A History through Places Series: The steps in Oliver Twist
By Amanda Harvey Purse
“Of all the bad deeds that, under the cover of darkness, had been committed within wide London’s bounds since night hung over it, that was the worst. Of all the horrors that rose with an ill scent upon the morning air, that was the foulest and most cruel.”
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 1838
It was a dark and cold night when Nancy went to meet Mr Brownlow, the air had been damp and the fog surrounded her like a shawl. Perhaps this is why the normally cautious Nancy, who was on a dangerous mission, did not see that she was being followed. This was her mistake, a mistake that cost her, her life.
Nancy was a character within Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist and as well as being a thief for Fagin, the master pickpocket, since a young age, there is also a suggestion that she was a prostitute. Although this is not stated directly in the novel but it possibly comes from Charles Dickens wording in the preface to the 1841 edition stating ‘the boys are pickpockets, and the girl is a prostitute’.
Nancy is portrayed as a sympathetic figure in the novel perhaps to show that maybe not every criminal is as nasty as her lover, Bill Sikes. She is shown to be very loyal to both Fagin and Bill even though, with our modern eyes, we can see they are nasty to her. This is to perhaps understand the trouble and trepidation Nancy has in the final moments of her life, when she decides she must help Oliver Twist to not have the life she has.
When Oliver appears back in Bill’s, Fagin’s and Nancy’s lives after having a brief moment of freedom, Nancy is wrecked with guilt for the part she played, even if she was forced. Nancy is portrayed as a thief who steals but feels guilty for it and this guilt overrides her loyal to Bill and Fagin. So she meets up with Mr. Brownlow, the man that would give Oliver a better life, upon London Bridge.
‘Not here,’ said Nancy hurriedly, ‘I am afraid to speak to you here. Come away – out of the public road – down the steps yonder!’
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 1838.
However the meeting is overheard by Noah Claypole, who had been told by Fagin to follow Nancy. Noah reports back to Fagin, who gets Noah to repeat the story to Nancy’s lover, Bill Sikes. Fagin probably sensing murder in Bill’s eyes desperately asks Bill to not ‘be – too – violent’, however his words go unheard as when Bill meets up with Nancy, he keeps beating her, in the lodgings they share until she is no more.
It is one of the most horrid scenes Charles Dickens ever writes in his novels and oddly one of the most common scenes the author replayed himself to audiences in Britain and America.
The inspiration for the steps where Nancy talks to Mr. Brownlow referred to in the novel, are real and are actually still there on the west side of London Bridge, together with an arch supporting the southern end of it. Although the London Bridge of Charles Dickens day was sold to an American oilman called Robert McCulloch and taken down brick by brick, the steps leading up the side of the bridge remained.
These were designed by a Scot, John Rennie, and built by his son, Sir John Rennie in 1831, seven years before the first publication of Oliver Twist.
There was once a brown plaque to the side of the steps stating that this was the site of Nancy’s murder but the plaque has recently disappeared and in its place is a blue plaque just under the arch nearby.
Although both plaques are factually wrong for the fictional novel, Nancy being actually murdered with the lodgings within the novel and it is only in the 1960 musical, Oliver! That she is murdered on the stairs, this does go someway to explain how powerful Dickens characters actually were and are still today.
Being a member of the Royal Historical Society for a few years now, Amanda has written an academic paper for historical palaces, universities and societies. Amanda has worked within museums and television companies, covering a range of periods while also writing historical books. The titles including, ‘the award winning’ books of Martha and Inspector Reid: The Real Ripper Street, the ‘Jack the Ripper Book of the Year nominee’ Jack and Old Jewry: The City of London Policemen who Hunted the Ripper, published by Mango Books and The Cutbush Connections: In Flowers, In Blood and in the Ripper Case.
She is the author of The Boleyns: From the Tudors to the Windsors, published by Amberley Publishing due out in October 2022 and available for pre-order. Although currently working on other projects with Amberley, one of which is the basis for this article, there are plans for her to return to the subject of Victorian crime very soon.
https://www.amberley-books.com/the-boleyns-9781398100220.html
ahpurse's Blog: Tudor and Victorian Historian 