Thames runs in a circle...

[cynthia]

Read this book 40+ years ago, seeking title or author. The Thames runs in a circle, Queen Victoria and Churchill walk the streets, about a dozen "children" attend school. Everything is very pleasant, but something isn't quite right. "Children" are approximately 20 years old. The upshot is that the "children" have been "grown" by machine. Now that the kids are adults, the machines want them to "tell us what to do". I know this is an almost impossible request but I would REALLY like to find this book again. Thank you.

 

[otistdog]

Any chance this is "The Overman Culture" by Edmund Cooper? Sounds very similar to one answered recently on another forum:

story identification - Book about Shakespeare and Churchill as a robot - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange

Per posters there, the robots are called "drybones" by the children, if that rings a bell.