Lulu Taylor’s locations in a Legacy of Secrets

Submitted: 5th December 2025

Lulu Taylor – A Legacy of Secrets

My books often feature beautiful houses and A LEGACY OF SECRETS is no different. For this story, I invented Caundle Court in Dorset, which is a melange of houses I’ve seen or that struck my imagination. We are spoiled in Dorset, having so many wonderful places and beautiful houses as inspiration.

A Legacy of Secrets Lulu Taylor

I had in my mind something similar to Athelhampton House, which is in the beautiful Piddle valley, although the house in my book was once a small priory and is now a home, where my heroine Flick grows up.

Caundle Court or Athelhampton House?

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

She is desperate to leave but eventually discovers the importance of home. The stunning Dorset countryside is the backdrop, with the house surrounded by fields and parkland. Whenever I walk through the parkland around Sherborne Castle, which is close to where I live, I often see herds of graceful deer, with their dappled backs – they skitter away when I come near. That’s how I imagine the grounds of Caundle.

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

North Oxford

Flick goes to a finishing school called St Pandionia’s in north Oxford, where there are dozens of magnificent Victorian Gothic properties along the Banbury and Woodstock Roads, many of them educational institutions. I grew up near Oxford, and some of my schoolfriends lived in large, red-brick Victorian houses but only bankers and city lawyers can afford them now!

St Edmund Hall, Oxford

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

I based St Pandiona’s on a real house in North Oxford, built in the Gothic Revival style, once called Gunfield, that now belongs to St Edmund Hall, an Oxford college. I still love to wander the streets of North Oxford when I visit, walk in the University Parks and drop in to the lovely cafes and shops of North Parade.

The Randolph Hotel, Oxford

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

Flick goes to dinner with her difficult mother at this grand old Randolph hotel where I’ve been lucky enough to stay a couple of times. She also visits Fuller’s, the tea room in Cornmarket, which was an Oxford institution from 1921 until the 1970s. Recently it was a branch of Burger King and will soon become an outlet of the gelatoria chain Amorino.

Sheldonian Theatre

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

From there, Flick goes to concert at the Sheldonian Theatre and admires the painted ceiling and the wonderful acoustics. It’s where she first lays eyes on one of the men who will shape her life.

Meard Street, Soho

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

Flick lives in Soho in the 1950s, when it is a louche place and London is still full of post war poverty and bomb damage. She has a basement flat in one of the Georgian houses on Meard Street, a pedestrianised thoroughfare between Dean Street and Wardour Street. Flick’s flat is very basic, with a meter for electricity and a coal fire. She can see people’s feet going past on the pavement above. There are old gas lamps and late night clubs and a flourishing sex industry. I found it very atmospheric to write about.

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

New York – York Place on the Upper East Side

Flick and Etta both spend time in New York. Etta has a little apartment in Manhattan and I imagined her living in York Place on the Upper East Side, where there are beautiful houses and gorgeous flats. Interior designer Rita Konig lived here years ago and her apartment, decorated in the English style with lots of lamps and books, was my inspiration for Etta’s home. That is exactly the kind of place I would like if I were lucky enough to live in New York!

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

Bloomsbury, London

Before Flick returns home to Caundle, she has a flat in Bloomsbury where Etta also lives. I imagined a place in Gordon Mansions, which is a huge red brick mansion block with large flats in it. I could just see her in this atmospheric place, soaking up the feel of the university, the Bloomsbury Group, and all the culture and museums.

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

British Museum

Location map in A Legacy of Secrets

I’ve given Flick’s flat a view of the British Museum but you wouldn’t see that from Gordon Mansions – that’s the magic of being able to do what you want with your imagination! If I could live anywhere in London, it would be probably be here, in the same kind of rambling flat as Flick and Etta.

Thank you so much Lulu – a wonderful tour of a very evocative and emotional novel