A visit to Liverpool provides an opportunity to trace the footsteps of young Rachel in Greenbanks. In just a few pages, Dorothy Whipple paints a fascinating picture of this bustling, characterful, "cosmopolitan" port city in the 1930s. She clearly knew and liked the city, and no doubt had arrived by train from Blackburn at Liverpool's busy Exchange Station just as Rachel does when she starts life as an "external" student at the University. This major station was closed in 1977 but the 1886 facade remains.