
DC Editor Adam writes…
A couple of Christmases ago, in honour of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's impoverished clerk in A Christmas Carol, I attempted to trace his footsteps on his journey home from Scrooge's Cornhill office to his humble abode in Camden Town.
Here's Bob (pictured) whooshing down the slide at Cornhill in a Tube doodle I made on the way to the start of the walk.
No precise details of his journey are listed in the text of A Christmas Carol, so here's the route I planned before setting off…
It's probably not as direct a route as that Bob himself would have chosen, but I tailored it to go through my beloved Clerkenwell.
On the way I snapped a few piccies of Bob Cratchit's London Christmas past, present and yet to come. I hope you enjoy them. Happy Christmas!
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Christmas Present: Bob would have known the Royal Exchange… |
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… and the Mansion House (without cranes, buses and vans, of course)… |
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… here's a more contemporary view |
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Xmas Yet To Come… 1 Poultry, which replaced the English Gothic splendour of the old Mappin & Webb building. |
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Mappin & Webb had yet to set up shop at Poultry in 1843 (when A Christmas Carol was published) but was already a going concern having been founded in Sheffield in 1775. |
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The view from London Wall looking toward Camden Town… slightly (ahem) obscured in the 21st Century |
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St Paul's – part of Bob's Xmas Present surrounded by the architecture & transport of his Xmas Yet To Come |
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Xmas past… 18th century headstones in Postman's Park |
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Little Britain – and we nod to Great Expectations as we pass |
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St Bartholomew-the-Great… and its literary neighbour… |
Given Dickens's subject matter, was it a coincidence that I should happen upon the HQ of Save the Children in St John's Lane EC1 along the route of my Bob Cratchit stroll?
Or was it my own version of a Christmas visitation?
It's Save The Children's Christmas Jumper Day on the 14th December 2018. Here's how to join in…
Onward to Clerkenwell Green…
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Past AND Present – a father explains to his daughter what these weird red cupboards are all about on Clerkenwell Green |
Spirit of Xmas Past: Do you recognise this place?
Scrooge: Recognise it?! I was apprenticed here!
My own Christmas past… 34 Clerkenwell Close (pictured above) is the first office in which I worked in London. The building is a former ink factory and it was from here that I first explored London on foot, stumbling upon so many Dickens locations in my lunch hour wanders that golden hindsight tells me that every day was a literary fireworks display.
This is where I fell in love with London and I will find any excuse to pass through this most wonderful of London neighbourhoods.
Next, my route went via…

… and past George Gilbert Scott's St Pancras hotel…

… via the British Library…
This excellent British Library film looks at The Origins of A Christmas Carol…
On to Somers Town…

… and St Mary's Church, a building personally familiar to the young Dickens, who lived at Cranleigh Street…

… in conditions far from affluent. The plaque was unveiled in 2013 by actor Simon Callow.
All told it was a walk of some 3.7 miles. So Bob's commute was at least 7 miles on foot every day.
All told it was a walk of some 3.7 miles. So Bob's commute was at least 7 miles on foot every day.
If any of you Daily Constitutionalists end up doing your own version of Bob's walk, do drop me a line at the usual address, send me your pics, or leave a comment below…
Merry Christmas!
From the London Walks Podcast Archive… A Christmas Carol. Listen here…
Keep In Touch…





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