Charles Dickens' London

Dickens wrote all-encompassing novels which give us a vivid image of the size, condition and character of London and Londoners in the 19th century.

London: Dickens' Inspiration

London, its streets and its people provided an enormous inspiration for Dickens.

Indeed, when he was away from London, he found it difficult to write. "A day in London sets me up again and starts me. But the toil and labour of writing, day after day, without that magic lantern, is IMMENSE!!'

Dickens' London

Dickens' fascination with London came from the many places he lived in during his lifetime. In any biography of Dickens, you can follow the author from street to street.

The London of Dickens' fiction is physically Georgian London, but a Georgian London given a newly intense charge by its burgeoning Victorian population.

Despite the transformation of London's cityscape in the later 19th and 20th century, Dickens would undoubtedly still recognise much of London today, including:

• The Bank of England: referred to in many of Dickens' works
• British Museum: where David and Steerforth visit in David Copperfield
• Covent Garden: mentioned in David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, and The Pickwick Papers
• The Guildhall: Mr Pickwick (Pickwick Papers) is tried here for breaching a promise of marriage to his landlady (and then consigned to the Fleet debtors' prison, which was originally on Farringdon Street)
• The Monument: referred to in Martin Chuzzlewit, Barnaby Rudge and David Copperfield
• Westminster Abbey: where Pip and Herbert Pocket attend services in Great Expectations

Dickens' A Christmas Carol also mentions some familiar London landmarks: St Paul's Cathedral, Mansion House, Cornhill in the City of London and Bob Cratchit's Camden Town.

Charles Dickens Museum

For an authentic Dickensian experience, visit the Charles Dickens Museum in London, which is the only surviving London home of Dickens (from 1837 until 1839).

On four floors, you can see paintings, rare editions, manuscripts, original furniture and many items relating to the life of the author.