Charles Dickens' London: Nicholas Nickleby

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Arthur H. Beavan continued his survey of Dickens' London locations in Imperial London, 1901, with this look at Nicholas Nickleby:

In the neighbourhood of Golden Square, Soho, is "a by-gone, faded, tumble-down street with two irregular rows of tall meagre houses which seem to have stared each other out of countenance years ago."

In the garret of one of these lived Newman Noggs, and, on the first floor, Mr. Kenwigs, "looked upon as a person of some consideration on the premises, inasmuch as he occupied the whole of the first floor, comprising a suite of two rooms."

Thither came Mr. Lilyvick, the collector of water-rates, to supper, to meet, amongst others, Miss Petowker, of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Ralph Nickleby, who was not "strictly speaking what you would call a merchant, neither was he a banker, nor an attorney, and still less a professional gentleman; for it would have been impossible to mention any recognized profession to which he belonged," lived in Golden Square, and any one of the older houses on the last side may be pictured as the identical one, but probably it was No. 2, the Hotel Ronveau of 1900.

On Snow Hill stood the Saracen's Head (rebuilt), where Mr. Wackford Squeers used to transact his scholastic business when in town, and where John Browdie, the stalwart Yorkshireman, always astonished the waiters during his visits, by the solidity and frequency of his meals.

Next: Charles Dickens' London: Martin Chuzzlewit