Within Saffron Hill looking back at the entry steps on Charterhouse street.
Today Dunadan and Arathorn met in a cafe in Oxford Street and chatted about this and that over cups of tea and teacakes. Dunadan had been to Ely Place - see his entry - which is a side road off Charterhouse Steet, which itself leads off Holborn Circus. This is the 5-road junction just before the Holborn Viaduct. Showing off his new-found knowledge, Arathorn said that just down the road from Ely Place there is a side street (pedestrianised and stepped entry point) called Saffron Hill. It was the street where Fagin, of 'Oliver Twist' fame, had his 'den'. It was, Arathorn solemnly declared, in O. T.'s day (1837)) an area off much ill-repute, being the home of drunks vagabonds and thieves, indeed the worst of society. It then struck us that , being a stone's throw away from the City financial institutions, the area hadn't changed much, for all that they are clean modern-looking buildings...
3 comments:
I have never heard of any of these places - London is a myriad of unexplored territory!
myriad true, but just which places have you not heard of, or I would have thought you had heard of Oxford Dtreet and Holborn and Holborn Viaduct for starters.
Ah I wondered why they rang a bell - aren't they on the monopoly board??
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