Category: Britain

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Seeing London by the Book

Looking for a novel approach to England’s capitol? Why not take a tour of literary London.

A good place to start is the newly refurbished Charles Dickens Museum at 48 Doughty St., once the home of the prolific author. If you’ve got the time, you nip around the corner to the The Foundling Museum which combines some works of art with a detailed history of what happened to destitute mothers and their babies in Victorian England. Dickens not only championed the cause of the poor and downtrodden in his books, he worked with the hospital to improve the lives of the real-life children as well. One of the exhibits is a copy of his essay, “Received, a Blank Child,” (blank was the space where officials would fill in male or female).

From the Dickens museum, head south on Doughty St. and turn left on Roger St. to get to Gray’s Inn Rd., which takes you past the Gray’s Inn law offices where Dickens once clerked.  Continuing past the offices you can turn left on Holborn, which becomes Newgate Street, and then turn left on Old Bailey, site of the infamous Newgate Prison, which was destroyed at the turn of the 19th century and now home to the Central Criminal Court.

Stay south on Old Bailey and you will run into Ludgate Hill, turn left and you’re in Fleet Street, once the heart of the newspaper business. Turn right and you’re headed for St. Paul’s Cathedral, featured in a number of Dickens books includingDavid Copperfield. Hit St. Paul’s at 5 p.m. and you can sit and listen to the beautiful evensong service for free. (But you can’t make the sightseeing rounds; that’s for non-worshipping hours and costs money.)

Staying on Ludgate Hill, which becomes Cannon St., takes you to King William St. Turn right and you’re on London Bridge, where Nancy met with Mr. Brownlow to conspire for Oliver’s safety. In the 1968 movie, “Oliver!” Nancy was killed on the bridge steps by the brutal Bill Sykes. In the book, she’s killed at home. Fair warning, this isn’t the London Bridge of Dicken’s time. To find that you’ll have to go to Lake Havasu City, Ariz., where it was relocated, piece by piece, more than 40 years ago. The bridge that currently spans the Thames is from ye ancient 1973.

Once you’ve crossed the bridge, look for the George Inn on your left. This is one of the many, many pubs that Dickens is said to have visited and is mentioned in “Little Dorrit.” This building, the last remaining galleried coaching inn in London, is a replacement, too, built after a fire destroyed the previous inn. But not to worry, history buffs. It’s new as in, built in 1676.

I won’t lie. The meat pie and beer that I had at the George were OK but not  gastronomically memorable. But sitting at an old wooden table in the room where Dickens and co. once had coffee and talked over the news of the day? Unforgettable.