Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

's works are especially associated with London, which is the setting for many of his novels. These works do not just use London as a backdrop but are about the city and its character. Dickens described London as a

magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...

, a popular entertainment of the Victorian era, which projected images from slides. Of all Dickens's characters, "none played as important a role in his work as that of London itself"; it fired his imagination and made him write. In a letter to John Forster in 1846, Dickens wrote "a day in London sets me up and starts me", but outside of the city, "the toil and labour of writing, day after day, without that magic lantern is IMMENSE!!" However, of the identifiable London locations that Dickens used in his work, scholar Clare Pettitt notes that many no longer exist and, while "you can track Dickens' London, and see where things were, but they aren't necessarily still there". In addition to his later novels and short stories, Dickens's descriptions of London, published in various newspapers in the 1830s, were released as a collected edition ''

Sketches by Boz ''Sketches by "Boz," Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People'' (commonly known as ''Sketches by Boz'') is a collection of short pieces Charles Dickens originally published in various newspapers and other periodicals between 1833 and ...

'' in 1836. Dickens's first son, also called

, wrote a popular guidebook to London called ''Dickens's Dictionary of London'' in 1879.

Locations

''Pickwick Papers''

Dickens's first novel ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') follows the travels of the club's members around England and, between them, they stay in over one hundred

Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

s during their journeys. A selection of those in the London area, including the

George and Vulture The George and Vulture is a restaurant in London. There has been an inn on the site, which is off Lombard Street in the historic City of London district, since 1142.The "George and Vulture" in "Pickwick Papers" Cedric Charles Dickens Pub. by D ...

in Lombard Street and the ''Golden Cross'' at Charing Cross, were the subject of Bertram Waldrom Matz's 1921 book ''The inns & taverns of "Pickwick", with some observations on their other associations'', and still feature on

Pub crawl A pub crawl (sometimes called a bar tour, bar crawl or bar-hopping) is the act of visiting multiple pubs or bars in a single session. Background Many European cities have public pub crawls that serve as social gatherings for local expatriates a ...

guides today.

''Oliver Twist''

When Oliver joins the

Artful Dodger Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel '' Oliver Twist''. The Dodger is a pickpocket, so called for his skill and cunning in that occupation. He is the leader of the gang of child criminal ...

to travel to

Fagin Fagin is a fictional character and the secondary antagonist in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver Twist''. In the preface to the novel, he is described as a "receiver of stolen goods". He is the leader of a group of children (the Artful Dod ...

's lair, they make their way through a series of streets until they reach the neighbourhood of

Saffron Hill Saffron Hill is a street and ward in the south eastern corner of the London Borough of Camden, between Farringdon Road and Hatton Garden. The name of the street derives from the fact that it was at one time part of an estate on which saffron g ...

. While the novel's final scene is set on Jacob's Island, where the murderous Bill Sikes meets his death while trying to escape into part of the

River Neckinger The River Neckinger is a reduced subterranean river that rises in Southwark and flows approximately through that part of London to St Saviour's Dock where it enters the Thames. What remains of the river is enclosed and runs underground and most ...

known as ''Folly's Ditch''.

''Little Dorrit''

Charles Dickens's father was incarcerated in the

debtors' prison A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe.Cory, Lucinda"A Histori ...

Marshalsea The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark, just south of the River Thames. Although it housed a variety of prisoners, including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition, it became known, ...

in Southwark, along with his wife and all their children except for Dickens and his sister Fanny, where much of ''

Little Dorrit ''Little Dorrit'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in serial form between 1855 and 1857. The story features Amy Dorrit, youngest child of her family, born and raised in the Marshalsea prison for debtors in London. Arthur Cl ...

'' is set. Most of the prison has been demolished but a wall remains near the Southwark Local Studies Library in

Borough High Street Borough High Street is a road in Southwark, London, running south-west from London Bridge, forming part of the A3 route which runs from London to Portsmouth, on the south coast of England. Overview Borough High Street continues southwest ...

. The remaining wall also adjoins the churchyard of St George the Martyr where the fictional Amy (the ''Little Dorrit'' of the title) sleeps the night after arriving back late to the Marshalsea, and also where she marries Arthur Clennam. Also close by is The George Inn where Amy's brother Tip adds his request to a begging letter. Another inmate of the Marshalsea, Mr Plornish, moves with his family to Bleeding Heart Yard, Farringdon, and receives a visit there from Arthur Clennam when he is making inquiries into the Dorrits.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Literary London Tour

Charles Dickens Museum in London

Walks through Dickens' London
Charles Dickens Culture in London