The House of Dracula

26/03/2020

PURFLEET IN ESSEX

Close enough to the river for Dracula to make a quick exit by ship if his plans don't come to fruition on English soil.

16/08/2019

ANOTHER LOCATION MODEL FOR THE HOUSE...?

Tracy Lee:
Ingress Abbey in Greenhithe, Kent is mentioned by Iain Sinclair in his book London Orbital re Carfax inspiration. I don’t agree with him but it was worth popping by with my own black dog! His quote is: “I believe Ingress is the mirror image of Dracula’s abbey. I think Stoker transposed it to the opposite side of the river.”

14/07/2019

"Enter freely and of your own will."

24/06/2019

A Practical Tour Guide to the authentic London location sites referred to in Bram Stoker's classic novel, 'Dracula'.

21/02/2019

IN THE MOULD OF DRACULA

Although, strictly speaking, Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire is nowhere near the district of Purfleet, it does appear to fit quite well with the descriptions of Carfax House in Bram Stoker's Dracula novel. This, of course, could be purely by accident or it could even be due to the author having actually seen it while travelling around England.

21/02/2019

FROM THE PAGE TO THE STAGE

Interestingly enough, this faithful stage adaptation of Stoker's novel by Tudor Williams refers to Dracula's house in the third act of the play as 'Carfax Abbey', even though for the sake of the author's own convenience much of the action of the play is skilfully condensed by setting it mostly within the confines of the area of Hampstead in North London and only steps beyond it via several atmospheric flash-back scenes at Castle Dracula in Transylvania.

Nonetheless, clearly for some readers of the book, the impression they may have of the Carfax estate is that perhaps it could indeed have been an abbey building at one time.

A largely faithful and simply staged play adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel which is now made easily available for any form of theatrical production.

12/02/2019

FANTASY VERSES LITERARY DETECTION

I think it is a fair assumption to make that during his researches in Purfleet, Essex, Bram Stoker had simply adopted certain elements and features which he had come upon in his travels through the area to eventually formulate his descriptions of Dracula's discreet country manor in southern England.

As a result, there are a few which stand out for due consideration:

(1) Purfleet House had a specifically box-shaped architectural design which featured four sides of equal width and height. Thus, it may be construed as being perhaps the basic model for the name, 'Carfax'. In other words, it clearly had the four faces which the text implies.

(2) The atmospheric Belhus Manor which had stood in Belhus Park at the time Stoker had visited the region surely has to be seen as the inspirational model for the type of building he finally came to describe in the book.

(3) Apart from this, a swift scan of Google maps these days will clearly show that there are, or were, enough lakes and flowing streams surrounding Aveley, in particular, to have provided the additional descriptions Stoker gives of the grounds within which the fictional house had supposedly stood.

(4) There are at least four other sites with interesting houses on them which the diligent researcher can observe for themselves as well.

12/02/2019

Jonathan Harker's Journal:

"The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old Quatre Face, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the cardinal points of the compass. It contains in all some twenty acres, quite surrounded by the solid stone wall above mentioned. There are many trees on it, which make it in places gloomy, and there is a deep, dark-looking pond or small lake, evidently fed by some springs, as the water is clear and flows away in a fair-sized stream. The house is very large and of all periods back, I should say, to medieval times, for one part is of stone immensely thick, with only a few windows high up and heavily barred with iron. It looks like part of a keep, and is close to an old chapel or church."

12/02/2019

"There was an earthy smell, as of some dry miasma, which came through the fouler air. But as to the odour itself, how shall I describe it? It was not alone that it was composed of all the ills of mortality and with the pungent, acrid smell of blood, but it seemed as though corruption had become itself corrupt."

12/02/2019

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF DRACULA IN PURFLEET

While it is always a fascinating prospect to go and visit the many sites and localities mentioned in the text of Dracula, the most likely explanation for the Purfleet scenario is that just as he had done with the Piccadilly, Hampstead, and Hendon locations, Bram Stoker's descriptions were a combination of elements taken from several sources which came together in his mind as an imaginative whole.