In what is possibly the most graphic and disturbing
scene in any Charles Dickens book, the author described
the brutal murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist.
It’s an event so dark than many adaptations of the book
have tended to avoid portraying it in any detail. It’s
been questioned just why this scene is so violent in the
context of the wider story, but author Rebecca Gowers
pointed to a potential link when she wrote her novel,
The Twisted Heart, which was inspired by real events.
Gowers pointed to a real murder of a London sex
worker named Eliza Grimwood in 1838. While some
of the details of the murder differ, many of them are
remarkably similar to Sikes’ methods. Grimwood was
in bed when she was attacked, she was forced to her
knees and after being killed the murderer continued
to attack the body. In the real case Grimwood was
stabbed, while Nancy was clubbed.
The most compelling evidence
that Dickens used this murder
as his template is that he wrote
about the real event. While his
days as a crime reporter ended
in 1836 and the murder took
place in May 1838, he went
on to write about the murder
in his short story The Pair
of Gloves, which discussed
the Grimwood case by name
many years later. Oliver Twist
was syndicated from 1837
onwards, but the chapter
that included Nancy’s
death was not seen
until January 1839.
It seems like there’s
a good chance
the death of
Eliza Grimwood
was an inspiration
to Dickens
for his most
harrowing scene.Did a gruesome London murder
inspire Dickens?labourers and the authorities. The
aftermath of one such confrontation was
reported by Bell’s Weekly Messenger on 13
August 1853: “On Wednesday, Mr Ya r d l e y,
the magistrate at the Thames Police-court,
was engaged for several hours in the
investigation of charges of assaulting,
wounding, and using threatening
language, preferred against dock
labourers, connected with the late strike
for an increase of wages. The persons
charged were, with one exception,
Irishmen; and some of the assaults
proved to have been committed by them
were of the most savage description.”
London, however, wasn’t simply the
ravenous centre of imperial greatness.
It was a place of enormous activity, one
that was energised by the development
of the docks and the creation of railways,
while innovation was seen in all areas
of life, including the design of prisons.
It was also a place of terrible poverty,
something that Dickens frequently
reflected on in his works. The Society
for Bettering the Condition of the Poornoted of London in 1805: “Many of the
inhabitants of the more crowded parts
of the Metropolis suffer very severely
under infectious fever... that in many
parts the habitations of the poor are
never free from the febrile infection;
there being not only courts and alleys,
but some public buildings, in which it
has continued for upwards of 30 years
past; - and that, by means of the constant
and unavoidable communication which
exists between the different classes of
the inhabitants of the Metropolis, and
between the Metropolis and other parts
of the kingdom, this dreadful disease
has frequently been communicated from
the London poor to country places, and
to some of the more opulent families in
the Metropolis.”
A year later, in A New and Appropriate
System of Education for the Labouring
Poor, Patrick Colquhoun wrote of “the
parents [of Westminster]... many of them
are ignorant, and extremely ill educated,“Dockland
was also more
multicultur a l
than any
other part
of London”
BELOW The
capital was
plagued by violent
criminal gangs,
a subject Dickens
wrote about in
novels such as
Oliver TwistPoverty was a huge
problem in 19th century
London, with many
families struggling to
support their children5 x^ ©
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