TheOrator.Press Education Page. A Recent Visit To A Bermondsey Art Gallery And A Local Restaurant In This Dickens Territory Exposes A Savage Side To The The Writer Which Runs Contrary To His Reputation As A Social Reformer. His Association With The Morant Bay Massacre In Jamaica Is A Dickens Tale Lesser Told. December 2023

Dickens, Bermondsey & Fagin

---

In His 1839 Novel ‘Oliver Twist’ Charles Dickens Wrote In A Character Called Called Fagin Who Was The Adult Gangleader of A Gang of Victorian Child Pickpockets, As A Jewish Immigrant Who Was Later Imprisoned. Their Tale Was Based Around The Back Streets, Nooks And Crannies And Alleyways of London Bridge And Bermondsey. Dickens Had His Own Illustrator Who Operated Under The Name of Kyd Who Produced The Illustration of Fagin As Depicted Above (In The Illustration Photographed By Almay).

---

Gentrification In Bermondsey Has Seen An Explosion of Eateries & Galleries On Bermondsey Street, Including The Arrival of The Garrison Restaurant In 2003. The Street And Its Surrounding Areas Have Gone Through Peaks And Troughs In Terms of Its Geographical Fortunes. From Marshlands, To Dickensian Slums, To Warehouses & Wharfs, To Antique Dealers, Luxury Apartments, Contemporary Commerical Units, Hotels And Heartwarming Community Projects. On A Recent Visit To A Kenyan Art Exhibition At The Bermondsey Project Art Gallery, Followed By Dinner At A Local Restaurant, As A News & Review Magazine Keen To Encourage Edu-Tainment & Inspiration For All Generations We Got Stuck Into The History Too.

---

Bermondsey, The Street’s Namesake, Was A Rural Marshland Parish For The Centuries. This Was Until The Great Fire of London Which Began In Nearby Pudding Lane, Just Across London Bridge, In 1666 on September 6th. It Was Followed By Unavoidable 17th Century Redevelopment of The Area And The Well-To-Do Moving In And Commanding Things At A Time When Britain Operated An Immoveable Class System. The Industrial Revolution Sytematically Cemented The Class Divide In The Most Brutal & Unforgiving of Ways. It Was The Workhouse or The Clink Such As Southwark’s Marshalsea Prison For Those Who Could Not Pay Their Way As ‘The Have Nots’ When ‘The Haves’ Were The Ruling Class & Slave Merchant Aristocrats.

After The Industrial Revolution Peaked The Area Saw A Downturn Again, Something Which The Area’s Most Famous Son, Charles Dickens, Would Highlight In His Proflic Writing. Most Famous of All Is His Tale of Fagin, Dodger, Sykes, Nancy & Oliver From His Beloved Book ‘Oliver Twist’ (1839). Ever Since It Has Been Reproduced And Adapted As A Film, Musical And TV Series In Different Versions Over The Years.

---

As Well As Being A Prolific Writer On London He Was A Prolific Walker of London’s Streets. From Blackfriars To Borough High Street And The Docklands of London Bridge And The River Thames (Including George Row), The Tanneries of Bermondsey, Up To The Writing Classes of Fleet Street, Westminister Law Makers, And Inns of Court Lawyers – Landmarks Noting The Authorpreneur’s Presence Are Everywhere.

---

This Is Especially So In The Southwark Area, The London Borough Within Which The Garrison Restaurant & The Bermondsey Project Art Gallery Are Located. We Visited Both On Saturday December 2nd 2023 As We Went To Review A Kenyan Art Gallery At The Latter And Had Dinner Afterwards At The Former (See Seperate Reviews In This Month’s Issue).

There’s Even An Official 1855 Southwark Council Archive Mapping The Exact Location of The Home of The Fictional Villian Bill Sikes Who Is Central To The Classic Dickens Favourite ‘Oliver Twist’. And There’s The Real Life Stairwell Off London Bridge Featured In The (1968) Film Adaptation of Oliver Twist Where Sikes Notoriously Sealed His Own Fate After Murderously Stealing And Sealing Nancy’s Fate First.

There’s A Dickens Square, A Dickens Estate, A Dickens Field, A Dickens Primary School, And A Dickens Pub (The George Inn Yard, Southwark, With A Longstanding Photo Gallery Featuring Dickens Himself, Now Owned By The National Trust And Serviced By The Greene King Pubs Group).

---

Genetrification

---

Virtually Two Centuries After The Great Fire of London, In 1861 Another Fire Saw Sikes’ Old Slum Dwelling of Jacob’s Island Burnt Down. The Remainder Was Subsequently Demolished And Then Redeveloped As Wharfs & Warehouses (For The Plantation Merchant Classes aka Slavers’.) Decades Later In 1934 A New Social Housing Development Created The Dickens Estate. The Second World War Saw Yet More Damage To The Area Once Again And It Eventually Fell Into Ruination.

---

But In Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Docklands Property Development Schemes of The 1980s & 90s Under The Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) That Saw The Area Totally Transformed By A New Kind of Private Property Development Which Turned The Area Into Luxury Riverside Apartments.

The Likes of The Late Property Developer Sir Terance Conran & The Late Architect Michael Squire Were Pioneers of Property Development At This Time In This Area. Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands of The OXO Tower Fame Have Historically Been Big Players Too. All Signs of The Destitution of Dickens’ Day Were Virtually Totally Eradicated. And That’s When The Gentry And Fancy Eateries Moved In. Most Famous Amongst Them Included The Late Designer And Property Developer Sir Terance Conran And His ‘Gastrodome’ (A Collection of Fine Restaurants Along Running The Thames In The London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Bermonsdey Area – Now Owned By D And D Restaurant Group. dandlondon.com).

Even So, The Dickens Museum At 48 Doughty Street, London, W1 (Camden) Documents It In Great Illustrative And Lifesize Detail Dickens And His Captivating Tales For History’s Sake. dickensmusem.com

@dickensmuseum

One Lesser Told Tale of Dickens Is His Involvment With The Morant Bay Uprising In Jamaica, 1866.

---

Dickens, The Morant Bay Uprising & Governor Edward Eyre

---

Photo: Jamaican Leader Paul Bogel. Whilst Dickens Is An Internationally Celebrated English Writer, History Also Documents That Dickens Is Not Without Racial Controversy.

Stony Gut Church Deacon Paul Bogle Led The Morant Bay Uprising In Jamaica 1865 Against The Mis-treament And Poor Living Conditions of Freed Former Enslaved Black People On The Caribbean Island. Charles Dickens Officially Defended The Subsequent Savage Punishment And Executions of Men, Women And Children Involved In The Uprising, As Ordered By Colonial Governor Edwary Eyre. Stony Gut Church Was Near The Middleton Sugar Plantation, St Thomas, Approximately 12 Miles From Morant Bay. Paul Bogle Is A Jamaican National Hero. In England The Slave Trade Was Abolished In 1807 And Slavery Abolished In 1833.

Charles Dickens Lived 1812 – 1870 (58 Years Old)

Paul Bogle Lived 1822 – 1865 (43 Years Old)

Ficitional‘ Fagin Lives On Born 1838 (Over (Over 180 Years Old…As At December 2023)

---

There Have Been Many Protestations That His Portrayal of Fagin As The Victorian Gang Leader of Pickpocketers In Oliver Twist Was And Remains Anti-Semetic. Now Known As Oliver Twist It Was Originally Known As Oliver Twist And The Jew Fagin. This Fact Highlights How Important Updates And Amendment of Some Books Are. Some Right Wing Elements Have Railled Against It Complaining of Wokeness. However Oliver Twist Could Simply Not Be Entitled The Aforementioned Name Today. Similarly Various Famous And Popular Writers Have Written Books With The ‘N’ Word As A Standard Reference And Such References Have Also Since Been Changed.

Such Literary Amendment Has Since Become Known As Bowlderization. And The People Who Perform It Are Known As Sensitivity Readers.

Others Bowlderized By Sensitivity Readers Include:

Roald Dahl ~ Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

Ian Fleming ~ James Bond

Mark Twain ~ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

And Hugh Lofting ~ Dr DooLittle

To Name A Few.

---

Dickens Was Also A Member of The 1866 Defence Committee On Behalf of Colonial Governor Edward Eyre Who Ruled In Jamaica. Alongside Charles Dickens Were Charles Kingsley, The Artist John Ruskin (A Friend of The British Artist JMW Turner), Victorian Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson And Others Who Supported The Jamaican Governor Edward Eyre’s Brutal, Savage & Inhumanely Cruel Suppression of The Morant Bay Rebellion, In St.Thomas, Jamaica.

It Was Led By Reverand Paul Bogel, Who Demanded Better Living & Working Conditions For Freed Formerley Enslaved Black People In The British Colony.

A Seperate Committed Called ‘The Jamaica Committee’ Set Up By Royal Commission, To Conduct An Investigation, Included Abolitionists Who Believed Governor Eyre Should Be Tried For Murder In Accordance With The British Rule of Law. Those On This Abolitionist Jamaica Committee Fighting Against Dickens & His Fellow Colonialists Included A.V Dicey (A Legal Scholar), John Bright, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Henry Huxley, Thomas Hill Green, Thomas Hughes & Herbert Spencer.

Ultimately Eyre Was Simply Dismissed From His Post & Recalled Back To Britain By The Colonial Office.

This, Notwithstanding 400 People Were Executed, Including Dual Heritage, Freedman, Turned Jamaican Polititian, George William Gordon, Who Was Accused of Being Responsible For The Rebellion. He Was Denied Justice And His Rights As A ‘Fellow-Citizen’ And Indeed As A ‘Fellow Politician’ Under The British Empire. He Was Hanged Shortly Before Bogel Who Was Hanged A Few Days Later.

Dickens Was Part of The Defence Committeed That Defended Eyre And Denied Gordon His Rights To Due Process And Political Justice. Eyre Dodged A Bullet After Condeming Others To Take Severe And Savage Punishment. This Is Typical of The Discriminatory Law Enforcement And Justice System Then Which Was Totally Hypocritical And In Many Ways Is Still Evident Today In Terms of The Global Mistreatment of Black People Within The Legal System.

So Despite The Captivating Story of Oliver Twist Penned From The Social Awareness of Charles Dickens, Like So Many Social Reform Issues It Does Not Necessarily Follow That This Social Awareness Automatically Encompassed Racial Justice. The Later Is Often A Specific Fight That Needs To Be Specifically Spelt Out By The Black Community And Their Allies. Those Allies Happily Often Include Members of The Caucasion Community Working With Black Community Leaders Together For The Greater Good of Society And Humanity.

---