Charles Dickens has a long and deep association with Southwark, both personal and literary. In Pickwick Papers he wrote: "In the Borough there still remain some
half dozen old inns Great rambling, queer old places with galleries, and passages, and staircases, wide enough and antiquated enough, to furnish materials for a hundred ghost stories"
These rambling old inns included the White Hart mentioned by Shakespeare in Henry VI - and where Mr. Pickwick first met Sam Weller. And The Tabard where English literature began in 1388 when
Chaucer's Pilgrims assembled here before setting off for Canterbury. These famous establishments are remembered now only in local street names. Indeed, all of London's old galleried coaching inns are
gone, except for this southern wing of the George now under the secure protection of the National Trust.
Dickens first came to Southwark aged 12, when his parents and siblings, were imprisoned in the Marshalsea Debtors Prison. The high prison wall
remains a few hundred yards south of the George. Many scenes in his novel Little Dorritt, are set in the Marshalsea where Little (Amy) Dorritt
was born and in the nearby church of St George the Martyr where she was christened and eventually married.
In chapter 22 of the novel Amy's brother Tip intercepts Maggy (Amy's friend) as she is leaving the Marshalsea. Maggy is delivering a begging letter from the imprisoned Mr. Dorritt to Arthur Clennman.
Tip makes Maggy wait while he goes in to the George to write a plea on his own behalf to add to her errand. Tip would have used the Middle Bar Coffee Room for this purpose which was a haunt of
Charles Dickens and where his life insurance policy is now displayed.
The George stands on the south bank of the Thames near London Bridge - for centuries the only bridge across the river. It was rebuilt in 1676, after a devastating fire swept Southwark. Turning into
the yard today from the busy high street is to be transported back to a bygone age. The ground floor with its wealth of pretty lattice windows and oak beams is divided into several connecting bars
including the Old Bar which was the waiting room for coachmen and passengers. The restaurant now occupies what were once the galleried bedchambers. Real ale and traditional pub grub is available
lunchtime and evenings.
Copyright T.W. Townsend - the opinions expressed herein are those of the author and any observations were correct at the time of the
review.