PAST EVENTS

WINTRY WALK IN DICKENS LONDON

Our Very Wintry Walk in Dickens' London

On a cold, windy day on Sunday January 23rd 2005, about 18 of us gathered eagerly outside Holborn tube station, all well wrapped up. We met up with our Blue Badge guide, Diane Burstein, who had also led the JDA group for the Jack the Ripper Walk last year. Our sign language interpreter was Ben Phillips.

Lincoln's Inn Fields

Diane, the guide, took us around some of the sights that were familiar to Charles Dickens. We walked to Lincoln's Inn Fields, near Holborn. Up until the 17th century, this was open fields where executions would take place for criminals. Charles Dickens' friend and biographer, John Forster, lived here in an imposing house at No. 58. They had met each other when they were both working for a newspaper called "The True Sun" (Dickens was a parliamentary reporter).

Charles Dickens wrote a famous novel named "The Old Curiosity Shop". We visited the tiny 16th century shop, which seems to be a shoe shop now!

Lincoln's Inn

We continued to Lincoln's Inn, where lawyers have worked and gathered since the early 15th century. The oldest surviving building here is the Old Hall, which dates back to 1492. Dickens set his novel "The Bleak House" here. The book is about the Chancery case of Tom Jarndyce. Charles Dickens worked as a legal clerk in the New Square but had bad experiences that led him to choose another career.

He switched to reporting in Parliament. It was here that he posted his first manuscript to a publisher in Fleet Street. After his first short stories were published, he was asked to produce the "Pickwick Papers".

The Inn Chapel here dates back to 1623 and the foundation stone was laid by the famous poet and clergyman John Donne, who was a member of the Inn.

Chancery Lane

We walked along Chancery Lane. This is mentioned many times in "The Bleak House" as old Tom Jaryndyce blew out his brains in a coffee house in the Lane.

We continued to:-

Gray's Inn

This area is named after the family of Sir Reginald De Gray, Chief Justice of Chester, whose family owned the land here. It was the largest inn in the 16th century and had the most famous members including Sir Francis Walsingham, Philip Sidney and Francis Bacon. Much of Gray's Inn was destroyed in the Second World War, but the chapel hall and library have been rebuilt.

Dickens worked as a clerk here and Gray's Inn was mentioned in "The Pickwick Papers" and "Little Dorrit".

48 Doughty Street

We saw the outside of Dickens' house, where he lived for two years from 1837- and it is the only house owned by Dickens in London, which still stands. The house is now the Dickens House Museum that you can visit.

While living here, Dickens' sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth, died at the age of 17 years, after a trip to the theatre. Dickens was very upset and carried a lock of her hair around with him for years afterwards.

Doughty Street was a very fashionable road in the 19th century. It was here that Dickens' wife gave birth to a 3rd child. Afterwards, the family moved to a larger house in Marylebone.

Coram's Fields and the Foundling Hospital

We carried on walking and chatting until we arrived in Coram's Fields, where Captain Thomas Coram set up the Foundling Hospital in the 18th century. The sight of infants abandoned by poor parents and left to die in the streets shocked him. He appealed for money to start an orphanage where children would be educated for professions. Dickens used to attend services at the chapel here and mentioned the orphanage in "Little Dorrit".

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children

We walked past this famous children's hospital. The hospital was founded by Dr Charles West, due to the high numbers of children's deaths at the time. It was the first children's hospital in England.

Dickens took a lot of personal interest in this hospital and in 1858 he took the chair at a dinner on its behalf and made an expressive appeal for funds. Charles Dickens also read from "A Christmas Carol' to raise money for the hospital. In the book "Our Mortal Friend", Little Johnny dies there.

The end

Here we ended our walk, tired out (well, me actually- don't know about the others!) and went to a local pub for drinks and coffee to revive ourselves!

We all enjoyed the interesting walk and although it was very cold to walk about, it was refreshing. Our grateful thanks go to our excellent guide, Diane, and to our sign language interpreter, Ben who had not realised it was such a cold day and wasn't too well wrapped up and forgot his gloves! Despite this, he relayed the guide's talk very well, although his hands were gradually going blue and stiff with the cold … I was so afraid he would get frostbite on his fingers!

Kay Kaufman