#thomas barrow

When Anna tells Lady Mary about her plans, the response is the following:

“Kew Gardens?” Lady Mary said. “I’m not sure that was still fashionable when Granny was a girl.”

She is probably right as Kew Gardens was opened to the public by Queen Victoria and thus old news in 1914.

Aside from the impressive ornate glass plant buildings, I was most intrigued by the climbable pagoda that features in the story. An upcoming notice that the greenhouses will be closed soon for restorations was the final push I needed to make the trip.

So anno 2026, let me take you around to Kew Gardens. Due to the prolonged heat in Europe this summer, its grounds have become rather dry and yellowed instead of the green I had expected.

The glass Palm House, one of Lisel's birdcases, did show quite clearly with its peeling paint that the restoration is urgent. It was also made clear that the entry fee to the Gardens was not unreasonable, just for its upkeep.

"As the name implied, the centerpiece was a collection of palm trees. They had palms at Downton, so Thomas was not expecting to be particularly impressed, but there was something a little arresting about the enormous heights they grew to, when not being kept in a pot in the front hall."

These palms prove hard to photograph, but here are a couple from above. They will be hard to remove from the structure. Some of them have been there since the 18th century.

"Thomas was glad enough to finish with the Palm House, even though being out on the path meant having Lisel on his arm again. It hadn’t seemed too warm in the glasshouse when they’d first gone in, but it had gotten a little stifling over time, and now they were back outside again, the July afternoon felt like a spring morning."

I completely agree, as it was both hot and also crowded inside the Palm House. Stepping outside was as if going into air conditioning.

“I think that’s the Pagoda up there,” Thomas said, pointing.

There are few governesses still around in Kew Gardens, but there are plenty of mothers (and even fathers) pushing prams.

“What are they for, anyway?” he asked, glancing at Lisel—if any of them knew, it would be her. “Real ones, I mean. In China.” The guidebook had been very clear that they were Chinese.

The information provided on the ground floor of the Pagoda did not mention a particular function of pagodas, seeing as this structure was not a one on one copy of a building the architect might have seen in China on his travels. The windows are very clearly British architecture.

“Oh, there, look,” Peter said. “There’s people on one of the balconies, or whatever you call them. I guess you do climb up in it.”

This is unfortunately where fiction and reality diverge. The little railings are much too low to stop one from falling. And all the way to the top, the balconies are practically non-existent as the railings are almost against the glass. I do think the author had better ideas than the architect and I like to think that somewhere, in some universe, the Pagoda in Kew Gardens has balconies.

“Excuse me, sir. Do you work for the gardens? We had a question.”

“Yes, Miss—Kew Constabulary. How can I help?”

The people currently employed at the Pagoda are without exception women. None of them appeared particularly constabulary like. They were dressed in the garb of gentlemen from the year 1762 (complete with breeches that were according to one of them, not particularly comfortable). I do think Thomas might be entertained by the idea of women wearing men's wear at work.

The views, once they’d gone a few floors up in the Pagoda, did take his mind off things. Each level had an open terrace, where you could walk the whole way round the building and look down on the gardens below. After about six or seven levels, the girls said they had had enough of climbing stairs, but that Thomas and Peter should go the rest of the way up if they liked.

The views were unfortunately a bit marred by London's distant high rises. Like I mentioned before, unfortunately no open terraces, which would have been quite lovely. The stairs, however, were particularly easy to tread (even for me with a sprained ankle). There are not that many levels, including the ground floor only ten. The building is dominated by the round staircase at its core, but some floors do feature benches.

They had the place nearly to themselves, except for a young couple who were taking advantage of the isolation to get in a bit of kissing. They sprang apart, the girl smoothing her dress, when they realized they weren’t alone anymore, but Peter just said, “Carry on—don’t mind us,” and they walked around to the other side of the building to give them a little privacy.

It is true that I was in the presence of two couples at the very top, but there was no space for kissing as it was impossible not to stand in the space and see everyone else in it. A reason for my somewhat limited pictures above. Perhaps things were different in 1914, but today the top floor is ruled by one of the employees.

Thomas would have liked to imitate them, but he and Peter had a lot more to fear than a moment of embarrassment if they were caught at it. Instead, he stuck two cigarettes in his mouth, lit them both, and gave one to Peter.

“Ta. D’you suppose we’re meant to smoke up here?”

Thomas shrugged. “I didn’t see a notice saying we’re not.” There had been some in the Palm House. “If someone tells us otherwise, we’ll stop.” You didn’t get two years at hard labor for smoking where you weren’t allowed to.

“Well, be careful with the ashes—we don’t want to set this thing on fire.”

Every single floor of the Pagoda was marked by several (several!) fire extinguishers. I remarked to the employee that it was a miracle that it had not gone up in flames (admittedly thinking of the previous scene). She mentioned that it had been used as a testing facility for plane smoke screens (by dropping them from the Pagoda) during the second World War, so smoking a cigarette was the least of the possible dangers the structure faced.

They leaned on the railing, looking out toward the ornamental lake.

Like mentioned before, the railings were tiny. I did ask the employee about the possibility of accessing the more plausible balconies on the lower levels back in the day and she told me that there had been some 18th century graffiti scratched into the brick. Of course, this was long before the Pagoda was open to the public.

Perhaps a child of the royal family, or, more likely and (regarding Halo Effect and Thomas Barrow) more fitting: a servant, tasked with cleaning the many windows of the building.

A remarkable recent change, in 2018, is the reinstating of the numerous dragons, which had been removed around 1784 for unspecified reasons, possibly in relation to falling risk. The employee (she was really quite wonderful) told me that Queen Victoria had parts of the building painted red in order to give it a more Chinese character. I am unsure when this was reversed.

“I saw where they were selling ice-cream back the way we came,” Thomas said.  “Anyone fancy an ice-cream?  I’ll go get them.”

“They’re all chocolate,” Lisel said, wearily. “Here.” She gave Thomas one of hers, and they all sat down.

“They had chocolate and vanilla,” Thomas explained. “That’s why it took so long, because we had to argue about what we were getting. Lisel thought we ought to get a vanilla one, in case somebody fancied it, but nobody likes vanilla.”

“I’d have eaten it, if nobody else wanted it,” Lisel said.

Peter said, “Don’t be silly, I’d have eaten it.”

At the same moment as Anna said, “I’d not have minded—”

“But I said,” Thomas continued, “if we do that, then all three of you will offer to take it.” He looked at Lisel. “Didn’t I say that?”

“He did say that,” she sighed.

They still sell ice cream in Kew Gardens.

There was only one flavour.

All italics are excerpts from Chapter 5 of Halo Effect.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19892077/chapters/47283244

I cannot stress enough how great of a story Halo Effect and the sequel Soldier's Heart are. Thoroughly recommend!

And should you ever be in Kew Gardens, pay the 4.5£ and climb the Pagoda. It is unique.

some references

on the left is a group of Olympic swimmers, 1928.

and Buster Keaton and Gilbert Roland on the right. a website I found this picture in says it's from 1930. but idk.

Thomas' swimsuit kinda looks like a dress so I decided to give him that sksjsksjs.

I wondered if I should give Guy something similar, but then decided not to. Costume designers made him men's fashion icon in the second movie, according to its book companion, and swimsuit Thomas is wearing was losing its popularity.

47:35 at the beach: tea, lemonade

S5E1

1:15 in the library: tea

3:45 Edith and the Drewes: tea

9:39 downstairs dinner: water, beer, red wine

10:31 meeting of the WWI memorial committee in the library: tea

15:23 in the library: tea

17:23 Dr Clarkson and Violet: tea

18:55 Robert: whiskey

24:48 Carson and Mrs Hughes: tea

25:06 downstairs table: tea

29:24 Mrs. Patmore, Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson: (sherry?)

31:47 downstairs breakfast: tea

35:00 in the library: tea, coffee

36:05 after Violet's luncheon: coffee

41:06 Molseley brings in coffee and tea