Located in the West End of London, bordered by Soho and Theatreland, Chinatown is a pedestrianized area consisting of East Asian restaurants and businesses just off Shaftesbury Avenue, a five minute walk from the Agency Office on Denmark Street.
Once located in the dockland area of London at Limehouse, it was a hub for migrant Chinese sailors. Major damage to the area during the Second World War caused many of the inhabitants to move into central London. The rising popularity of East Asian cuisine in the 1950s and 1960s created a thriving cultural community that continues, despite attempts to redevelop, to this day.
In The Cuckoo’s Calling
Strike goes to Chinatown a couple of times in the first Strike book. He goes to Wong Kei restaurant for food, twice in ten days.
“At nine o’clock Strike walked to Chinatown and bought himself a meal; then he returned to the office, swapped Tom Waits for Elbow, and searched out online accounts of Evan Duffield, the man who, by common consent, even that of Bristow, had not killed his girlfriend.” (Part 2, Chapter 8)
The second time Strike visits Wong Kei is to hand over Lula Landry’s laptop to Spanner.
“It was lighter now than it had been at eight o’clock two weeks ago; still daylight when Strike was seated, for the second time in ten days, in Wong Kei, the tall, white-fronted Chinese restaurant with a window view of an arcade centre called Play to Win.” (Part 3, Chapter 7)
In The Silkworm
Robin parks the rented Toyota in the Chinatown Q-Park. This is also the car park where John Bristow mentions parking in The Cuckoo’s Calling TV adaptation.
“The Toyota Land Cruiser that Robin had hired had been parked overnight in the Q-Park in Chinatown, one of the nearest car parks to Denmark Street, where there was no parking at all.” (Chapter 28)
In Career of Evil
“The murder of Heather Smart, a twenty-two-year-old building society employee from Nottingham, was an entirely different matter …Heather had been to see The Lion King the night before her death, had eaten dim sum in Chinatown and posed for photographs in Hyde Park with the Life Guards riding past in the background.” (Chapter 49)
In Troubled Blood
“Pat had somehow managed to carry the old video projector upstairs for him, and he suspected that it was the sound of her setting this down that had woken him. Beside it lay the can of film from Gregory Talbot’s attic, a small pile of wrapped Christmas gifts, a handful of cards and two polystyrene tubs of hot chicken soup that he knew she must have walked to Chinatown to fetch. He felt quite pathetically grateful.” (Chapter 29)
In The Ink Black Heart
“If Robin hadn’t been pondering the question of why the stabbing of two animators could have possibly interested MI5, she might have asked herself why Strike was taking a small rucksack into Chinatown to pick up his takeaway, but she was so preoccupied, his lie went unchallenged.” (Chapter 12)
In Chapter 27, Strike meets Dev Shah in Opium.
“A mere half an hour after they’d last spoken, Shah called Strike to say that Montgomery and his friends were in Opium, a dim sum parlour in Chinatown and a short walk from the office.” (Chapter 27)
In Chapter 38, Strike and Robin meet in Gerrard’s Corner.
“Listen, would you mind if we do it over food? Maybe in Chinatown?’ ‘That’d be great,’ said Robin. ‘I’m starving. I’ll find somewhere and text you.’ Twenty minutes later, Strike entered the upper floor of Gerrard’s Corner restaurant to find Robin sitting at a table by the window” (Chapter 38).
In The Running Grave
Chinatown is a particularly significant location in the seventh novel; it is where the Universal Humanitarian Church’s main Temple is located on Rupert Court, off Wardour Street.
“Rupert Court, as Robin already knew, having worked in the area for years, was a narrow alleyway hung with glass lamps that connected Rupert Street and Wardour Street at the point where Chinatown and Soho converged. On one side of the passageway were various small businesses, including a Chinese reflexologist. Most of the other side was taken up by the temple” (Chapter 10).
Rupert Court is also in the TV adaptation of Troubled Blood. Robin leaves flowers for Kara Wolfson.
“Strike was walking slowly back up Charing Cross Road from Chinatown, where he’d eaten a solitary evening meal in a restaurant on Wardour Street. Looking down into the darkening street while eating his Singapore noodles, he’d watched a couple of people in blue tracksuits passing at a slow walk, deep in conversation, before turning into Rupert Court.” (Chapter 100)
“Robin parted from Strike in Tottenham Court Road, and arrived in Wardour Street ten minutes later. It was swarming with Saturday evening visitors to Chinatown, but she couldn’t see Midge.” (Chapter 126)
Find Chinatown on the map below.