Tallowmere
Tallowmere is a district at the southern edge of Lundeinjon, far from the affluent neighborhoods of the west bank. It is where the city's dirty trades are relegated: tanning, rendering, and other industries that produce foul odors and other effluvia. Most of the industry clusters around the White Pudding Canal, which connects Tallowmere to the riverside districts of Southfell and the Lower Quays. Much of the material for Tallowmere's industries originates in the Shambleyard of Southfell, and the canal carries the waste products away to the river to be washed out to sea. Many of the industries undertaken in Tallowmere are hazardous, and more than a few can result in catastrophes. For those who doubt this fact, a tour of the blasted ruins of Tolliver's Phlogiston Manufactory should be enough to settle the question.
Demographics
Tallowmere is a working class district, with families who have lived and worked here for generations. They consider themselves tougher than the people living in most other districts, who cannot stand the stench of Tallowmere.
But there has been a steady shift in the demographics over the last twenty years. Children brought up in the district have been moving out, seeking better paying and less smelly work in other parts of the city, while immigrants and Constructs have been taking over the work they have left behind.
Constructs are not as heavily used here as in other parts of the city, but they are making inroads wherever they can adequately perform the job. Many elements of Tallowmere's industries, however, are beyond the limited senses and intellect of a construct to perform. Still, the shifting demographics have made many of the older residents unhappy, and they say that the old Tallowmere is disappearing before their eyes.
History
Five hundred years ago, the area now known as Tallowmere was all farmland and small villages, the most prominent feature being Pig Hill, called such for its many piggeries. As the city of Lundeinjon grew, it absorbed these villages one by one, turning the farms into streets and the villages into factories.
But the district's destiny was ultimately shaped by the weather. The prevailing winds around Lundeinjon are such that a tannery or rendering pit in Tallowmere can almost never pollute the air of the affluent districts across the Lunde. Over time, all the "dirty" industries the city depends on moved here, to the southernmost point of the city where they cannot offend anyone with the money and influence to complain.
Points of interest
Odoriferous Trades
Tallowmere's most prominent landmarks are the many industries that offend the senses, most notably the sense of smell. From the leather factories of Tannery Row to the tallow rendering of Coultherd & Bow, every street corner brings a new and unpleasant aroma to the nose.
The largest of these odiferous establishments is Forefield Soap & Tallow Works, which produces most of the soap used in the city. It is closely followed by Coultherd & Bow, which turns animal products into lubricants, glue, and cut-rate candles, and the Betchfold Bone Mill, which boils and grinds the skeletal remains from the Shambleyard into bone meal for fertilizer or alchemical use.
Alchemical Works
Many of the industries of Tallowmere are alchemical in nature. The von Hohenheim Alchemical Brewery, locally known as "The Vats," is an enormous complex on the bank of the White Pudding Canal that turns mundane ingredients into magical formulae for the citizens of Lundeinjon.
In the northeastern corner near Bellfoundry is the Winsor Gas Works, where coal is processed into coal gas and then further refined into pure phlogiston, the rarified substance that fuels the alchemical lanterns of the wealthy, with all the smoke left behind to mark the skies above Tallowmere.
McGuire's Chandlery mixes the traditional and the arcane, using alchemical processes to turn common tallow and beeswax into candles that are cleaner and brighter than anything possible through mundane means.
Finally, there is The Tallowmere Quintessence Brokerage, a vital business that makes the others possible by arranging the exchange of spiritual energy from those who have nothing else to sell to those who require this energy to empower the magical goods they produce.
Other Landmarks
Beyond the factories and workshops other institutions of life in the city. Tallowmere's spiritual needs are met by St. Jude-in-the-Smoke, the district's largest church, known for having an unusually large graveyard which still has room, although its capacity is rapidly diminishing.
Standing even taller than the church steeple is the great chimney over Pennybrick Brewery, which produces the majority of the beer and ale drunk in Lundeinjon and is treated with at least as much reverence as a cathedral by the population.
And then there is Union Hall, on Southgate Road, where the Worker's Guild is headquartered and where they work to further the rights of laborers in the Empire, despite the efforts of the factory owners and the damage the violent Wreckers have done to their cause.
Finally, there are two new additions to Tallowmere that seem to be harbingers of changes yet to come. First, there is Tallowmere Station, at the southern tip of the district, which connects the district to the rail line being built around the city perimeter. It is the most recent station, and construction on the line continues toward a planned railway tunnel in Mirebank to the north.
The second new addition is The Henry Homes, an experiment in social housing from the Prince Consort and the philanthropist architect Robert Henry. These huge brick buildings are multistory apartment blocks constructed with the aim of improving the living conditions and character of the working classes. The Henry Homes are capable of housing more people on less land than ever before, and their scientifically hygienic layout is certain to ameliorate the worst impulses of The Poor.
- Betchfold Bone Mill
- Candleworks Constabulary
- Coultherd & Bow
- Forefield Soap & Tallow Works
- McGuire's Chandlery
- Pennybrick Brewery
- St. Jude-in-the-Smoke
- Tallowmere Station
- The Henry Homes
- The Tallowmere Quintessence Brokerage
- Tolliver Phlogiston Manufactory
- Union Hall
- von Hohenheim Alchemical Brewery
- Winsor Gas Works
Marshreach
Mirebank
Related Articles
Visions of Tallowmere
Below are paintings of Tallowmere by some of Lundeinjon's most prominent artists.
Coultherd & Bow by Frank Dearings
Forefield Soap Factory by Georges Deoille
Noon Shift at Winsor Gas by Maex Darles
St. Jude-in-the-Smoke by J.S.A. Carver
The Brewery by J.S.A. Carver
The Exchange by Maex Darles
The Vats by Georges Deoilles
Tuesday at Coultherd & Bow by Maex Darles
That is how I imagine London must have looked in Victorian times with all of the coal burning chimneys.
That's definitely the inspiration here