C is for...Crime in Victorian London Talk + Londoners On Trial @ London Archives

Join us at the London Archives for a talk about 'Crime in Victorian London - The Realities of Charles Dickens'. We'll also have time to explore the 'Londoners On Trial: Crime, Courts and the Public 1244-1924' exhibition before the talk starts. Talk: 'Crime in Victorian London - The Realities of Charles Dickens' by Patrick Voss, Blue Badge Guide. 50-60 minutes plus Q&A. Discover what author Charles Dickens got right about Victorian crime, poverty and the workhouse, and how dangerous London really was. Dickens portrayed a world of pickpockets, thieves, and child exploitation - with fictional characters such as Oliver Twist, Fagin, Bill Sikes and the Artful Dodger. Crime features heavily in his novel Oliver Twist with offences ranging from pickpocketing, burglary, and handling stolen goods, to violent assault and murder. But how accurate was this picture of Victorian crime? Patrick Voss explores the real conditions behind the fiction, including the workhouse system, urban poverty, and the pressures of life in the largest city in the world. This talk will reveal how dangerous it was in Victorian London and why Dickens wrote so urgently about it.