Dickens Bench

Time for another bench about town.  This one is Dickens in Liverpool.  A dickens inspired book bench created by the pupils of Hillside High school in Bootle, Liverpool. The perfect spot to sit and admire St Paul's Cathedral.

A Really Old Pub

It is essential to visit a pub when visiting London, preferably one steeped in history.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese certainly fits the bill.  The original pub was burnt down in the Great Fire, but a new one quickly replaced it just one year later.

When we popped in yesterday a coal fire was smouldering in the hearth adding to the atmosphere.  You half expected to see Dickens sitting in the corner as he often did and he alluded to in "A tale of Two Cities".  He was just one of many great literary figures who frequented this pub, Twain, Goldsmith, Tennyson and Dr Johnson were some of the others who took a tipple at this establishment.

As with many of London's old establishments this one has its ghost story too.  In a tale told in 1680 a midwife haunted the house until the new residents were induced to dig up the bones of the illegtiimate children she had "done away with" and buried in the cellar.  Probably just a fantastical story, but gets better after a couple of beers. 

Jacob's Island

Once known as "the Venice of drains" or "capital of cholera", Jacob's Island an area of Bermondsey on the southbank of the Thames separated by two man made tidal ditches that were created in the 17th century.  So notorious was the area with its dirty factories and poor residents that it became the stuff of legends and wicked tales.  Dickens folly ditch where Bill Sikes met his nasty end in his tale of Oliver Twist, is believed to be based on Jacob's Island.
The area was nearly completely destroyed during the bombing of WWII.  In the 21st century it is trendy  housing with lovely parks and views of the river.

Dickens 200 years later

Today is the bi-centennial of Charles Dickens birth. London is recognising the occasion with lots of readings of his works. There is an exhibition of Dicken's London at the Museum of London (runs until June 10).
The picture today is the courtyard of the Prudential Building in Holborn. In Dicken's day this was the site of Furnival Inn, where Dickens lived for a brief time. It was during his time here that he wrote the Pickwick papers (1836), his first novel that set him on his journey to fame.
In the left hand corner a small gabled grotto houses a bust of Dickens by Percy Fitzgerald.