London

London is the city where Bill Denbrough and his wife Audra Phillips are living and working during the spring of 1985, when Mike Hanlon's phone call summons Bill back to Derry. It serves as the geographical and psychological point of departure for Bill's return to his childhood home and the final confrontation with It.

Bill Denbrough's Residence and Work

Bill and Audra are renting a cottage in the small suburban village of Fleet, south of London, during the filming of Attic Room, a movie for which Bill wrote the original screenplay. The cottage is described as having a tidy basement with a furnace, but the British central heating proves inadequate by American standards, leaving the house cold during an exceptionally dank spring. Bill receives Mike's transatlantic phone call early in the morning, and the conversation prompts him to pour himself a glass of Glenfiddich before breakfast—an unusual act that alarms Audra. The cottage's television, a good Pye color set, shows BBC programming, including American shows like Dallas and British sports events such as champion darts-throwing and football.

The Point of Departure

After the phone call, Bill decides to return to Derry immediately. He drives to Heathrow Airport to catch the Concorde, which departs for New York. The Concorde's narrow cabin, the fat and unclean seatmate, and the digital readout showing a cruising speed of over mach 2 all contribute to Bill's claustrophobia and unease. He observes the curvature of the earth from the small window, a sight that underscores the surreal nature of his journey. The flight takes him from London to New York, from where he will continue to Derry, Maine.

Narrative and Thematic Significance

London represents the adult life Bill has built—a successful career as a novelist and screenwriter, a marriage to a movie star, and a comfortable existence far from the traumas of his childhood. It is the place where he has forgotten his past, including the murder of his brother George and the events of the summer of 1958. The city's distance from Derry, both geographically and psychologically, makes it the ideal starting point for a journey that is as much a return to memory as it is a physical trip. Bill's departure from London marks the beginning of the final act of the story, as he leaves behind his present life to confront the unresolved horrors of his past.