Explore Ancient Alleyways in the Footsteps of Dickens: A Self-Guided Audio Tour

Overview

On this walk we will see actual places that Dickens visited as well as places mentioned in his novels. We start at St Paul's Cathedral, which dominated London in Victorian times. It was near here that the young Dickens worked as a freelance reporter in Doctor’s Commons. He witnessed the old-fashioned and slightly ridiculous legal practice here which led to his contempt of the law, and his famous saying in Oliver twist ‘The law is a ass’. We then wend our way through ancient alleyways and churchyards, such as St Peter's, Cheapside, where the young Dickens first arrived in London. In ‘A Christmas Carol’ Ebenezer Scrooge sees the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come on the steps of the Royal Exchange. Nearby we discover the George and Vulture Inn where Mr Pickwick stayed just before his trial for Breach of Promise in ‘The Pickwick Papers’. The audio plays automatically at exactly the right time and place using your smartphone's GPS and the VoiceMap mobile app, which also works offline.