Banwell House, the British Paradise Islands

from The Essential Paradise, doc. 5.09

Banwell House is the British home government’s territorial and regional office, located on Lightfoot Square in Governor’s Harbour, in the British Paradise Islands, depicted in the Two Paradises fantasy/fiction realm, as devised by Jonnie Comet.

The building, reminiscent of many throughout residential London, is an elegant three-storey white-stuccoed concrete house, in the Adam/Regency style. Named for Howard Clarke Banwell, assistant minister of the War Department, who in 1941 was one of the only high-ranking civilians who assumed his assigned post in the territory by arriving by ship (at a time when Allied government and military transports were German and Japanese Navy targets). More than a mere office building, Banwell House serves as a kind of secure, autonomous embassy, including guest apartments and-- according to rumour-- still-functional, secret, deep-basement offices built in the 1940s to serve as a possible sanctuary of the British government in the event of retrenchment.

Typically the term ‘Banwell House’ may refer to either the building itself or the British home government’s official policy or prerogative as applicable to the territory.

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