What is the setting for Ester's storyline in the novel, The Weight of Ink?

The majority of Ester’s storyline takes place in the city of London between 1657 and 1665. Before the plague, Ester frequents the bindery to conduct the rabbi’s business, where she consumes a variety of texts, along with those at the booksellers’ tables outside Saint Paul’s cathedral. London’s Jews are predominately situated on Milk Street, Gracechurch and Thames Streets, and Fishmongers’ hall. Ester’s narrative emphasizes the shifting political and religious ideologies of England; she observes how the city changes in response to fading Puritanism, as London’s style of dress becomes less severe and theater attendance, prostitution, and gambling escalate. While anti-Semitism is pervasive throughout London prior to 1665, Jews are particularly endangered during the plague and go into hiding to prevent being blamed for the sickness. Ester’s descriptions of London in 1665 and 1666 create a picture of increasing paranoia and chaos in the disease-stricken city. Aside from the synagogue and the da Costa Mendes residence, the city of Ester’s youth is destroyed by the Great Fire in 1667.