“In honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt” (Dickens). Camden Town is the location of the Cratchit family's home in Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol. Camden is a district of northwest London, which became an important location at the time of the novella for the development of railways (“Camden Town”). It is thought that 18 Bayham Street is the exact address of the Cratchit’s house in the story, as this was where Dicken's once lived. This idea can be assumed based on Dicken's description of Bob Cratchit's walk every day to work, which is the same route that Dickens would have taken to the city as a boy ("Five Little Known Facts About "A Christmas Carol"). Camden at the time was described as a "precarious neighborhood that began to emerge in the 18th century" (Canteau). The Cratchit’s house is written as the typical low-income household of the time; four bedrooms, an open fire with no oven. Due to over population of London at the time, and the fact that railroads were emergent in Camden, many slum houses and poverty arose in this area. The Cratchit home was like that of many others residing there in 1843. Today, Camden is known for it's many retail and food shops, as well as multiple street markets for selling goods ("Camden Town"). 

“Camden Town.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Jan. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden_Town.

Canteau, Damien. “Camden Town.” Fantrippers, 30 Nov., 2022, https://www.fantrippers.com/en/fanspots/camden-town/. 

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Chatham and Hall, 1843. 

“Five Little Known Facts about ‘A Christmas Carol.’” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 13 Nov. 2016, https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/five-little-known-facts-about-a-c...