Occupying the lower tip of the peninsula formed by the Ashley and Cooper rivers, named for Anthony Ashley Cooper, one of the English Lords Proprietor), Charleston's historic district encompasses the area specified in the original 17C city plan, called the Grand Modell. A stroll along the brick, palmetto-fringed streets transports visitors back to the days when Charleston was a prosperous aristocratic city peopled by landed gentry, almost a miniature London.