South London is the setting of Queenie Jenkins’s grandparents’ home and a recurring point of return during a period of upheaval. It represents both her practical refuge and the family tensions surrounding that refuge: she has nowhere else readily available to stay, yet accepting shelter does not mean her choices are free from conflict.

Family Shelter and Constraint

When Queenie Jenkins considers leaving her grandparents’ home, her grandmother challenges the idea that she can simply go elsewhere. Her mother’s circumstances, her father’s presence in Jamaica, and Maggie’s inability to take her in leave the grandparents’ roof as the available place to stay. South London is therefore not just a backdrop to family life; it is the location of an immediate dependency that gives the disagreement over therapy practical force.

Routes Back and Renewed Contact

South London also marks Queenie Jenkins’s return from appointments and encounters beyond the home. After a therapy session, she rides the Tube home and reaches the area before receiving a text from Darcy Betts, who checks in after weeks without contact and asks how therapy is going. The journey back connects her effort to address her problems with the possibility of renewed support from a friend.

Homecoming and Emotional Shift

After fainting, Queenie Jenkins rides home in a cab with her grandmother. During the journey, her grandmother lists reasons she will not leave South London, including repeated objections to buildings and smells. Queenie is exhausted, but the return leaves her feeling that some weight has lifted: she is not brighter, only lighter. The distinction keeps the homecoming from becoming a simple resolution; South London offers a place of return and a moment of relief, not an instant cure.