Southwark Cathedral, Walking Tour of London, Picwick Papers, Dickens London Tour.
DIRECTIONS
Go right off the steps. Keep ahead and go left through the gates into:- Southwark Cathedral. Once inside, go left along the side aisle and pause alongside the tomb of John Gower (d.1408). The church did not become a cathedral until 1905, so Dickens would have known it as St Saviour’s. In his essay ‘City of London Churches’ in The Uncommercial Traveller he wrote that he was ‘profoundly ignorant’ of the names of ‘at least nine-tenths’ of London’s churches, ‘saving that I know the church of Old Gower’s tomb (he lies in effigy with his head upon his books) to be the church of St Saviour’s, Southwark…’ Today Gower’s colourful effigy still reclines, exactly as Dickens described, and an information board details his achievements as the first English poet.
With your back to Gower, cross to the opposite aisle and, having paused to admire the memorial to William Shakespeare and the window above, resplendent with sundry characters from his plays, go right and exit the church through the glass doors.
DIRECTIONS
Ascend the steps to the right. Go left along Cathedral Street and, opposite ‘Fish’ restaurant, go right into Borough Market, said to be the oldest fruit and vegetable market in London. Take the first passage left and walk between the fenced-in stalls. The market has retained its steel and glass structure, dating from 1851, and still has a decidedly Victorian air. Dickens used it as the setting in Pickwick Papers, when a very drunk Bob Sawyer, attempting to find his way home, ‘double knocks at the door of the Borough Market Office’ and takes ‘short naps on the steps… under the firm impression he lived there and had forgotten the key’. At the time of writing, plans were underway to re-erect the magnificent portico of the Floral Hall, which once stood in Covent Garden, on the Stoney Street side of Borough Market.
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