Vauxhall Road and the Elixir of Life ( was The Diary (just where did V get

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 86841

Steve wrote:
The intention of this essay is not to suggest that the orphanage is
in Chepstow. It is to suggest where Rowling may have gotten her
ideas for names of streets. We have the orphanage pegged in London,
right down to the actual place, although the real one wasn't a bad
place at all.

Ffred: 
Do you mean here that JKR got the idea of the orphanage from one in
London, or that Tom Riddle was incarcerated in one in London? If the
latter, then I'd be interested to know how he actually got there - my
reading suggested that Hangleton was in the North of England, which
would have meant that Tom's mother would have either had to have
trekked down to London to give birth (in which case, how does Tom find
out the story of his parentage, given that the one person who could
have told him was long dead) or alternatively that she gave birth and
died in the Hangleton area and Tom was placed in the local workhouse
orphanage (where he could by several means have found out his history,
but where he would have resided until he left school - there wouldn't
have been a logical means for him to have been transferred to another
orphanage in London).
 
Carol:
I was under the impression that Little Hangleton was Tom's father's
home town. That doesn't necessarily mean that it was his mother's as
well. They could have met and married in London, with Tom Sr. leaving
his wife and her unborn baby and returning to Little Hangleton after
finding out that she was a witch. The baby would then have been born
in London and placed in a London orphanage, well out of his father's
sight. Tom Sr. would have been even more concerned than Vernon Dursley
with making sure that no one connected him in any way with magic or
witchcraft and particularly with a child who might start displaying
magical powers. A local orphanage where young Tom's identity would be
known would not have provided that concealment. It makes much more
sense to me that the orphanage was in London (somewhere near Vauxhall
Road).

Carol