Mrs. Armbruster’s Institute and Foundling Hospital was located in Spitalfields, an area of London where many philanthropic ventures began. For example, the American philanthropist George Peabody began a foundation on Commercial Street in 1864 to improve the living conditions of the working poor.
St. Pancras Workhouse existed and is now St. Pancras Hospital. Unfortunately, the poor hygiene in the infant ward was so appalling that many babies died during their stay or after returning from foster care. Charles Dickens wrote about such parish treatment in Oliver Twist.
In the Victorian era it was possible to easily purchase cocaine, laudanum, opium, and arsenic. In the 1860s the publication of information about London’s East End opium dens inspired various organizations to begin campaigns against the importation of opium. In 1868 the Pharmacy Act limited the sale of dangerous drugs to those registered to dispense them. However, few people ever spoke up about the addictive powers of those drugs during the nineteenth century.
Manipora was loosely based on the Massacre of Cawnpore (1857) now known as Kanpur.
Being a spy was not considered a gentlemanly occupation in the nineteenth century and was relegated to the middle classes, often former military men. Although the Secret Service Bureau wasn’t formed until 1903, I imagined the frustration of military men, especially after the Crimean War and the Sepoy Rebellion.
In 1855 the Board of Ordnance had been dissolved and all duties transferred to the War Office. Both the Secretary of State for War and the Commander-in-Chief of the Army held equal responsibilities. Prince George, Second Duke of Cambridge, took on the job of Commander-in-Chief in 1856. Unfortunately, he was heavily resistant to any kinds of reform.
When you were stopped at the top, you developed other ways to get things done. In this case, I envisioned a loose grouping of men—the Silent Service—who worked for the empire with the tacit approval of men who would probably not support them if their actions ever became public.
The Schomberg House was divided into three sections in 1769. The three units were, at various times, homes for artists, a high-class bordello, a haberdashery, a fashionable textile store, a bookshop, and a gambling den. All three units were purchased by the British government in 1859 for use by the War Office, but were largely demolished in 1956. Only the facades remain.