Explore the real-world places that appear in How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include The Globe Theatre, Oakhurst Secondary School (Fictional), Tom's House in Bloomsbury Area, Trinity Green Almshouses / Mile End Area, Tower Bridge and the River Thames and 6 more.
Bankside, Southwark — Tom performs with Shakespeare
In Tom's memories of the early 1600s, he plays music and performs at the Globe, where he becomes acquainted with William Shakespeare. Tom recalls the playwright as a down-to-earth working man, far from the myth he later became. The episode shows how Tom has brushed against the great figures of history while hiding his unusual ageing.
The original Globe was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It burned down in 1613 when a cannon fired during Henry VIII ignited the thatch, and a second Globe was rebuilt in 1614 before being closed in 1642. The modern reconstruction opened in 1997 near the original site, thanks to the efforts of Sam Wanamaker.
Shakespeare's Globe is a working reconstruction that stages plays and offers exhibition and theatre tours. The adjoining Sam Wanamaker Playhouse hosts candlelit indoor performances.
Visit: Shakespeare's Globe (theater)
East London — Tom teaches history here as a new teacher
Tom takes a job as a history teacher at a London comprehensive school, a role arranged by Hendrich of the Albatross Society. He teaches pupils about the past he has actually lived through, struggling to keep quiet when textbooks get things wrong. He is drawn to Camille, the French teacher, and he mentors a pupil, Mark, who adds to his sense of connection to the present.
London's comprehensive schools expanded after the 1960s as the city's state education system was reorganised. The area of Hackney and east London where such schools stand has long been shaped by waves of immigration and regeneration.
The school is fictional, and this marker is a representative location in a typical east London neighbourhood. Real schools in the area are active and are not open for casual visits.
Near Russell Square — Tom's modern London home
Tom returns to the London he knew centuries ago and settles into a house in the city where he once lived as a young man. The area stirs memories of his earlier life, including the loss of his wife Rose. The house becomes the quiet base from which he wrestles with the Albatross Society's rule never to fall in love.
Bloomsbury was developed in the 17th and 18th centuries on land owned by the Earls of Bedford, with Russell Square laid out in 1800. It became known for the British Museum, University of London and the literary Bloomsbury Group.
Bloomsbury is a leafy academic district with Georgian terraces, bookshops and gardens. Russell Square is a public park with a fountain and café that anyone can visit.
Visit: Russell Square (park)
Mile End — Echoes of Tom's early London life
Tom reflects on the poor and unforgiving streets of past eras where he fled suspicion as a person who aged too slowly. His memories of being a young man hunted as a witch's kin and of wandering the old city shape his fear of being found out. The East End corners are where past and present overlap for him.
Trinity Green Almshouses in Mile End were built in 1695 for retired mariners and their wives, and are Grade I listed. The area was historically home to dockworkers, sailors and later waves of immigrant communities.
The almshouses remain a striking 17th-century courtyard, now maintained by a charity and mainly residential. Visitors can view the group from the street and the nearby Mile End Park.
Visit: Trinity Green Almshouses (landmark)
Tower Bridge — The Thames Tom has watched change
The river is a constant in Tom's long life, and he recalls how it looked in earlier centuries, frozen, crowded with ships and bustling with trade. Walking along the Thames reminds him how much the city has changed while he has stayed essentially the same. It is a place where he measures time and loss.
Tower Bridge opened in 1894 after eight years of construction, designed by Horace Jones and John Wolfe Barry. Its Victorian Gothic towers and bascules allowed tall ships to pass into the Pool of London.
Tower Bridge is one of London's most recognised landmarks. The Tower Bridge Exhibition lets visitors cross the high-level walkways and see the Victorian engine rooms.
Visit: Tower Bridge Exhibition (landmark)
Ludgate Hill — Witness to centuries of London
Tom remembers a London before the Great Fire, when the old St Paul's dominated the skyline, and then watching Wren's cathedral rise from the ashes. As someone who has lived through the city's transformations, it stands for the way the city rebuilds itself while he is stuck in the past. The skyline anchors his sense of history.
The present cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built between 1675 and 1710 after the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed the medieval building. Its dome remained the tallest in London for centuries.
St Paul's is an active cathedral and major tourist attraction. Visitors can climb to the Whispering Gallery and the dome's viewing galleries, and explore the crypt.
Visit: St Paul's Cathedral (landmark)
Fish Street Hill — The city Tom saw burn
Tom's centuries-long memory includes the dramatic upheavals of old London, among them the fire that reshaped the city. The Monument evokes how he has seen the capital destroyed and reborn. It represents the changing face of a city that remains his only real home.
The Monument was designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke and completed in 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666. The fluted Doric column stands 202 feet tall, the exact distance from the bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire began.
Visitors can climb the 311 steps to a viewing gallery and receive a certificate on descending. It is operated by the City of London Corporation.
Visit: The Monument to the Great Fire of London (monument)
Central London — Hendrich's secretive society
The Albatross Society, led by the unsettling Hendrich, protects people like Tom who age extremely slowly, in exchange for undertaking missions on its behalf. Its core rule, never fall in love, is enforced through control and threats. Tom's growing doubts about Hendrich and the society's methods drive the central conflict of his modern life.
Secret societies and gentlemen's clubs have long been part of London life, particularly in the West End, where private clubs flourished from the 18th century. This location is a representative placement of a fictional organisation.
The society is fictional and no real site corresponds to it. The Mayfair and Fitzrovia area is a mix of offices, galleries and shops.
North London — Open air and space to think
As Tom tries to live a normal life, open green spaces of London offer him room to reflect on his long past and the idea of living in the present. His walks give him perspective on his loneliness and his budding bond with Camille. The Heath fits the novel's theme of moving from the past to the here and now.
Hampstead Heath has been common land for centuries and was protected from development in 1871 by the Hampstead Heath Act. Parliament Hill gives one of the best views over the London skyline.
The Heath is a vast public park with ponds for swimming, woodland and Parliament Hill viewpoint. It is managed by the City of London Corporation and is free to visit.
Visit: Hampstead Heath (park)
Greenwich — Maritime voyages and Captain Cook
Tom's memories of the sea include sailing with Captain Cook on his voyages in the South Pacific. Greenwich evokes his seafaring past and the vast scale of history he has witnessed. It connects his present in London with the maritime world he once explored.
Greenwich was the home of the Royal Navy's training centre and the Royal Observatory, founded in 1675, which defined the Prime Meridian. Captain James Cook's ships departed from nearby Thames ports, and the area remains central to British maritime heritage.
The Cutty Sark clipper ship, the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory are all open to visitors. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Visit: Cutty Sark (museum)
Southwark — Medieval and Tudor London
Tom's earliest memories involve a harsh 16th-century world in which suspicion and superstition could get a person killed. His mother is accused of witchcraft because he ages unusually slowly. Southwark's old streets recall the dangerous world of his youth and his flight from it.
Southwark lay outside the City's jurisdiction and was known for taverns, theatres and prisons. The Old Operating Theatre in the garret of St Thomas's Church dates from 1822 and preserves a rare early surgical amphitheatre.
The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret is open to visitors and displays historic medical instruments. The surrounding Borough area is known for its food market and old alleyways.
Visit: Old Operating Theatre Museum (museum)
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