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Charles Dickens In Birmingham

I bet that this is the way larger luggage loads were carried and the small slips and safer handling away from the crude loads were a common occurence for the times. It went ahead...to be picked up on arrival by coach with carry-on luggage, so to speak. It was the airport turntable of the time and the one in Livery St. would have been used by Dickens I am sure and hence the scenario of the straightaway recognition of the name by the waiter. Who knows folk, who live a quarter of a mile away. Hmmm... or across the street for that matter.
 
Hi

John Winkles, 1800-1841, was my ancestor. He died from asthma in Jan 1841 in 80, Livery Street. He can be found in some 1830's trade directories at 80 (or 81) Livery street. How marvellous to be immortalized in Dickens. I can't recall a Winkle(s) wharfinger in any of the censuses! It's very Dickensian and an alliteration.

Many thanks to the thread contributors,
Best regards,

Lu
 
That's excellent Lu. And it's lovely to hear of your connection. I thoroughly enjoyed looking into Mr Winkle and his possible link with Dickens. A nice addition to your family history. And of course we have Mikejee to thank for his time delving into the directories and maps to help piece it together. Hope you've had a look at the text, if you haven't it's well worth it. Viv.
 
Oh yes Viv.
Mikejee has helped me in the past with bringing my family tree to life through maps and trade directories. He's great!
I think John Winkles lived at 80 or 81 Livery Street, rather than 10 Livery Street.
I found this thread through googling today. I hope others with this ancestor find this connection too.
I did look at the text and I think this may inspire me to read Pickwick Papers.

On another subject and may well have been mentioned already today. I did enjoy listening to Soweto K(?), jazz musician, on radio 4 today, Reimagining the city. Birmingham.

Good to speak on BHF again,

All the best
Lu
 
I remember the Pickwick Cafe very well, especially their fresh cream and ice cream coffees (cholesterol alert !). The place was decked out in Victorian style with lots of oak (apparently from Chamberlain's Edgbaston House), plush red upholstery and fringed lighting. Just one of those coffees was enough, but we still managed to spin the time out in there on cold winter days. A very cosy setting.

The point of this post is to attach the newspaper clipping below. Interestingly it suggests the home of Wharfinger Winkle was based on a house at 17 Summer Row. This looks to me like Dickens found much to inspire his novels - in particular the Pickwick Papers - from several Birmingham features and characters. He seems to have created some very colourful scenes by mixing up these observations. For example Mr Winkle's house could have been, as suggested in the 1970s article, based on Summer Row but Mr Winkle's character based on the hairdresser in Livery Street.

Do we have any photos of the features mentioned in connection with the Dickens references in the article ? Viv.

image.jpeg
 
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