Sought-after homes in Charles Dickens’ slum
The works of Charles Dickens contain powerful passages about life in the poor quarters of 19th century London. The south bank of the Thames east of Tower Bridge (then not yet built) was known to the novelist from visits that he made in the company of the river police. In »Oliver Twist« he described the houses around St Saviour’s Dock: »rooms so small, so filthy, so confined, that the air would seem to be too tainted even for the dirt and squalor which they shelter; wooden chambers thrusting themselves out above the mud and threatening to fall into it … every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage.«
Since then the scene has changed twice. The homes in Shad Thames, a street that runs parallel to the river as far as St Saviour’s Dock, are now apartments in converted warehouses and shiny new buildings with a river view. Many residents are employed in the financial sector and take a short trip across Tower Bridge to reach the office. Expensive bars and restaurants around Shad Thames help them to spend their money. In 1873, three years after the death of Dickens, huge warehouses for tea, coffee, spices and grain were built here. The last of them was closed in 1972, and redevelopment began in the 1980s. The walkways that criss-cross Shad Thames high above street level, once connecting storage spaces on either side of the road, are now the balconies of flats. The names of the residential blocks – Vanilla Court, Cayenne Court, Tea Trade Wharf – are reminders of the old use of the buildings.
Info
Address South bank of the Thames east of Tower Bridge, SE1 2YD | Public Transport Tower Hill (Circle, District Line) | Tip The Fashion and Textile Museum founded by Zandra Rhodes is close by 83 Bermondsey Street, Tue–Sat 11am–6pm, Sun 11am–5pm.
At St Saviour’s Dock too, where a subterranean river, the Neckinger, flows into the Thames, warehouses have become fashionable apartments. In 2008 a campaigning environmental group cleaned up the narrow waterway where Dickens staged the dramatic death of the villain Bill Sikes and his vicious bulldog, which expired pitifully in the stinking slime.
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