Crime in Victorian London - the Realities of Charles Dickens

The London Archives in Clerkenwell are hosting a talk on crime in Victorian London on Saturday 7 November, with Patrick Voss taking the lead. The whole thing is built around Charles Dickens: how much of what he wrote about Victorian crime, poverty and the workhouse actually held up, and how dangerous London really was back then. It's a look at the gap between the Dickens we know from the books and the city as it was on the ground.

Voss works his way through Oliver Twist and the characters that come out of it — Oliver himself, Fagin, Bill Sikes and the Artful Dodger — and uses them as a starting point to talk about the real-life crime and poverty of the era. He's an award-winning Blue Badge Guide in London, the kind of person who spends his days giving tours and bringing history to life, so the talk is in his wheelhouse. It's an in-person session, about 50 to 60 minutes long, with a Q&A afterwards if you've got questions.

It's also designed as a companion to the archive's exhibition, Londoners On Trial: Crime, Courts and the Public 1244-1924, which is on display in Clerkenwell from 9 March 2026 to 25 February 2027 and free to visit. If you're planning to go to the talk, it makes sense to have a look at the exhibition around it, since they're both dealing with the same ground. The talk runs at 3pm on Saturday 7 November at The London Archives, 40 Northampton Rd, London EC1R 0HB, and tickets are £10.