35 Portland Row

"Death's in Life and Life's in Death, and what was fixed is fluid." Warning: This page contains content which spoils plot points from material not adapted by the Netflix TV series. The Skull advises caution for those who have not read past The Whispering Skull.

Lucy Carlyle standing before 35 Portland Row

The beautiful house 35 Portland Row serves as the headquarters and home of several of the agents of Lockwood & Co., including Lucy Carlyle, George Cubbins and Anthony Lockwood, who inherited the house from his late parents. The inside was ravaged in The Siege of Portland Row. At the end of The Empty Grave they were working to renovate the whole house, even opening up Jessica Lockwood's old bedroom.

Location

35 Portland Row is located on a residential street, somewhere in Marylebone, an area in north-western London. There is a small shop at the end of the road run by a man called Arif which is frequently visited by the Lockwood & Co. agents in order to buy food, especially donuts.

Outside

To the back of the house there is a small garden with a few apple trees. As the house sits on a small hill towards the street, the cellar is on the same level as the garden, with a glass back door. Because they're so busy, the members of Lockwood & Co. don't have time to tend to the backyard, and so the grass is knee high and there are rotting apples on the ground. Lucy remarks that "when this is all over," she'd like to spend more time out there.

Inside

Ground Floor

Lucy and Lockwood seated in the living room of 35 Portland Row

Located on the ground floor of the house are the entrance hall, the kitchen, the living room and a library.

The front door of the house leads into the entrance hall which contains a coat rack, a pot for both umbrellas and rapiers and a crystal lamp on the key table shaped like a skull. Like most of the house, the entrance hall is full of psychic artefacts brought back to London by Lockwood's father and mother. Since Jack Carver died on the floor of the entrance hall in the second book, it has been covered with a carpet.

Clients (and potential employees) are usually interviewed in the living room, which contains a fireplace, a sofa and a few chairs, grouped around a coffee table.

Lockwood standing with Lucy and George sitting in the kitchen

In the early books, the kitchen is mostly in a constant state of mess, as it is not only used for cooking and eating, but also for preparing and storing the agency's supplies. The kitchen table is covered with what used to be a plain white tablecloth, which however is covered with notes about current or past cases, diagrams, lists but also cartoons etc. It is hence known as the "Thinking Cloth". In the second book, George also uses the oven to try and torture the Skull into communicating with him.

However, after Holly Munro is hired by Lockwood as an administrative assistant, the kitchen, like the rest of the house, is usually neat and tidy.

First Floor

The first floor contains Lockwood's, George's and Jessica's bedrooms and a bathroom, used mainly by Lockwood and George. For most of the first two books, nobody except Lockwood knows about Jessica's bedroom. The door is always kept shut and, respecting Lockwood's wish for privacy, Lucy and George never enter the room.

George's room clearly reflects his interest in discovering more about the problem: It is littered with books and research papers, psychic artefacts, dirty clothes and weapons.

After he moved back into the house, Lockwood started sleeping in his parent's old bedroom. It has striped wallpaper, curtains made from gold and green fabric, and is decorated with paintings depicting foreign countries. Beside Lockwood's bed and bedside table and lamp, there is an armoire in which he keeps his clothes.

Attic

Lucy sleeps in the attic, where Lockwood states he slept when he was younger. The room has its own bathroom and is located on the second floor directly beneath the roof, with a window going out on the street. The bathroom is described as being minuscule with the sink, shower and toilet practically overlapping. The bedroom was just big enough for a single bed, armoire and dresser and had an arched gable window overlooking Portland Row as far as the ghost-lamp on the corner.

Cellar

George tied up in the Cellar

The basement is the actual headquarters of Lockwood & Co. The large room has a wooden floor and is divided up into an office space with desks for Lockwood, Lucy, George and Holly and a rapier practice room which also functions as the laundry room. The only basement room with its own door is the storage room which contains the agency's weapons and supplies, such as salt bombs, iron chains etc. Leading from the cellar into the back garden is a reinforced glass door.

Behind the scenes

35 Portland Row was meticulously created for the Lockwood & Co. television series, including elements such as the Thinking Cloth, the agents' bedrooms and the training room. Showrunner Joe Cornish stated that he and the others of the crew would occasionally lose track of the actors playing Lockwood, Lucy and George and would find them in their respective bedrooms, asleep or listening to music. It was not, however, built as a complete house, and as such, the cast and crew had to be careful as they would sometimes open a door expecting to find a stairway and instead find a three-story drop. 35 Portland Row and the surrounding area were shot at Islington's Claremont Square.

A map and full listing of all the Lockwood & Co book and TV locations has been created by fans to assist with anyone visiting London. Named after the map George has pinned up in the kitchen at 35, Portland Row, "George's Gazetteer" is free and based on an interactive Google map. Click here to visit it.