Clerkenwell is located in North Central London, between King’s Cross and London. It includes the sub-district of Finsbury. It is an older parish that has existed since Medieval times and continues to the present. Its name comes from the clerk’s well in Farrington. In the seventeenth century, it developed into a more fashionable part of town with expensive residences. At the time of Oliver Twist, it had made a turn for the worst as a strong criminal element encroached into the neighborhood.

Some of the more famous houses of disreputable souls during the Victorian Era included a notorious brothel in which Sugden's Topographical Dictionary described as "the most disreputable street in London, a haunt of thieves and loose women”.  It was most definitely a place where crime abounded and it had the highest murder rate in London in the 19th century.

At the time of Oliver Twist, the seedy side had grown as poor cottages, brothels, beggars, inn, and taverns sprung up. It became a home to “a den of thieves”, pickpockets and counterfeiters.”  Alongside the poor criminals, the wealthy continued to live and frequent the neighborhoods, making Clerkenwell the ideal place for the Dodger to train Oliver to try out his pickpocketing skills.

The fact that Clerkenwell is a place where the wealthy and the poor brush shoulders, makes it fitting that this is the place where Oliver was to commence his life of thievery. Dickens describes the poor part of Clerkenwell in detail. “A dirtier or more wretched place he had never seen.” …… “The street was very narrow and muddy, and the air was impregnated with filthy odours. There were a good many small shops but their stock in trade appeared to be children, who, even at this time of night, were crawling in and out of the doors, or screaming from the inside” (Dickens, chapter 8).

Fagin’s “den of thieves” was located on the street of Saffron Hill. The Dodger would slink around the neighborhood through the maze of squallored alleys and streets with Oliver following behind as the Dodger attempted to teach Oliver the tricks of the pickpocketing trade. The “Three Cripples” public house was described in vivid detail by Charles Dickens as it was visited often by Bill Sykes. The public house in Clerkenwell was the dirtiest part of Little Saffron. Charles Dickens said it was “a dark and gloomy den, where a flaring gas-light burned all day in the winter-time; and where no ray of sun ever shone in the summer” (Dickens, chapter 15, pg. 1).

The two faces of Clerkenwell still exists today as there is a large disparity between the rich and poor of the neighborhood. In September of 2013, an article highlighted the fact that a Victorian house in Clerkenwell was put up for sale for £8 million while nearby elderly residents struggle to pay rent. In fact, a town meeting was called to address the problem of the housing crisis in Clerkenwell in an attempt to support and find relief for the poorer residents (Gruner).

Works Cited:

“Clerkenwell”. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerkenwell

Gruner, Peter. “Rich man, poor man: A tale of two bouroghs.” Islington tribune. September 2013. http://archive.islingtontribune.com/news/2013/sep/rich-man-poor-man-tale-two-boroughs