Fanspot
Camden Town
“The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman’s-buff.”
The narrator, from A Christmas Carol
Uncle Scrooge is a central character in British and world literature. This old gripsou even inspired Walt Disney to create Scrooge McDuck. In his old store, he employs a clerk who lives in Camden Town, the market district of London.
Scrooge, that old miser
Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old man, whose personality knows no joy, no kindness, no charity, no benevolence. And even less the Christmas spirit!
On this Christmas Eve, Harpagon is working in his office with Bob Cratchit, his clerk. To save every shilling, he does not heat the room.
The only act of generosity Scrooge concedes is to give his clerk a day off. Very poor, the young father lives on only 25 small shillings per week.
Camden Town, London’s market place, Cratchit’s humble home
That day, Scrooge and Cratchit quickly closed the counter and the office door. The clerk almost falls several times because of the icy road before arriving at his home in Camden Town.
It is in this market area of London that this father lives. A popular and precarious neighborhood that began to emerge in the 18th century.
Charles Dickens, the best guide to old London
Charles Dickens, the author of A Christmas Carol, did not draw far from his imagination for the settings of his novel. A true Londoner, he likes to set his writings in the British capital. From this Victorian era, he draws stories with the accents of social chronicles.
For the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, the author chooses well-known places. The novelist lived in Camden Town from 1822. First at Bayham Street and then at 112 College Place.
A resolutely social work
Misery and precariousness are at the heart of his work, the ardent defender of the rights of children, women and prostitutes. From Oliver Twist to David Copperfield, he describes, like a journalist, the throes of poverty in London.
A Christmas song is no exception to the rule. An anti-fairy tale, the story is about money, dominants and dominated, orphanage and the indifference of a man for his fellow men, all mixed with fantasy.
In its ranking of the richest fictional characters, Forbes magazine places Ebenezer Scrooge in sixth place with $8 billion in assets.
Camden Town
Camden Town is an area of London, often called Camden.
Camden Town today is a very dynamic area thanks to the very young sociology of its inhabitants. In addition to its flea markets, it is home to alternative counter-culture venues.
Earlier, from the end of the 17th century, Camden Town became the market district and developed very quickly.
Famous people have lived here, such as the writer Charles Dickens, the poet Dylan Thomas, the singer Amy Winehouse and the painter Walter Sickert.
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By Damien Canteau
Passionné par l'Histoire, les animés, les Arts et la bande dessinée en particulier, Damien est le rédacteur en chef du site spécialisé dans le 9e art, Comixtrip.