosthenes include Sir Roderick Glossop and John Shoesmith, Freddie Widgeon's employer.It was based on the Athenaeum Club in London.
Deverill Hall
Deverill Hall is a fictional country house with Tudor architecture, located in Hampshire, in the village of [|King's Deverill]. The setting of The Mating Season, Deverill Hall is the residence of Esmond Haddock, Dame Daphne Winkworth, and her sisters, Emmeline, Charlotte, Myrtle and Harriet, as well as Dame Daphne Winkworth's daughter Gertrude.Jeeves's uncle Charlie Silversmith is butler at Deverill, and Silversmith's daughter Queenie is the parlourmaid there.
In the Jeeves and Wooster television series, Deverill Hall was filmed at Joyce Grove.
Ditteredge Hall
Ditteredge Hall is the fictional residence of the family of Sir Roderick Glossop in Hampshire in "Scoring off Jeeves".Dreever Castle
The fictional setting of much of A Gentleman of Leisure, Dreever is a large old place in Shropshire, with heavy grey walls to defend against Welsh marauders, but a comfortable interior. It is owned by Spennie, Lord Dreever, but run by his rich uncle Sir Thomas Blunt. One of the oldest and grandest houses in England, Dreever is famed for an old ghost story, handed down from generation to generation. There is a picturesque rose-garden, and a lake with an island, ideal for young lovers.In The Gem Collector, an earlier version of the story, the house is called Corven Abbey, and owned by former New York policeman McEachern.