Lant Street
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:07 am
Lant Street,
Lant Street in the Borough, Southwark, stretches west to east from Southwark Bridge Road to Borough High Street. It is located in the area which in the nineteenth centrury was notorious for its poor, overcrowded and insanitary conditions, as well as for crime and disorder.
Lant Street and the area surrounding it have a history going back many hundreds of years. Moreover, it has been the home of some important characters both real and fictional.
Lant Street is probably best known for being where Charles Dickens lodged in 1824 as a 12 year old boy, when his father was imprisoned for debt in the nearby Marshalsea prison. Although Dickens resented being put to work in a boot-blacking factory, he apparently had no complaints about his lodgings, which were in a back attic overlooking a timber yard, in the house of Archibald Russell, an agent for the Insolvent Court.
In 1837, in The Pickwick Papers, Dickens described Lant Street as having a transitory population, prone to midnight flits when the rent was due. With regard to the occupations of the residents, Dickens identified some clear-starchers, journeymen bookbinders, housekeepers, employees of the Docks, dressmakers, jobbing tailors, and one or two prison agents for the Insolvent Court, and claimed that the majority of inhabitants were either occupied in the letting of furnished apartments or in mangling. In 1851 there were 68 occupied houses in Lant Street, containing 181 households in insanitary conditions.
Charles Dickens has had a huge influence over the area. A back attic of the house belonging to an 'Insolvent Court Agent' in Lant Street was one of his temporary homes when he was a boy. The Garland Family in the Old Curiousity Shop are Insolvent Court Agents. This is why many streets near Lant Street have names called after Dickens characters. A Dickensian character called Bob Sawyer lived in Lant Street: "A bed and bedding were sent over for me and made up on the floor", he writes. The little window had a pleasant prospect of a timber-yard and when I took possession of my new abode, I thought it was Paradise". In 1854 a cholera epidemic affected the whole area.
Another famous resident was Sir Joseph Lyons who was born at 50 Lant Street on 29 December 1847. Joseph Lyons of course went on to own Lyons Cornerhouses where the famous 'Nippy' waitresses in their distinctive black dresses and lace hats would serve you meals round the clock. He was a self-made businessman of huge energy who was able to seize commercial and catering opportunities that frequently required mammoth logistics to organise.
Pictures: Copyright and Courtesy of David Perdues, Charles Dickens Homepage.
PICTURES Watercolour of Lant Street 1898. The house to the left of the archway is where Charles Dickens lodged in 1824.
Lant Street 1935, similar picture to the watercolour. Gladstone Public House on left.
Houses in Lant Street in 1935.
Houses in Lant Street.
1896 Map of area.
Lant Street in the Borough, Southwark, stretches west to east from Southwark Bridge Road to Borough High Street. It is located in the area which in the nineteenth centrury was notorious for its poor, overcrowded and insanitary conditions, as well as for crime and disorder.
Lant Street and the area surrounding it have a history going back many hundreds of years. Moreover, it has been the home of some important characters both real and fictional.
Lant Street is probably best known for being where Charles Dickens lodged in 1824 as a 12 year old boy, when his father was imprisoned for debt in the nearby Marshalsea prison. Although Dickens resented being put to work in a boot-blacking factory, he apparently had no complaints about his lodgings, which were in a back attic overlooking a timber yard, in the house of Archibald Russell, an agent for the Insolvent Court.
In 1837, in The Pickwick Papers, Dickens described Lant Street as having a transitory population, prone to midnight flits when the rent was due. With regard to the occupations of the residents, Dickens identified some clear-starchers, journeymen bookbinders, housekeepers, employees of the Docks, dressmakers, jobbing tailors, and one or two prison agents for the Insolvent Court, and claimed that the majority of inhabitants were either occupied in the letting of furnished apartments or in mangling. In 1851 there were 68 occupied houses in Lant Street, containing 181 households in insanitary conditions.
Charles Dickens has had a huge influence over the area. A back attic of the house belonging to an 'Insolvent Court Agent' in Lant Street was one of his temporary homes when he was a boy. The Garland Family in the Old Curiousity Shop are Insolvent Court Agents. This is why many streets near Lant Street have names called after Dickens characters. A Dickensian character called Bob Sawyer lived in Lant Street: "A bed and bedding were sent over for me and made up on the floor", he writes. The little window had a pleasant prospect of a timber-yard and when I took possession of my new abode, I thought it was Paradise". In 1854 a cholera epidemic affected the whole area.
Another famous resident was Sir Joseph Lyons who was born at 50 Lant Street on 29 December 1847. Joseph Lyons of course went on to own Lyons Cornerhouses where the famous 'Nippy' waitresses in their distinctive black dresses and lace hats would serve you meals round the clock. He was a self-made businessman of huge energy who was able to seize commercial and catering opportunities that frequently required mammoth logistics to organise.
Pictures: Copyright and Courtesy of David Perdues, Charles Dickens Homepage.
PICTURES Watercolour of Lant Street 1898. The house to the left of the archway is where Charles Dickens lodged in 1824.
Lant Street 1935, similar picture to the watercolour. Gladstone Public House on left.
Houses in Lant Street in 1935.
Houses in Lant Street.
1896 Map of area.