The Ellises of Barking
Edward walked at his usual brisk pace along Barking Creek and the town wharf, an inlet of the Thames. The fishing port was not as prosperous as it once had been, but it still flourished, a bit. This area of East London had been little more than a slum before the reign of Her Majesty the Queen but now it had its own railway connecting it to London proper. The area had lost its tenements and gained the London office workers seeking less expensive but still respectable accommodations in the neat rows of terraced cottages. And there, at the north end of North Street, were the red brick semi-detached houses. The Ellises of Barking lived in one such semi-detached house on the north side of the north end of North Street.
He arrived outside his family’s home and paused nea
