St Veronica's & The White Visitation

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 21/12/2005 Mark Wright AIA wrote:

> You think of it as a purpose-built institutional building,

Not necessarily. Not at all in fact. Where did I say that?

>> St Veronica's Hospital is in London; it's "a lengthy brick
>> improvisation, a Victorian paraphrase of what once, long ago,
>> resulted
>> in Gothic cathedrals ... " (i.e. so it's not Perpendicular Gothic and
>>
>> it's not necessarily exclusively neo-Gothic), and it's near St
>> Veronica's Downtown Bus Station (see ps 46 & 50).
>>
>> My best bet is something along the lines of the Midland Grand Hotel
>> and
>> St Pancras Railway Station in King's Cross:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:StPancrasMidlandHotel.jpg

St Veronica's is in London city. After his internment there, Slothrop  
walks out onto "a wet brick street" (114). It's is not a great house  
set on grounds at all. 'The White Visitation' is just this, however.

>> 'The White Visitation' is a red brick Palladian house beside a ruined
>>
>> "ancient Abbey" and seacliffs (72-3). Over the centuries, with
>> various
>> renovations and decorative additions, it has become "a classic
>> 'folly'"
>> (82-3). It's somewhere along the coast of Kent or East Sussex, near
>> the
>> fictitious village of "Ick Regis" (cf. Bognor Regis and Lyme Regis).

I hadn't perceived the Ick Regis --> egregious pun before. Thx Erik.

These give a general idea of the sort of thing Pynchon was thinking of  
with 'The White Visitation', a clifftop estate with Palladian stately  
home, ruined abbey, gardens etc which has since been turned into a  
hospital and military base:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holkham_Hall

http://www.dover-kent.co.uk/places/street_names.htm#radigund

The history of Basildon Park also closely matches that of 'The White  
Visitation':

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w- 
basildonpark.htm

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w- 
basildonpark/w-basildonpark-history/w-basildonpark-history-threats.htm

best