10 Things I have learned from writing Agatha Christie’s London

by Tina Hodgkinson

The researching and writing of Agatha Christie’s London have been an utter joy, from re-reading all her stories chronologically to visiting some very cool places associated with her. Along the way I have discovered many new things about Christie and her characters.

1. Agatha had many London homes

• Agatha lived in multiple properties in London over the years, mostly in Kensington and Chelsea
• When she lived in a block of flats, she often moved between apartments

2. Agatha sat pharmaceutical exams in London

• Agatha legally had to pass her Assistant to an Apothecary exam before she could work in a pharmacy
• Agatha sat her exam in the Apothecaries’ Hall in the City of London

3. The Detection Club met in a vicarage after the Second World War

• Agatha was a founding member of the Detection Club and later its President
• After the Second World War the club met regularly in a vicarage in Kingsly Street, Soho

4. Agatha was involved in creating Treasure Island

• In 1925, Treasure Island, a children’s play area at the British Empire Exhibition was opened and Agatha was on the committee that created it
• Treasure Island’s attractions included a miniature railway, a beach with smugglers’ caves and staff dressed up as characters from children’s books

5. Agatha was the first woman playwright to have three plays on simultaneous on in London’s West End

• The Mousetrap, the world’s longest running play, opened in London’s West End in 1952
• The three plays that were on simultaneously in the West End were The Mousetrap, Witness for the Prosecution and Spider’s Web

6. London is everywhere in her writing

• Agatha wrote about London in every decade of her career from the first to her last novels
• Agatha’s stories are contemporary and they depict social and geographical changes in London

7. Agatha and her characters share the same London spaces

• Agatha has written that she used real life locations for the settings of her stories
• Agatha and Miss Marple shop at the same stores if you compare her Autobiography with At Bertram’s Hotel

8. The importance of London’s luxury hotels in her stories

• In Agatha’s time, many luxury hotels were relatively new, i.e. The Savoy opened 1889, Claridge’s rebuilt in the 1890s, The Ritz opened 1906
• Originally dining out was not the done thing to do for the upper classes but hotel dining transformed that with the introduction of piano music in their restaurants

9. Miss Marple loves London

• Miss Marple travels to London to see her nephew Raymond West, to go shopping, meet up with friends, go to the theatre, strolling in the park and along the way solves a crime or two

10. Poirot travels by London Underground

• In the early stories, Poirot will usually travel short distances by taxi or car
• However, in later stories he travels uncharacteristically by tube

Tina Hodgkinson

Tina Hodgkinson is a writer, researcher and public speaker on Agatha Christie. She is employed at The London Archives, and is also a qualified City of London and City of Westminster tour guide. In Agatha Christie’s London, she combines her love of Agatha with her knowledge of London history.