1 00:00:12,390 --> 00:00:14,350 Welcome to the London History Podcast. 2 00:00:14,710 --> 00:00:19,750 I am Hazel Baker, tour guide and CEO of London guidedwalks.co.uk. 3 00:00:21,070 --> 00:00:23,830 Today we are looking into the life of one of Britain's most 4 00:00:23,830 --> 00:00:28,590 famous orphans, a figure whose story begins in hardship yet 5 00:00:28,590 --> 00:00:32,630 goes on to shape literature, imagination and even how we 6 00:00:32,630 --> 00:00:36,440 think about childhood itself. Orphans have a long captured 7 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:40,480 public sympathy and creative fascination, embodying both 8 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:45,160 vulnerability and resilience. But the orphan at the heart of 9 00:00:45,160 --> 00:00:49,040 today's story is more than a character on a page or a tragic 10 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:52,880 tale from the past. So join me as we step back into 11 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,840 the world that shaped him, the work houses, the streets of 12 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,080 London and the changing attitudes towards poverty, 13 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:01,840 charity and social responsibility. 14 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:06,960 This is not just the tale of an orphan, but how one boy came to 15 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:12,280 symbolise hope, survival and the fight for dignity in the most 16 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:16,160 difficult of circumstances. First appearing in print in 17 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:20,480 1837, Oliver Twist is no fairy tale foundling. 18 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,640 He is a child of the workhouse, born into poverty and forced to 19 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:29,080 navigate a city of crime, cruelty and corruption. 20 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:33,880 His story shocked Victorian readers because he didn't flinch 21 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:36,800 from exposing the brutal realities of child poverty, 22 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:42,640 hunger and exploitation, issues that many preferred not to see. 23 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,280 Out of sight, out of mind, right? 24 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:49,160 But Oliver Twist is more than just a character. 25 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:54,640 He became a symbol for Dickens. Oliver was the innocent, at the 26 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:58,440 mercy of a system that failed him at every single turn. 27 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,840 For readers, he was both a mirror and a moral test. 28 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:08,560 Would they, too, want some more? In this episode, we will trace 29 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,200 Oliver's world from the workhouse to the London 30 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:15,200 rookeries, and explore how Dickens's most enduring orphan 31 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,120 helped to shape not only the novel itself, but public debate 32 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,040 about the city and the society that created him. 33 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:27,400 Charles Dickens published Oliver Twist in monthly instalments 34 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:33,440 from 1837 to 1839, just as London was hatzling into the 35 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:37,360 Victorian age. What makes a novel so enduring 36 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:41,280 is not simply Oliver's plight, but the way the city itself 37 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:45,840 looms over the story. London isn't merely A backdrop, 38 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:48,760 it is a character in its own right. 39 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:55,240 Suffocating, dangerous and yet strangely full of possibility, 40 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,280 many of the novel's most memorable episodes are tied to 41 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:02,280 recognisable districts of the capital. 42 00:03:02,920 --> 00:03:06,520 Dickens blended real geography with fictional invention, 43 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:10,760 producing a cityscape that felt familiar to contemporary readers 44 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:15,800 and compellingly atmospheric. He often walked the streets 45 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,760 himself at night, making mental notes of alleys, courts and 46 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:22,600 slums that resurfaced in his fiction. 47 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:27,400 Take, for example, Oliver's arrival in London after fleeing 48 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:30,040 the workhouse and then his apprenticeship with the 49 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,160 Undertaker. Exhausted, starving and 50 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:37,960 bewildered, he trudges along the Great North Road and finally 51 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:43,200 ends in Barnet. This is where he meets a boy, a 52 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:46,000 little shorter than him, a little scruffier than him, but 53 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,720 suddenly with a twinkle in his eye. 54 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:53,800 That boy is the Artful Dodger, and he offers Oliver an 55 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:57,160 introduction to a gentleman who can provide him with food, 56 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,480 lodgings and not want any rent. Too good to be true? 57 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:05,320 Of course it is. But Oliver Twist, with little 58 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:09,240 alternative, follows the Artful Dodger into the bowels of 59 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,880 London. And that's exactly what we do on 60 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:15,680 my Oliver Twist walking tour. We start at Angel and work our 61 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:20,440 way into London itself, looking at what Oliver and the Artful 62 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:23,560 Dodger, had they been real, what they would have experienced 63 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:26,800 walking those streets and following the words of Dickens 64 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:31,160 from Chapter 8, Dickens's readers would have instantly 65 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:35,680 recognised London, the setting where one was a vulnerable child 66 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:38,040 and could easily fall into danger. 67 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,880 And danger could come in different shapes and sizes. 68 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:47,320 Artful Dodger, who leads him to Fagin's den. 69 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:52,480 While Dickens never exactly pins down the address, scholars often 70 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:56,120 place the gang's lair in the labyrinth of narrow lanes around 71 00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:00,240 Saffron Hill. Now, in the 1830s, this district 72 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:04,440 was described as the most notorious Rookery in London. 73 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:08,560 Dickens's readers would have instantly recognised the setting 74 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:12,160 as one of where a vulnerable child might easily fall into 75 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,840 danger. And of course, danger comes in 76 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:19,240 all different shapes and sizes. It is the Artful Dodger who 77 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:24,240 leads him to Fagin's Den. While Dickens never pins down 78 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:27,920 the exact dress, scholars often find the gang's lair in the 79 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:31,880 labyrinth of narrow lanes in and around Saffron Hill. 80 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:37,120 In the 1830's, the district was described as the most notorious 81 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:41,440 Rookery in London, home to dilapidated houses crammed with 82 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:44,560 families, pickpockets and St. traders. 83 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:49,440 Henry Mayhew later wrote about the stench, noise and crowding 84 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:52,920 were almost beyond belief. It was a world where the 85 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:57,120 boundary between survival and criminality was perilously thin. 86 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:00,800 We do cover this and some of the exploitation of children in 87 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:05,960 episode 134, Organ Grinders of Little Italy, which is the same 88 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:09,720 area. And then there's Jacobs Island 89 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:13,520 in Bermondsey, the setting of the novel's violent climax. 90 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:18,080 And Dickens paints it as the filthiest, the strangest, the 91 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:21,840 most extraordinary of the many localities that are hidden in 92 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:25,120 London. In reality, Jacobs Island was a 93 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:29,760 network of tidal ditches off the Thames, lined with decaying work 94 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:31,840 houses and shanty like dwellings. 95 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:37,240 Visitors in the 1830s recorded children playing in waters black 96 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:41,640 as ink and open sewers running beneath broken floorboards. 97 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:45,440 It was the perfect place to stage Bill Sykes's desperate 98 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:49,120 last stand, a physical manifestation of the moral 99 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:51,800 corruption Dickens wished to expose. 100 00:06:53,840 --> 00:06:57,200 As the wheels of the Industrial Revolution turned, London's 101 00:06:57,200 --> 00:06:59,600 streets throbbed with ambition and invention. 102 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:04,840 By the 1830's, the city was being remade almost overnight. 103 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:10,360 Smokestacks rose above rooftops, smokestacks rose above rooftops, 104 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:14,600 railway lines slashed through farmland and the air filled with 105 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:18,160 the sounds of steam engines, printing presses and the 106 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:20,920 relentless clamour of mass production. 107 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:26,880 Houston station opened its great iron gates in 1837, one of the 108 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:31,400 first of London's monumental railway, Terrani, and it brought 109 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:34,920 with it not only the Thunder of locomotives but an entire new 110 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:39,600 rhythm of life, clouds of coal smoke, the shuffle of passengers 111 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:42,400 and the constant vibration of progress. 112 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:46,520 A reporter for the Morning Chronicle marvelled that the 113 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:50,320 railway brought the far provinces to London's door, and 114 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:53,880 no St. was spared the dust and excitement. 115 00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:59,360 For families in rural villages, the lure of London was 116 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,480 irresistible. They arrived from Kent, Devon, 117 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:05,960 Yorkshire, sometimes with little more than the clothes they wore, 118 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:10,720 dreaming of steady wages in the city's docks, factories or 119 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:14,720 workshops. Yet for many, hope quickly 120 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:18,760 soured. Opportunity was scarce, wages 121 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:22,600 were low and living conditions were harsh. 122 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:27,400 The city's rapid growth came at a steep cost. 123 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:32,080 Slums known as rookeries spread like a stain. 124 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,799 Places such as Saffron Hills, Southern Dials and St. 125 00:08:35,799 --> 00:08:40,400 Giles became synonymous with overcrowding, vice and squalor. 126 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:45,160 Reforming investigator Edwin Chadwick described conditions in 127 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:48,920 1842 in London's courts and alleys. 128 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:53,240 The atmosphere is dense with the perfumes of future fraction. 129 00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:57,560 Sanitation lagged far behind the sitting's swelling population. 130 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,040 Open drains ran along the streets. 131 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:02,840 Cesspools overflowed into courtyards. 132 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:07,600 The Thames itself, once celebrated as a royal river, was 133 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:12,040 reduced to a dumping ground for refuse as the times thundered in 134 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:15,480 1839. The state of the Thames is an 135 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:19,000 abomination. It is the great open sewer of 136 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:24,400 the metropolis. Disease was never far behind. 137 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:29,920 Cholera struck with devastating force in 1832 and would return 138 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:32,240 repeatedly in the decades that followed. 139 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:37,920 Typhus and tuberculosis became everyday killers in London's 140 00:09:37,920 --> 00:09:41,200 poorest parishes. Life expectancy collapsed to 141 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,400 under 35 years. And yet, just a mile or two 142 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:48,400 away, the contrast was astonishing. 143 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:53,320 The West End glittered with grand townhouses in Mayfair and 144 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:57,520 Belgravia, lit by gas lamps and attended by servants. 145 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:02,640 Families here enjoyed clean water, regular laundering and 146 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:06,640 manicured squares. As the chronicler Henry Mayhew 147 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:14,480 would later remark, London is 2 cities, 1 rich, 1 poor, one 148 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:21,440 thriving, the other rotting. This deep divide provided the 149 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,680 backdrop to Dickens's fiction. When readers encountered Oliver 150 00:10:25,680 --> 00:10:29,200 wandering the city, they recognised the real geography, 151 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:33,240 the Rookery in the townhouse, the gin shop and the gentleman's 152 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:38,360 club. But the inequality of London in 153 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,920 Dickens Day was not just social, it was legislated. 154 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:46,920 In 1834, Parliament passed the Poor Law Amendment Act, a 155 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:51,240 measure hailed by Summers reform and denounced by others as 156 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:54,240 cruelty. Its chief architect, Lord 157 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:58,560 Althorpe, insisted we must make the condition of the pauper less 158 00:10:58,560 --> 00:11:01,800 eligible than that of the independent labourer. 159 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:07,040 Gone was the patchwork system of local charity, and in its place 160 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:11,400 London was divided into unions, each governed by a board of 161 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:14,720 guardians. The centrepiece of the ACT was 162 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:19,560 the workhouse, designed not to help but to deter. 163 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:25,040 As Edwin Chadwick explains, the workhouse test would become a 164 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:29,840 deterrent, not a support. The pauper must pass a trial, 165 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:35,160 not receive soccer. Inside these institutions, 166 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:38,840 labour was monotonous and exhausting. 167 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:43,080 Stone breaking, oakum picking, endsless cleaning. 168 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:48,360 Meals were scamped bread, thin gruel and little else. 169 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:51,840 For many, the system stripped away dignity along with 170 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:54,800 sustenance. Outdoor relief, where families 171 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:57,960 could receive aid while remaining in their homes, was 172 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:02,000 virtually abolished. Poverty had become a moral 173 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:05,800 failing to be punished with discipline and hunger. 174 00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:10,880 Critics raged against it. The historian Thomas Carlyle 175 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:13,240 thundered. What is the use of a system 176 00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:17,960 which stars virtue and rewards vice with insults and brickbats? 177 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:23,680 This was the London of Oliver Twist, a city of invention and 178 00:12:23,680 --> 00:12:27,280 dislocation, of wealth and privatisation. 179 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:31,320 It was in these divided communities, amid roaring 180 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:35,960 factories, glittering boulevards and festering slums, that 181 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:40,040 Dickens set his tale, forcing people to confront the urgent 182 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:44,880 truths of their own time. Childhood in 19th century London 183 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:48,400 was rarely the protected stage of life we imagine today. 184 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:53,880 For the majority, it was a time of hardship, work and survival, 185 00:12:54,680 --> 00:12:58,360 the social investigator Henry Mayhew once reported of the 186 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:01,320 climbing boys, the sweeps, the match sellers. 187 00:13:01,560 --> 00:13:05,920 I counted a score in one hour, all under the age of 13. 188 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:10,480 Children were everywhere on the streets of the capital, working 189 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:14,120 up to 14 hours a day. They swept crossings, sold 190 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:19,040 matches, carried water, all tiled in grim factories, chimney 191 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:23,680 sweeps, often no older than 8 or 9, they were prized for their 192 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:27,720 small size and their ability to wriggle through narrow flus 193 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:31,880 coated with soot. Many suffered burns, suffocation 194 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:35,280 or the slow disease known as sootwort. 195 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:40,120 Orphaned or abandoned children had even fewer choices. 196 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:44,680 The city's crowded alleys provided little protection, and 197 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,600 they became easy prey for exploitation, whether as cheap 198 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:51,800 labour, petty thieves or beggars under the control of 199 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:55,760 unscrupulous adults. Dickens's portrayal of Oliver 200 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:59,240 under Fagin's tutelage was not mere invention. 201 00:13:59,680 --> 00:14:03,360 It reflected the very real networks of child crime that 202 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:05,280 authorities struggled to contain. 203 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:10,680 Education was scarce. A handful of Sunday schools and 204 00:14:10,680 --> 00:14:14,760 ragged schools fought to teach basic literacy, often relying on 205 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:17,440 charitable donations and volunteer teachers. 206 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:21,920 For most poor children, though, the only institution open to 207 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:27,240 them was the workhouse, once a refuge, a prison and a place of 208 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:32,640 punishment. In 1837, pamphlet issued The 209 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:36,840 Borders of Guardians captured the unease of the time. 210 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:41,120 Are we breeding a generation for the Treadwell and the gallows, 211 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:47,000 or for the shop and the parish? And so where we picture Oliver 212 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,800 Twist wandering the streets of London, we must also picture the 213 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:54,440 children who inspired him. Barefoot boys Hawking matches at 214 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:57,120 St. Corners, girls carrying baskets 215 00:14:57,120 --> 00:15:00,440 through the rain, chimney sweeps coughing such into 216 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:04,520 handkerchiefs. Hope and despair mingled in 217 00:15:04,520 --> 00:15:09,440 every alley. Charles Dickens, a writer whose 218 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:13,880 own life in 1837 was as dramatic and layered as any of his 219 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:17,760 novels. At just 25 years old, Dickens 220 00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:22,000 was already a household name. The Pickwick Papers had been his 221 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:26,360 first great success, and he'd taken Britain by storm. 222 00:15:27,200 --> 00:15:31,280 His domestic life seemed happy, at least at first. 223 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:35,360 In 1836, he had married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of a 224 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:40,120 respected critic. By January 1837, their first 225 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:42,360 child, Charles Junior, had been born. 226 00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:45,160 Dickens wrote with evident pride. 227 00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:47,920 My domestic happiness is complete. 228 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,520 My little boy is already the delight of our house. 229 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:55,400 But joy was swiftly overshadowed by tragedy. 230 00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:59,280 In May that same year, Catherine's younger sister Mary 231 00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:03,760 Hogarth, only 17 years old, died suddenly while living with a 232 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:08,200 couple. Dickens was devastated in his 233 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:13,000 general, he confessed. The loss has so unsettled me, I 234 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:16,600 find it hard to work or concentrate upon my labours. 235 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:22,080 Many scholars believe Mary's death left a lasting mark on his 236 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:25,840 imagination, shaping the figures of innocence and suffering in 237 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:28,720 his fiction. Characters such as Rose Maylie 238 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:34,160 in Oliver Twist beneath this public and private turbulence, 239 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:37,080 laying the deep scars of Dickens's childhood. 240 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:40,760 At 12 he was forced into Warren's blacking factory near 241 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:44,880 Hungerford Stairs, pasting labels for hours in grim, rat 242 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:48,360 infested rooms. His father, John Dickens was in 243 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:51,200 present for death at the Marshall Sea, leaving young 244 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:55,200 Charles effectively abandoned and responsible for his family's 245 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:58,480 upkeep. He never recovered from the 246 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:01,560 humiliation. Years later he confessed. 247 00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:06,599 No words can express the secret agony of my soul. 248 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:09,960 I suffered far too much to ever forget it. 249 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:15,800 That experience runs like a dark current through Oliver Twist, 250 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:20,680 the cruelty of workhouses, the vulnerability of children and 251 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:23,760 the city as both oppressor and the saviour. 252 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:28,480 Dickens's own life that year moved in step with Oliver's 253 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:32,840 journey, a restless search for meaning, a confrontation with 254 00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:38,000 suffering, and an unrelenting belief that stories could awaken 255 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:43,280 a nation's conscience. Our first location today is in 256 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:47,400 Cleveland St. just off Tottenham Court Road, where the Strand 257 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:52,720 Union Workhouse 1 stood. At first glance, its brick walls 258 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:56,360 and plain facade might not have looked especially remarkable, 259 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,440 but inside it was a place that seared itself into the 260 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:03,240 imaginations of all who walked through its gates. 261 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:07,640 For Charles Dickens, who lived nearby as a boy, the workhouse 262 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:11,400 was not an abstract institution. It was part of the landscape of 263 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:15,200 his own life, one of the grim realities that shaped both his 264 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:19,760 outlook and his fiction. In Oliver Twist, Dickens 265 00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:24,360 describes A workhouse, a large stone building with a high paved 266 00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:29,880 yard in front and a grimstone step at the door, as cold and 267 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:35,560 heartless as the faces within. And of course, it was within 268 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:39,640 those walls that young Oliver dared to utter the most famous 269 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:46,040 plea in Victorian literature. Please, Sir, I want some more 270 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,200 in. That simple request, so shocking 271 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:53,000 to Dickens's readers, was not a fantasy. 272 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:57,280 It reflected the lived truth of thousands of children for whom 273 00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:00,760 hunger was constant and compassion rare. 274 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:05,400 The workhouse system, formalised by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 275 00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:08,800 1834, was designed to make relief for the poor. 276 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:13,880 Deliberately harsh conditions were made as grim as possible in 277 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,280 order to deter what the authorities called idleness. 278 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:20,880 Families who crossed the threshold of Cleveland St. were 279 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:24,640 torn apart, husbands separated from wives, mothers from their 280 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:28,040 children. For those inside, the workhouse 281 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:32,760 was not charity, it was punishment, and Dickens himself 282 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,000 once confessed in a letter. I've always felt weariness of 283 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:39,560 spirit at the site of that prison house for want and 284 00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:42,800 misfortune. And prison house is exactly the 285 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:45,640 right word. Workhouses were locked 286 00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:48,720 institutions. Inmates lived under strict 287 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:52,200 routines, ate food that was often inadequate or barely 288 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:55,840 edible, and endured surveillance from masters that could be 289 00:19:55,840 --> 00:20:01,640 indifferent or, worse, cruel. The strange Union Workhouse was 290 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:06,640 particularly notorious in the 1830s and 1840s, Official 291 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:09,240 reports show overcrowding was chronic. 292 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:13,200 Sometimes 400 inmates crammed within its walls. 293 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:19,360 The diet was monotonous gruel, bread and the occasional scrap 294 00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:23,240 of meat. Children were put to work, often 295 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:26,400 in menial tasks, with little or no education. 296 00:20:27,360 --> 00:20:30,680 The Dickens who, at the age of 12, had been forced into child 297 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:33,320 labour at Warren's blacking factory while his family 298 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:37,680 languished in Marshall C prison. These were not abstractions. 299 00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:41,320 They were the echoes of his own childhood suffering. 300 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:46,600 And that is what makes Oliver's world so haunting. 301 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:51,400 The workhouse in Oliver Twist is not just a backdrop, it is 302 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:55,160 Dickens's own indictment of a system that dehumanised the 303 00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:58,200 vulnerable. When Oliver dares to ask for 304 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:01,760 more food, it's not just a child asking for nourishment. 305 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:06,120 It is Dickens himself crying out to a society that punished 306 00:21:06,120 --> 00:21:08,720 poverty instead of alleviating it. 307 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:13,840 Contemporary commentators painted the same picture a Poor 308 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:18,880 Law inspector noted in 1836. The workhouse is not a refuge 309 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:24,360 for the poor, but a warning to them, and the Times thundered 310 00:21:24,360 --> 00:21:27,120 against the system in its editorials, pointing out the 311 00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:30,400 cruelty of separating children from their parents, condemning 312 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:33,880 it as an assault upon the very fabric of family life. 313 00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:38,600 To walk past Cleveland St. in Dickens, time was to see these 314 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:42,320 realities up close. Imagine for a moment young 315 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:46,280 Dickens as a boy walking past the gates of the workhouse. 316 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,280 Behind those walls were children just like him. 317 00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:57,120 They were enduring cold and hunger and loss. 318 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:02,920 This sight never left him and decades later it surfaced in the 319 00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:10,680 pages of Oliver Twist. Today the workhouse is long gone 320 00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:16,320 but some of the building remains and is now 2 townhouses and 13 321 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:21,200 apartments with a starting price of £1,025,000. 322 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,160 Cleveland St. symbolises something larger than bricks and 323 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,760 mortar. It represents the Victorian 324 00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:34,720 belief that poverty was a personal failing to be corrected 325 00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:37,480 with discipline rather than compassion. 326 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:41,840 Dickens never forgot that cruelty and through his writing 327 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,080 he ensured that we would not either. 328 00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:53,240 Next, let me take you by the hand as we slip into the shadowy 329 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:58,680 labyrinth of Saffron Hill and Fields Lane, a Rookery alive 330 00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:01,640 with a pulse of Victorian London's underbelly. 331 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:07,600 The air here is thick, the daylight barely squeezing 332 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:11,400 between leaning tenements, and every cobblestone seems to 333 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:14,360 murmur tales of hardship and cunning. 334 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:18,320 Picture it. You turn a corner of bustling 335 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:25,040 Holborn and step into a squalid St. full of filth and misery, 336 00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:31,160 the haunt of the lowest and most debased of London's population. 337 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:36,640 As Dickens himself wrote. The noises change, shouts, 338 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:40,960 whispers, laughter tumbling from gin shops, the clatter of boot 339 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:45,320 black boys dashing for a penny, the slower shuffle of the weary 340 00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:49,760 and the desperate. The very walls close in, patched 341 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:53,240 and shattered, holding secrets in every crack. 342 00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:59,080 This isn't just a novelist's fancy, Edwin Chadwick, reporting 343 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:02,440 on the slums, wrote. The abodes of poverty hold 344 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,640 upwards of 20 persons in two rooms. 345 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:10,240 Imagine the Press of bodies, the smell of damp and decay in a 346 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:14,720 thrum of life, children sleeping beneath tables, mothers boiling 347 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:19,080 what little food they could find and shadows moving in doorways, 348 00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:23,880 always watching. A local constable, Charles 349 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,800 Cochrane, patrolled these maze like lanes and he remarked. 350 00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:32,400 Here the thief and the beggar rubbed shoulders daily. 351 00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:37,680 The boundary between an honest meal and a stolen purse could be 352 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:42,680 measured in inches. Every step, every doorway is 353 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:48,000 edged with risk and necessity. Here Fagin's den sits out of 354 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:51,600 sight but within earshopped of every commotion. 355 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:56,600 It's Cellars and backrooms crowded with I'll Got spoils and 356 00:24:56,600 --> 00:25:01,240 sharp eyed boys like the Artful Dodger, forever on the lookout 357 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:06,440 for the next opportunity. But for all its notoriety, 358 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:10,920 Saffron Hill and Field Lane are more than a backdrop. 359 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:16,120 They are the living Organism, nourished by struggle and 360 00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:21,320 ingenuity, a place where hope flickers for some even as the 361 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:26,280 law closes in. For Dickens, these narrow, 362 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:29,520 oppressive lanes were the soil from which London's criminal 363 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:33,160 world sprang, a world's not so far removed from the city's 364 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:37,040 respectable heart. And 1 He invites us to walk with 365 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:45,240 caution and empathy at his side. Next, let's linger to the cold, 366 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:50,440 looming walls of Newgate Prison, a place in Dickens's London 367 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:56,680 where hope flickers and dies and justice takes its most merciless 368 00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:58,840 form. In the closing chapters of 369 00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:03,000 Oliver Twist, the notorious villain Fagan is finally caught 370 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,560 and LED through the crowded, dirty streets from his den in 371 00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:10,360 Saffron Hill and delivered to Newgate's iron gates. 372 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:16,160 This is not just any jail, it is the end point for so many in 373 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:20,440 Dickens world. Dickens description is chilling. 374 00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:25,960 A vaulted chamber lighted by a single narrow grating. 375 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,800 The walls and floor were black and damp. 376 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:35,520 The streets were alive at every hour, but here all was still. 377 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:42,400 As the grave time stretches and alone in the darkness, Fagin's 378 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:46,960 bravado crumbles. It becomes not the arch enemy, 379 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:51,080 but a desperate man haunted by nightmares and memory. 380 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:55,360 He pleads. What right of you to butcher me? 381 00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:01,680 But the machinery of the justice system is cold, remote. 382 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:09,760 Dickens refuses to glorify it. The stench, the cries, the faces 383 00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:14,040 pressed to the bars. I have never left Newgate, nor 384 00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:18,840 has it left me, Dickens Gluntz wrote after a visit, and his 385 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:21,720 horror at the institution seeps into every page. 386 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:26,760 The public executions outside Newgate drew thousands, rich and 387 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:31,320 poor, curious and fearful, all gathering to witness the 388 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:36,280 spectacle as Thomas Carlisle thundered, the machinery of 389 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:40,480 justice and suffering unyielding and unfeeling. 390 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:45,760 In Oliver Twist, the judge is distant, the proceedings 391 00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:49,440 intimidating, mercy a scare commodity. 392 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:54,840 Dickens offers this There are few among the crowded gate. 393 00:27:55,960 --> 00:28:00,480 There are few among the crowded gazers who do not find something 394 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:05,280 in the gaunt, pale face that speaks to them of suffering, of 395 00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:09,000 the distance between law and charity. 396 00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:14,720 Fagin's death in Newgate Vaults is not just the end of 1 397 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:18,800 criminal, but a devastating reminder of the system's brutal 398 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:22,480 finality. The labyrinth of London streets 399 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,240 might deliver Oliver to danger, but the justice system offers 400 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:31,080 little relief, and his ultimate mercy comes, if at all, too 401 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:34,840 late. So as you stand in your 402 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:40,720 imagination outside those walls, echoing with footsteps, laments 403 00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:45,480 and the toll of the church bell, remember Fagin not just as a 404 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:50,000 villain, but as a victim of a system Dickens so urgently 405 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:54,280 wanted to change. Behind every verdict and every 406 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:59,720 bar, Dickens found a story, a plea for reform and for 407 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:03,920 compassion. There is so much of Dickens's 408 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:08,200 London that we could explore, but this is Part 1 of I'm sure 409 00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:11,720 what will be many. Thank you for joining me on this 410 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,880 exploration of Oliver Twists London as a tour guide and a 411 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:17,840 lover of London's untold stories. 412 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:21,120 I hope this episode has deepened your sense not only of the 413 00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:24,160 city's geography, but its heart and conscience. 414 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,440 If these streets have enthralled you, remember you can walk them 415 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:33,440 for yourself on foot with history as your companion or 416 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:35,840 with me on one of our guided walks. 417 00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:39,240 If you enjoyed this journey, please subscribe to the London 418 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:43,400 History Podcast, leave a review and share your own reflections 419 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:46,720 on Dickens's city. If you'd like to experience 420 00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:49,800 Dickens's London first hand, I'd love to show you around. 421 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:52,400 I offered 2 Dickens themed walking tours. 422 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,920 My original Oliver Twist walking tour, tracing the boy's 423 00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:59,560 footsteps in Chapter 8 from Angel in Islington all the way 424 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:02,840 to Vagin's Lair, giving you a real sense of the story's 425 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:06,400 atmosphere and locations. And for all of you Christmas 426 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,560 enthusiasts, my Christmas Carol Walking Tour is a festive 427 00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,200 favorite. We already have several public 428 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:17,280 walk dates lined up for the season, including yes, yes, yes, 429 00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:21,240 Christmas Eve itself. It's a perfect way to get into 430 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:24,520 the spirit, whether you're a longtime Dickens fan or just 431 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:27,240 curious about London at its most magical. 432 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:31,240 And of course, private tours for both are always available and 433 00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:34,600 can be easily booked online at londonguidedwalks.co.uk. 434 00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:39,840 If you have any questions or special requests, drop me a 435 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:41,880 line. I'll be delighted to help you 436 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:46,040 plan your Tickens adventure. Come along and step into the 437 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,640 pages of Dickensian London history with me. 438 00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:54,000 There's always more to discover. Next time, we'll step into a new 439 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,640 chapter of London's past. Who knows what stories await the 440 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:03,320 next corner? Next time we'll step into a 441 00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:05,520 Christmassy Charter of London's past. 442 00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:08,360 Who knows what stories await around the corner? 443 00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:10,160 Until next time.