Indeed, it is so old that it is now a listed building and is widely considered to be London's oldest shop, despite there being no evidence of its actually having been a shop prior to the Victorian era.Īnd one thing that becomes more than apparent when studying the building's history is that it is a true miracle that the building has survived the march of time and progress, given that, at various times in its long existence, there have been numerous occasions when its imminent demise has been announced and it has come within a hair's breadth of being demolished. However, there can be little doubt that the building in Portsmouth Street is an old one and those who take the trouble to peruse its exterior will even see the date 1567 painted onto one of its exterior beams. "The place.was one of those receptacles for old and curious things which seem to crouch in odd corners of this town and to hide their musty treasures from the public eye in jealousy and distrust." BUT IT IS OLD
Pretty compelling evidence, I should say, that Dickens had another place in mind when he wrote of his Old Curiosity Shop that:.
But he soon became uncertain of the spot, and could only say it was thereabouts, he thought, and that these alterations were confusing." At first, he would draw with a stick a square upon the ground, to show them where it used to stand. The old house had been long ago pulled down, and a fine broad road was in its place.
"But new improvements had altered it so much, it was not like the same. Indeed, Dickens's sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth (1827 - 1917), told the actor Sir John Hare (1844 - 1921) that the shop that Dickens himself had in mind was located in Green Street (now Irving Street) behind the National Portrait Gallery.Īnd, if you won't believe his sister-in-law, then why not take it from no less an authority than Dickens himself, who tells us at the very end of the story that, after Kit Nubbles had married Barbara, and had several children, Jacob, Abel, Dick, and little Barbara, he used to take them to the street where his good Miss Nell had lived:. It makes for a delightful flight of fancy to stand outside the old red-tile-roofed structure at 13 and 14, Portsmouth Street, and imagine Charles Dickens standing outside it picturing the virtuous teenage orphan, Nell Trent ("Little Nell") and her grandfather residing within the whitewashed walls of The Old Curiosity Shop.īut, just like the novel from which it takes its name, this flight of fancy must be consigned to the realm of fiction, for, despite the claim boldly emblazoned on the building's facade "Immortalised By Charles Dickens", there is no doubt that Dickens himself had another location in mind when writing The Old Curiosity Shop between 18.
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