Charles Dickens had a gift; he was able to vividly describe the streets of Victorian London like no other. He was able to soak up every little detail during his daily walks around the city, leading him to create visual scenes for his readers that would secure his place as one of Britain’s greatest writers ever.
“It was market-morning. The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire; a thick steam, perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heavily above… Countrymen, butchers, drovers, hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers, and vagabonds of every low-grade, were mingled together in a mass…” (Oliver Twist)
About Charles Dickens in London
With Charles Dickens’s London growing thanks to the Industrial Revolution, the rich got richer whilst the poorer areas sunk deeper into squalor and filth. This means that many of Dickens’ novels focus on the pickpockets, the prostitutes, the street vendors, the drunks, and the beggars rather than the grandiose buildings of 19th century London.
So how have the slums of the city changed over the years? From the East End to the West End, it’s time to relive Charles Dickens’s London.
#1 Brick Lane, East London
Whilst many normally head this way in search of a decent curry or on a Jack the Ripper tour, die-hard Dickens’s fans wander the streets in search of the Temperance Association mentioned in The Pickwick Papers.
Start your tour by visiting No160 Buxton Street which housed the monthly meetings “where the ladies sat upon forms and drank tea until such time as they considered it expedient to leave off.”
After wandering the side streets it is not uncommon to find yourself at either Leadenhall or Spitalfields Market both of which would have been popular meeting places and trading centers during the 1800s.