London is linked to two stages in Anny’s life: an earlier period when she performed in a small Soho Square theatre, and her later decision to leave Paris for London before possibly continuing to Egypt. In the account of her past, it represents practical theatrical work rather than the grand career Roquentin had imagined; in the present, it becomes the first destination in a journey that carries her away from him again.

Anny’s Theatrical Work

Anny tells Roquentin that she had been working in a theatre in London. When he asks whether she acted with Candler, she corrects his assumption: Candler was the orchestra leader, not her theatrical partner. Her company performed in a small theatre in Soho Square, where the repertory included The Emperor Jones, works by Synge and O’Casey, and Britannicus.

The account also records the reason she quit. Anny had proposed staging Britannicus, but the company wanted her to play Junie. Her brief explanation makes London a place where she exercised initiative as well as acted: she supplied the idea for a production, then left when the role assigned to her did not suit what she wanted. The remembered work is specific, but it does not become a story of sustained theatrical success; it is one episode in a life she describes while telling Roquentin that she is growing older and must take care of herself.

Departure from Paris

Later, Anny says she is leaving for London the following evening, travelling by way of Dieppe. She thinks she may go on to Egypt and might return to Paris the next winter, promising to write. London is thus not simply a remembered workplace: it is the first leg of her impending departure and the threshold to a destination beyond it.

Roquentin offers to be free all day the next day, but Anny answers that she has too much to do and cannot see him. She says she will write from Egypt and asks him for his address. The projected letter leaves open a future connection, but the immediate consequence is separation: London stands between their last meeting and the uncertain possibility of Anny’s return.

Narrative Significance

The two references to London frame Anny’s mobility without turning it into a promise of reunion. In the earlier account, she is part of a theatrical company and makes a choice that leads her to quit; in the later one, she is again moving on, this time declining Roquentin’s request for another day together. The city therefore joins a past of work and decision to a present in which her plans take precedence over his wish to prolong their encounter.

London’s significance remains grounded in these brief disclosures rather than in a narrated cityscape. It is identified through Soho Square, the plays Anny recalls, and the route by Dieppe; the narrative gives no further description of the city itself. What matters is the movement attached to it: Anny has lived and worked there, and now leaves Paris for it while keeping any return—and any renewed meeting—tentative.