The brief was to create a ‘sense of place’ in the modern laneway that is imbued with the mythology, character and personality of Mme B. While immersing ourselves in the history of ‘Marvellous London’, we took inspiration from a press excerpt at the height of Mme B’s infamy in 1889. Conservative moral crusaders claimed that she had been “parading in Collins Street in charge of a beautiful girl under 20 with a white feather in her hat, indicating that her maiden virtue was to be had for a price ‘in her gilded den’.”