Legendary Londoners

Many real and fictional characters have been associated with London through the centuries.
Let’s find out more about some of London’s most famous names.

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes was a fictional Victorian detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the early 1900s. The stories are written in the voice of Doctor Watson, Holmes` friend and assistant crime-solver.
Many of the stories are set partly in London and include fictional characters from its criminal underworld. In the novels, Sherlock Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street, now a Building Society.

Charles Dickens

As a young man the Victorian novelist Charles Dickens worked as a reporter in the law courts and at the Houses of Parliament. He got to know the city well and describes many Londoners and districts in all his major books.
One of Dickens` homes, 48 Doughty Street in Bloomsbury, is open as a Dickens Museum. He lived there from 1837 to 1839 when he wrote Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nicklebv.

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper was a notorious murderer who terrorised London in 1888.He prowled the slums of the Spitalfields area and committed five murders in ten weeks despite 600 policemen being sent to catch him.
The identity of the Ripper is one of the great unsolved crime mysteries although there are many theories about him.

Dick Whittington

Dick Whittington is one of London’s best-known legends.
The story goes that Dick Whittington was a poor country boy who walked to London to seek his fortune, carrying his few belongings in a bundle on the end of a stick.
Dick got a job as a cook’s boy in the house of a merchant, Mr. Fitzwarren, and he bought a cat to help him keep down the mice in his tiny room. But he was treated badly by the cook and eventually decided to go home.
As Dick got to the edge of London the Bow Bells rang out and what they said persuaded Dick to return: “Turn again Dick Whittington, Thrice Lord Mayor of London “. Meanwhile Dick`s cat had gone on-board a ship.
The cat was a good rat- catcher and killed a plague of rats in a distant country. The Emperor bought the cat for a fortune which was returned to Dick. He became a wealthy merchant and was Lord Mayor of London three times.
There was a real Dick Whittington who became Lord Mayor three times in the early 1400s. He came to London and set up as a merchant. The cat legend may come from the coal barges called “cats “, which Whittington owned.


. Links:

. Long long time ago … (Stories for Children): http://www.longlongtimeago.com/index.html


. Dick Whittington and His Cat: http://www.longlongtimeago.com/llta_folktales_dickwhittington.html