Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Homes and haunts -- England -- London; Literary landmarks -- England -- London
_Aldersgate Street_ leads northward from St. Martin’s-le-Grand; passing
the first block in which, _Falcon Street_ turns on the right (No. 16)
towards _Falcon Square_, a small city piazza, where may be found (No. 8)
The Falcon Hotel. This is the place at which John Jasper sojourned when
visiting London. In “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” we read the following
commendation of the house in question:—
“It is hotel, boarding-house, or lodging-house at its visitor’s
option. It announces itself, in the new Railway advertisers, as a
novel enterprise, timidly beginning to spring up. It bashfully,
almost apologetically, gives the traveller to understand that it does
not expect him, on the good old constitutional hotel plan, to order a
pint of sweet blacking for his drinking, and throw it away; but
insinuates that he may have his boots blacked instead of his stomach,
and may also have bed, breakfast, attendance, and a porter up all
night, for a certain fixed charge.”
Returning to Aldersgate Street, we shall find that the opposite turning,
leading to Smithfield, is _Little Britain_. In “Great Expectations” we
learn that the Offices of Mr. Jaggers, the Old Bailey lawyer, were here
situated, in near proximity to Bartholomew Close; but the house cannot be
precisely indicated. Here _Mr. Wemmick_ assisted his Principal in the
details of his professional business. He may be remembered as having a
decided preference for “portable property.”
Proceeding onward by _Duke Street_, the visitor will shortly come into
Smithfield, a locality which is considerably changed since the days when
Pip first arrived in London. He says—
“When I told the clerk that I would take a turn in the air while I
waited, he advised me to go round the corner and I should come into
Smithfield. So I came into Smithfield; and the shameful place, being
all asmear with filth, and fat, and blood, and foam, seemed to stick
to me. So, I rubbed it off with all possible speed by turning into a
street where I saw the great black dome of Saint Paul’s bulging at me
from behind a grim stone building which a bystander said was Newgate
Prison.”
Adopting the same line of route, the Rambler may pass the south front of
the Metropolitan Meat Market, turning to the left by St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital into _Giltspur Street_, which leads to Newgate Street, and faces
on the opposite corner of Old Bailey Newgate Prison. In “Great
Expectations,” Pip describes his visit to the interior, at the invitation
and in the company of Mr. Wemmick:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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