On this one of Richard's London walks you are taken on a fascinating tour that follows in the footsteps of Charles Dickens through the colourful and fascinating streets of Soho. Numerous places will be brought to vivid life as you look at the streets, buildings and courtyards through the eyes of several of Dickens most famous characters.

London walks - CHARLES DICKENS IN SOHO.

Dickens’s first experience of this cosmopolitan neighbourhood was as a young boy when, newly arrived in London, he would visit his Uncle Thomas Barrow who was ‘laid up’ with a leg injury at a house in Gerrard Street. Later, the area would feature many times in his novels, most notably as the place where Dr Manette lived in A Tale of Two Cities. But the district was also at the forefront of the great Victorian battles to rid the metropolis of the scourge of epidemics, such as cholera, or of the crime and poverty that was endemic in what were some of London’s worst slums. Thus the final section of the walk must, thankfully, be a walk of imagination, with only Dickens’s words to illustrate the horrific conditions for which these quarters were once so notorious.

Start & Finish: Tottenham Court Road Station (Central and Northern Underground lines).

Length: 2 miles (3.2 km).

Duration: 2 hours.

Best of times: Anytime.

Worst of times: None.

Click her to begin this one of Richard's London walks.

You can also join one of Richard's Charles Dickens London walks