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Those with an interest in Dickensian topography have puzzled, over the decades, about the location of Tom-all-alone's in Bleak Home. As early as 1880 Robert Langton pointed out that the name was lifted from a place in Chatham, well-known to Dickens as a child (59-60). But it was the name only that was drawn on, the Chatham location bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the London slum to which Dickens attached the same name in 1853. From Robert Allbut in 1899 (4-5) to Andrew Sanders in 2010 (129-30) various courts and alleyways in London have been suggested for the real sites of their fictional counterpart. The area of Drury Lane was a popular suggestion; so too were the rookeries of St. Giles and Field Lane, all areas, during Dickens s lifetime, of slum dwellings and great poverty. But nowhere seemed to quite fit the illustration supplied by Hablot K. Browne; and for that reason some observers have suggested the illustration was an imaginative vision, not a real place at all. Dickens, though, rarely allowed his illustrators that freedom of choice, that looseness of approach; nor did he in this case, I suggest.
Two years ago I discovered in The National Archives at Kew in London documents arising from cases brought in the Court of Chancery relating to Warren's Blacking. They are dated 1826 to 1827 and demonstrate, unequivocally, that the person who employed Charles Dickens in his blacking warehouse was William Edward Woodd. It is also equally clear there was nobody involved in this business by the name of James Lamert. However, Woodd did employ his brother-in-law George Lamerte, initially as a clerk, though Woodd increasingly came to rely on him to manage the whole set up. My first findings were presented in an article published in the Dickensian in June 2010 and unravelled some of the confusion written in Forsters Life of Dickens.1 Further searching uncovered more documents at The National Archives and elsewhere which greatly expand our knowledge of the people involved in the production of Warren's Blacking, and of the Lamerte family. One of the outcomes of this further research is identification of the location ofTom-all-alone's.
It was George Lamerte's father, Matthew, who married Dickens's Aunt Mary at Chatham in 1821, immediately taking...