The Washington times., 1901-06-30
THE LONDON OF DICKENS
Places Which Figured in His
Stories Fast Disappearing.

Buildings Made Famous by the
Great Author Soon to BE DemoI-
ished-Mrs. Camps House One of
People who went to see the London of
Dickens will have to hurry up and buy
| their tickets for the other side, for the
| zeal houses which the great author ten
| snted with the people of his Imagination
| people who became as real to us as the
! houses themselves-are in the process of
demolition, or about to be demolished, and
| the streets and squares frequented by
the beings of his fancy are being trans
! formed. The world moves. even in Lon
don, and improvements are sweeping
away the old literary landmarks. Even
in the rural England. where 'all the camp
with Nell In English meadows wandered
and lost their way" a change is taking
place.
But it is in London that the change is
greatest, for there new streets and new
buildings win soon take the place of the
houses at which American tourists used
to look and say, Here lived Sairey Camp;
in that other house she watched turn and
turn about with Betsy Prig by the sick
bed of Lewsome. Here lived Little Nell
and down the streets the rioters in Bar
naby Rudge' went. bowling, 10 burn
church
All the world knows that Sairey Camp
| lived in Kingsgate Street. High Holborn,
next door but one to the celebrated NUT
ton pie shop and directly opposite to the
original cat meat warehouse" The house
once occupied by the estimabie Mrs. Camp
and her famous umbrella has stood until
now, almost unaltered from the day when
Dickens discovered it and engaged lodg-
ings there for the chum of Mrs. Arris.
Now, even as then, a barber shop occu-
pies the ground floor, but the successor
of Poll Sweedlepipe does not add the sell
ing of birds to his other occupations as
Poll did. Otherwise it remains about the
same as it was when the precoeious Mr..
Bailey astonished Mr.. Sweedlepipe by
asking there for a shave. This house is
now about to come down to make room
for the new Strand to Holborn Avenue.
Americans will regret the disappearance
of this landmark of Dickens-and more
than the Londoners themselves, who sell
dom appreciate their literary shrines un-
til they have been discovered and exploit
ed by the Americans. The. weIl-known
case of Shakespeare's house in Stratford-
on-Ayon is only one of many instances
in which England failed to realize the
value of her possessions until Americans
aroused her from her apathy. To the old
house in Kingsgate Street more and more
American pilgrims have gore every year
to look up at the window through which
Mrs Camp first made the acquaintance
of Mr.. Pecksniff. and Poll Sweedlepipe's
successor has had his business much in
creased by visitors from the New World
who wanted to say when they got home
that they had had Dickens shave" in
the house of SGirey Camp.
But the Kingsgate house is not the only
one with which the worthy Camp is as
sociated, which is shortly to vanish be-
fore the pick and spade of improving
| housebreakers. The Black Bull Inn in
Holborn is doomed. 1t was there that
Sairey and Betsy Prigg nursed Lewsome.
1t is just it was in Sairey's time, and
the 'parapet," which was such a source
of comfort to Mrs Camp Cwho anticipated
an easy escape that way in case of fire.,
still adorns the front of the building. 1t
was in the Black Bull that Mrs. Camp so
highly recommended the "cowcumbers" to
her colleague, and the building today is
redoler of the creature-comforts which,
in forms liquid and solid, did so mucn to
cheer Mrs 'Arris' chum through her Wig
lis Was it here or in the Kingsgate
that Sairey uttered the historic injunc-
tion to Mrs Prig: Drink fair, Betsy!
Whatever you do, drink fairi
Still another Dickens place is TO be de-
molished. This is the Old Curiosity Shop
in Portugal Street. 1t is the real shop
without doubt of which Dickens wrote:
''It was one of those receptacles for old
and curious things which seem to crouch
in odd corners of this town and to hide
he huh in,
jealousy and distrust" 1t is now
waste paper warehouse, but on its front
It bears the inscription: The Old Curl
osity Shop. Immortalized by Charles
Dickens" Dickens came across 1t in one
of his rambles about the city, nobody
knows when-perhaps when he was
boy working in the blacking factory and
often hungry-for want of a meal At any
rate, when the poor little city waif,
whose father was in the debtors Jail, be-
came the great author, he hired the
house for the OCCUPANCY OF Little Nell and
her grandfather. From that house Quiip
| turned them out and thither came Dick
Swiveller, Kit, Goblin. and Short. 1t is
picturesque old shop in just the condition
\ it was when the Dickens folk lived there,
and it takes little Imagination to repeo-
pie 1t with the characters of the story to
which it gave a name. But its doom has
been spoken.
A whole slice Of Dickensland will disap-
pear with the blotting out of Sardinia
Street This queer little thoroughfare is
| associated with the description of the
| Gordon riots in "Barnaby Rudge." New
er at any one time have so many literary
| landmarks in London been in the process
| of destruction awaiting 1t as now. But
| what London Will lose in sentiment it
will gain in substantial street improve
| ments. Besides, as Mrs. Camp observes
| on the occasion of another disappear
ance;" IT'S what must all come to.
| It's as certain as being born, except that
| we can't make our calculations as exact"
The reality OF Dickens depends, after all,
| little upon material things. Everybody
| has in his imagination an 'Old Curiosity
| Shop of his own which is more satisfac-
| tory, perhaps, than the real article would
| be- Frequently when one has built for
| himself imaginary houses and landscapes
| wherein live and move the creatures of
| the novelist's fancy, it is distinct shock
| TO be brought face to face with the real
| place--the one the novelist had In mind
and find out how Utterly different it is
| from his own. And as to the necessity of
| tearing down these landmarks of Dickens
land, why, London needs street improve
ments about rs badly as any city that
can be mentioned. Still-still, it would
be pleasing If the landmarks could be
| left standing. Even If Dickens Sairey
| Gamp's house did fight with our own