Buckingham Palace appears as a destination on Sunday Small’s nighttime walk through London with Jacob. The visit makes the capital, previously known to Sunday chiefly through pictures, part of her lived experience and opens onto a wider tour of the city.

The nighttime visit

Jacob suggests heading for the Mall so Sunday can see Buckingham Palace, and she eagerly agrees. They walk beneath flickering gas lamps before visiting the palace; the scene records it as a landmark on their excursion, without describing its architecture or the visit itself in further detail.

Place in Sunday’s London outing

After the visit, Sunday and Jacob board an omnibus. From its window, she looks out over London, whose sights had long interested her because Verity Lockett encouraged her pupils to glimpse towns and cities beyond their home town. The River Thames looks different by night to Sunday: gaslight shimmers on the water beneath a starry sky. Jacob proposes visiting Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral the next day, extending the outing beyond the palace. The excursion’s wonder is tempered on the walk back to the hotel, when Sunday sees ragged beggars sleeping in alleyways; London’s grandeur and its visible poverty become contrasting parts of her first encounter with the city.