Episode 40: Charles Dickens in Greenwich
Victorian author Charles Dickens writes about Greenwich in a number of places, including magazines, such as The Uncommercial Traveller and Household Words and also in some of his novels such as Bleak House and Our Mutual friend.
Sometimes it's the smallest of small mentions, such as in David Copperfield, to full descriptions of the fun of Greenwich Fair in Sketches by Boz.
Join Hazel as she shares her love of Greenwich and Charles Dickens.
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What we discuss:
Hello and welcome to our London history podcast where we share our love of London, its people, places and history in 20 minutes episode. I am your host, Hazel Baker, a qualified London tour guide and CEO of London Guided Walks. Find us on Twitter @guided_walks or Instagram @walk_london, or indeed, we are also on Facebook at London Guided Walks.
We've lots of lovely guided walks and private tours, treasure hunts, virtual tours, virtual treasure hunts for Londoners and visitors alike. You can check all of those out on our website londonguidedwalks.co.uk. And don't forget, our blog is regularly updated with posts written by our passionate team of quantified London tour guides. There are literally hundreds to choose from all absolutely free.
Thank you to everybody for supporting the podcast and listening to it. We've had over 22,000 downloads already. It's really quite amazing. If you enjoy the podcast and please do a write a review, or least click those five stars. I read everybody's comments and reviews and really do appreciate the time that it takes.
If you like Charles Dickens, then you will enjoy our Charles Dickens virtual tour. This is a recording of a live virtual tour I did for the paying public and you're able to pay and play and watch it in your own time. And it looks at Charles Dickens and his works and his 48 year old relationship with London. And you can get that on our website, londonguidedwalks.co.uk and click on virtual tours.
So let's get home with today's theme, which is Charles Dickens in Greenwich. I've tried to include as many quotes from Charles Dickens as possible and to help with the flow of it all I have been assisted by London tour guide Ian McDiarmid who will be the voice of Charles Dickens.
The Victorian author Charles Dickens writes about Greenwich in a number of places, including magazines, such as The Uncommercial Traveller and Household Words and then also in some of his novels such as Bleak House and Our Mutual friend. Sometimes it's a small mention, the smallest of small such as in David Copperfield, where our hero "gave up the pursuit of the young man with the donkey-cart and started for Greenwich; from full-scape description of the fun of Greenwich Fair in Sketches by Boz and the goings on in our mutual friend.
Greenwich and Greenwich Park became one of London's popular areas for leisure in the early 19th century. As the century progressed, Greenwich park increased in popularity. This was in part due to the improved transport links; the new Greenwich Pier was built in 1836 and it welcomed day trippers coming via the Thames.
We know that Dickens went to Greenwich several times when he was young, because he tells us.
In his short story, Greenwich Fair, Dickens shares a scene with us.
Greenwich Pensioners
Facing the river Thames where the tea clipper the Cutty Sark once stood a Tavern called The Ship, aptly named given the nautical connections of Greenwich. The ship had undergone four incarnations since the 16th century, it was famous for its ministerial whitebait dinners which marked the end of a parliament session.
Another lost Greenwich location mentioned by Dickens is the Dreadnought hospital. We know Dickens visited the Dreadnought hospital when he was a reporter in his early career.
In Dickens's novel Dombey and Son, which follows the fortunes of a shipping firm owner, Dickens describes Captain Bunsby as having had more accidents happen to his own self than the Seamen's hospital to all hands.
I hope you've enjoyed this week's episode and got to know Charles Dickens, his works in Greenwich a little bit more. You can learn more about Charles Dickens and Greenwich in the show notes where I'll link to other blog posts. But we also do a Greenwich walk, both a public tour when COVID is a far distant memory and also a private tour, which you can book us.
And you can check all of that out in the show notes as well. LondonGuidedwalks.co.uk/podcast and then click on episode 40. And if you haven't done so already, we've got lots of lovely episodes for you to listen to.
That's all for now. I'll see you next week.
Other Episodes
046 Beer, The Bard & Historic Buildings of Bankside
045 Drawing London's Buildings
042 John Julius Angerstein: The Man Behind the National Gallery
041 London's Medieval Friaries
040 Charles Dickens in Greenwich
038 The Black Death: London's First Plague
037 Bridgerton & Regency London
034 London's Old Shops - Food & Drink
031 Abandoned London Underground Stations
030 Quirky Street Names - Little Britain
029 The Harp maker of Fitzrovia
024 The Walbrook in Roman London
021 London Area Names - Animal Edition
020 The Great Fire of London - How It Began
017 The Proms & The Royal Albert Hall
016 Women in 1920s London (From Cowgirl to Congress)
014 Postcards From London's Past
013 London Statues: Medical Women
012 The Old Operating Theatre Museum
011 London's Coffeehouses and Commerce
009 Music Halls and Cabaret - from yesterday to today
008 The Monument to the Great Fire of London
006 Hockley in the Hole Clerkenwell
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