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Dickens' London Walking Tour
London

Walk the London that broke Dickens as a boy and obsessed him as a man, from the Strand to the Borough and back again.

11 stops · 4.8 km

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GPS-guided · Works offline · No signal needed

Every Stop Has a Story

David Copperfield Works in the Blacking Factory

Dickens never spoke publicly about the ten-hour days he spent as an eleven-year-old labeling bottles here; the story only became known after his death, in a biography that drew on notes he'd shared with just his wife and one friend.

David's First London Home

Dickens lived here in 1834 on a street built a century before the grand Adelphi development beside it, whose own early tenants included Lord Nelson's mistress, Lady Hamilton.

Old Curiosity Shop

This building had already stood since 1567 when a shopkeeper invented its connection to Dickens' novel in the 1870s, entirely to drum up business.

Charles Dickens' House

Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, and Oliver Twist in this house, the only one of his London homes still standing, before trading up to a grander Mayfair address.

Oliver Twist Sees the Slums

This street takes its gentle name from the saffron crocuses once grown here by the Bishops of Ely, a stark contrast to the violent slum Dickens describes, bounded by a River Fleet that had become an open sewer.

David Copperfield Visits Agnes

The houses on this street date from 1772, when the land was finally handed to the Crown after centuries as the Bishops of Ely's private estate, meaning Agnes would still recognize the street today.

Scrooge's Counting House

Dickens never named Scrooge's church outright, but the 'ancient tower' he describes is likely the one part of this building the Great Fire didn't destroy.

Scrooge Buys Bob Cratchit a Turkey

This market, built over the ruins of London's Roman forum, was the city's most important poultry market by the 17th century, exactly why Dickens sent Scrooge here for Bob Cratchit's turkey.

Nancy's Steps

These steps are the only surviving piece of the 1830s London Bridge, the version both Dickens and his fictional Nancy would actually have walked across.

The George Inn

This galleried inn, the last of its kind left in London, was a drinking spot for both Shakespeare in the 1500s and Dickens roughly three centuries later.

Mr. Micawber's Crisis

Dickens drew Mr. Micawber's imprisonment from his own father's experience, though the elder Dickens actually served his time at Marshalsea, not this famously two-tiered prison where wealthy debtors could pay to live outside its walls.

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