Where It All Goes Down
London in the Mid-to-Late Twentieth Century
The first thing you need to know about The Black Prince's setting is that it's hard to know exactly whenthe novel is set. Bradley Pearson's narrative—which he calls "The Black Prince"—is framed by forewords and postscripts that tell us clearly that the events described in his story happened "several years" ago (Bradley Pearson's Foreword: par. 1).
When did the murder of Arnold Baffin actually happen? How long had Bradley Pearson been in prison before he wrote The Black Prince, and how long after Bradley's death did P. Loxias wait before publishing the book? Much as we'd like to, it's impossible to answer these questions for sure.
The best we can do is hazard a guess or two. Given the things that people do and wear and say throughout Bradley Pearson's story, its safe to assume that the events described in The Black Prince happened in the late '60s or early '70s. The Black Prince was first published in 1973, but we don't need to assume that Iris Murdoch imagined the prison portion of the book as happening in the real world's present or past tense. As far as we're concerned, more than a few interpretations are fair game.
The second thing that you need to know about The Black Prince's setting is that most of Bradley Pearson's narrative takes place in London or in the city's surrounding suburbs. Apart from Bradley and Julian's short-lived stint at a northern seaside cottage, most of the story's action occurs in town.
Bradley Pearson himself lives in North Soho, which he describes as "a seedy region that was once genteel" (Bradley Pearson's Foreword: par. 12). By contrast, the Baffins live in Ealing—a well-to-do suburb where Arnold's financial success is on display, even if it's in a relatively modest, low-key way.
The contrast between Bradley Pearson's little apartment in the city center and the Baffins' spacious suburban home is just one of the many ways in which the novel invites comparisons between Bradley's and Arnold's respective personalities, lifestyles, and perspectives, and in which it demonstrates that the two of them are foils.