Oliver's Walk through Clerkenwell, 1837

A virtual walk

21 November 2024Explore the Clerkenwell that Charles Dickens captured in his novel 'Oliver Twist' with this virtual walk with Jeremy Smith.

Poor exhausted Oliver had already been walking for a week, and sleeping rough, when he first encountered the Artful Dodger. They met in Barnet and quickly befriended by the older boy, Oliver continued with him towards Islington. They waited until full darkness before crossing the turnpike at Angel, the Dodger (Jack Dawkins his real name) unwilling to let himself be seen any earlier.

Charles Dickens and 'Oliver Twist'

'Oliver Twist' was written by Charles Dickens and serialised between 1837 to 1839 and released as a book in 1838. As an early social novel, it shows the often poor treatment of orphans in London in the nineteenth century and their exploitation by criminal gangs. Here we follow in the footsteps of Oliver and the Artful Dodger as they walk through Clerkenwell using drawings from the era and photographs of how the area looks today.

Angel to Sadler's Wells

This drawing shows cattle droving down Islington High Street at Angel in 1819 heading towards Smithfield through Clerkenwell, a little earlier than the setting of the novel, but this practise continued until the arrival of the railways in the mid-nineteenth century.

drawing of cattle on Islington High Street with carriage in the background — London Picture Archive - 322071Islington High Street showing cattle heading for Smithfield via St John Street, 1819.

From here, Oliver and the Artful Dodger made a determined path for Fagin’s lair. This took them down a small road skirting Sadlers Wells, even by that time one of London’s most favoured entertainment venues, and a popular spot for some rural drinking and dining. This print in our collection shows its pleasant wooded location and the New River flowing towards the nearby reservoir, also the path taken by Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger.

drawing of sadlers wells building with trees in foreground — London Picture Archive - 321999Sadler's Wells in St John Street by Daniel Havell, 1826

Exmouth Market

Rosebery Avenue did not exist at the time of the publication of 'Oliver Twist' in 1837 and small paths and open country would have taken the boys the short distance to Exmouth Market (then called Exmouth Street). There was no market at the time of their walk.

a street with cafes and a church — Photograph by Jeremy SmithExmouth Market, Islington, 2024.

Spa Fields Chapel

Unconscious of the future London Archives' building only a short step to their left, the boys would instead have seen the Spa Fields Chapel, a huge domed rotunda with tiered seating for the substantial non- conformist congregations. Today the Church of The Holy Redeemer occupies the site, its brick tower seen left in our photograph. But the street was still not fully built up along its northern side in 1837, and only fields would have been visible should the increasingly nervous Oliver have dared a glance to his right.

Farringdon Road

From here Oliver was lead across what is now Farringdon Road, but which at the time was Coppice Row, and through a narrow opening beside the Clerkenwell Workhouse (Clerkenwell Workhouse was here from 1727-1883). They cross:

down the little court by the side of the Workhouse
'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens

passage way with street lamp and a bollard in the foreground — Photograph by Jeremy SmithA passage way with street lamp and bollard by Farringdon Road, 2024.

Oliver then travels through narrow paths that take him into insalubrious courtyards towards Saffron Hill.

passageway with a lamp and tree on the left hand side — Photography by Jeremy Smith.Crawford Passage, 2024.

By now they had entered dangerous territories. The streets were very narrow and dark but as Dickens tells us, despite the late hour they were by no means deserted. He continues across a grubby open space which had formerly been known as Hockley-by-the-Hole, and a notorious gathering point for petty criminals. Now it is the entirely respectable focus for the campus of an American University in London.

Saffron Hill

Saffron Hill, their destination, is now in sight.

Looking down a narrow street by the junction of a road with no entry signs — Photograph by Jeremy Smith.Looking across to Ray Street and the start of Saffron Hill, 2024.

Oliver becomes aware of persons spilling out of the numerous pubs that they pass, many of them agitated and far from sober. And as he continues down into Saffron Hill, apart from noticing the horrible and unclean smells emerging from the buildings, he also notes that the night-time doorways are populated by small children.

Looking past buildings at Saffron Hill to Hatton Wall with a tree in the foreground — Photograph by Jeremy Smith.Saffron Hill towards Hatton Wall, 2024.

Today Saffron Hill is still narrow and high-sided, as described by Dickens.

looking down a narrow street with tall buildings either side — Photograph by Jeremy Smith.Saffron Hill, 2024.

Fagin's premises

Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger now arrive at Fagin’s premises which was situated on their right at the southern end of Saffron Hill just at the point where it joins Field Lane. The lodging houses in Field Lane were the address for some of London’s most difficult criminals and trouble-makers. At the bottom of Saffron Hill the boys disappear quickly from sight into the ramshackle maze of rooms which will be their home. Here they encounter the treacherously reassuring welcome of Fagin, who we would probably now term 'child groomer'. But more happily the boys settle down to a meal of sausages.

a drawing of a narrow street with people selling there wares in crowded street — London Picture Archive - 314573Field Lane, later Farringdon Road, engraved by William Henry Prior, 1840

interior view of the floors of a a crowded lodging house — London Picture Archive - 3120View of Field Lane lodging house, sectioned showing three levels, by Frederick Napoleon Shepherd, 1847.

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