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Southwark: The London of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'
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Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy arrive at the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery 2009 Visionary Ball in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. Carrey, who provides the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge in DIsney's "A Christmas Carol," was honored at the event. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
The latest film incarnation of the Charles Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol," opens in movie theaters across the country today with Jim Carrey providing the voice for the main character of Ebenezer Scrooge.
The setting for the tale is London and – although the locale is not a critical component of the story – real city establishments and people provided the inspiration for characters and places in Dickens’ novella. Tourists can, of course, explore these areas today, some of which have not changed dramatically in appearance since Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" in 1843.
The inspiration for Scrooge, according to Dickens himself, was wealthy 18th Century English moneylender and Member of Parliament John Elwes, whose eccentricities and miserly ways were legendary. Though wealthy from inheritances, Elwes would wear the same shabby garments day after day rather than pay for new clothes. He refused to pay for repairs to his many properties, went to bed at sunset to avoid buying candles, and carried hard-boiled eggs when traveling so he wouldn’t have to pay for meals. He once rode 14 hours to a watch a horse race after he had lent Lord Abingdon £7,000 to place a bet, with his only sustenance provided by a piece of pancake he had stuffed in his pocket two months earlier.
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The George, an example of a British carriage inn, retains its 18th Century character. PHOTO: Ewan Munro.
Elwes lived in Southwark, which at the time was a separate municipality on the south side of the Thames from London. Southwark was connected to the city by the famous London Bridge. Today, Southwark is a borough of London and is often referred to simply as The Borough. Southwark was the location of the infamous Marshalsea debtors’ prison, where Dickens’ father was incarcerated for several months.
Marshalsea derived its name from its original function, housing men convicted by court martial of crimes at sea. It was an active prison from 1329 to 1842. It was the setting for most of "Little Dorrit."
The prison building housed various businesses in the 20th Century, but today all that remains of the structure is a long brick wall near a historical library. While his father was in prison, Dickens worked at a shoe polish factory in Southwark called Warren’s Blacking Factory, which was located at 30 Hungerford Stairs, by Hungerford Market. The market is gone now, damaged by fire in 1854 and replaced by the Charing Cross railway station in 1864.
One area landmark still standing from Dickens’ time is the Southwark Cathedral, a Gothic structure built from 1220 to 1420. It was the first Gothic church in London and became the cathedral for the Anglican Diocese of Southwark in 1905. Queen Mary I held heresy trials in the church in 1555 and Shakespeare’s brother Edmund was laid to rest here in 1607. The church was featured in an episode ("The Lazarus Experiment") of the popular BBC sci-fi series Dr. Who.
Near the cathedral is Borough Market, a steel and glass edifice built in 1851 which houses fruit and vegetable vendors. The market is mentioned in the "Pickwick Papers."
Less than a quarter mile due south of Southwark Cathedral is The George, a carriage inn completed one year after fire destroyed most of Southwark in 1676. Dickens was a frequent patron of the Middle Bar in The George and his life insurance policy is displayed on a wall here.
A bit farther south along Borough High Street is St. George the Martyr church, constructed from 1734-1736. It is also known as Little Dorrit’s Church because she was christened and married here.
Just off Borough High Street on Lant Street is the Charles Dickens Primary School, located on the site where Dickens lived while his father was imprisoned at Marshalsea. From here, Dickens would walk to work at the shoe polish factory.
Dickens wrote about Lant Street in "Pickwick Papers," observing that it “sheds a gentle melancholy upon the soul… its dullness is soothing.”
After investigating the dreary world of Dickens, the Southwark visitor might want to enjoy the decidedly un-Dickensian world of Roxy Bar and Screen between The George and Borough station.Nullam.
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