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Oliver Twist Walking Tour
London

Trace Oliver's journey through the thieves' dens, workhouses, and back alleys of Victorian London that Dickens knew intimately.

13 stops · 5.5 km

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GPS-guided · Works offline · No signal needed

Every Stop Has a Story

Oliver Enters London

Nothing remains of the tollgate Oliver passed through here, though it survived until 1864, one of the last turnpikes standing as London outgrew the very boundaries they were built to mark.

Mr Brownlow's House

This square was home to George Cruikshank, the original illustrator of Oliver Twist, on the edge of one of London's first planned suburbs, begun in 1773.

The Walk to Fagin's

Dickens himself once described Sadler's Wells audiences as 'ruffianly,' with fights breaking out during every performance; today the only fights left are the ones choreographed on stage.

Oliver Follows the Dodger

The Dodger leads Oliver through what was once Hockley-in-the-Hole, notorious in the 17th and 18th centuries for bear-baiting and bull-baiting.

Mr Brownlow Pickpocketed

Here the Dodger picks Mr Brownlow's pocket at a bookstall, and Oliver, who has done nothing, is the one who gets caught.

Oliver Dragged to the Police Station

Oliver is dragged by a jeering crowd down Mutton Hill, a lane that has long since vanished from the map, on his way to face the magistrate.

Bill Sikes Waits for Oliver

Bill Sikes broods in a pub on this street, then called Little Saffron Hill, whose new name recalls the herb gardens of old Holborn, including the Bishop of Ely's strawberries that Shakespeare mentions.

Oliver Sees the Slums

This narrow street was infamous in Dickens' day as a real market for stolen handkerchiefs, exactly the trade Fagin's gang notoriously worked here.

Police Station

Dickens based the cruel magistrate Mr Fang on a real judge here, Allan Stewart Laing, and got himself smuggled into the court to watch him at work.

Fagin's Den

Fagin's den stood near Field Lane, once called 'one of the most disreputable thoroughfares in London,' a street erased entirely when the Holborn Viaduct was built in the 1860s.

Oliver is Abducted

As Oliver is dragged across Smithfield in the fog, a deep church bell strikes eight. Dickens never names it, but it is easy to imagine it ringing out from St Bartholomew the Great, founded in 1123.

Nancy Meets the Maylies

Only the steps survive of the 1830s London Bridge that Nancy crossed in the novel; the rest of Dickens' actual bridge was shipped off to Arizona, where you can still visit it today.

Bill Sikes Flees

This expensive warehouse district was once one of the worst slums in Victorian London, surrounded by filthy ditches that bred rampant disease before it was redeveloped, first as industry, and eventually into the riverside flats you see today.

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