The primary setting for the novel’s central mystery is Thornwood, a house located in the Vale of Health, a small hamlet set within Hampstead Heath in North London. Historically, the area was a swamp known as Hatch’s Bottom until the 1770s, when it “was drained by the Hampstead Water Company in the 1770s, and houses were built on the reclaimed land” (Hartwell, Oliver. “The Vale of Health: Hampstead’s Hidden Hamlet in the Heath.” Hampstead-Village.Com, Hampstead Village London, 18 Mar. 2026). A popular but likely unfounded local legend, which the novel references, claims its name comes from its time as a sanctuary during 18th-century plagues. The hamlet also has a celebrated literary history. In the early 19th century, “The poet, essayist, and editor Leigh Hunt lived in the Vale of Health [and] His cottage became a gathering place for the Romantic circle, Keats, Shelley, Byron, and Hazlitt are all said to have visited. [Hunt’s] presence drew the leading literary figures of the age” including D. H. Lawrence and Rabindranath Tagore (Hartwell). 

Physically, the Vale is an isolated pocket of urban wilderness, an island of houses surrounded by the 690 acres of woodland and meadows that comprise Hampstead Heath. This unique geography creates a sense of seclusion despite its location within one of the world’s busiest cities. Author Lisa Jewell uses this real-world setting to cultivate the novel’s claustrophobic atmosphere, foregrounding her thematic exploration of The Dangers of Isolation. When Jane first visits Thornwood, she recalls “the strange sensation of leaving the heart of loud, high-octane Friday-night London” and arriving in a “sleepy Dickensian hamlet” that feels “cut off from the rest of the world” (12). This sense of isolation makes it plausible that the Vale’s various inhabitants could be held captive and disappear without a trace. The house itself feels like “the last house in the world” (12), transforming the picturesque hamlet into a menacing and inescapable trap, enhancing the story’s Gothic tension.