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1889: A young pickpocket dreams of singing on the London stage..
The Cockney Sparrow
What you need to know before your trail
Young Clemency Skinner is forced to work as a pickpocket in order to support her brother, Jack. Jack can’t walk and has to depend on Clemency for every thing really especially since their mother Edith is a feckless sort who prefers the drink to her own family. She works for Todd Hardiman, an infamous pimp, whose evil presence threatens their daily existence.
Howver even in this den of despair, there is one light – well two actually – Ned Hawkes and his mother, Nell. He is often the only one she can come to in her hour of need.
But the biggest problem Clemency has is keeping herself and her brother alive. She desperately wants to escape from life in the slums of Stew Lane and so finds work with a troupe of buskers run by larger than life Augustus Throop. Having always wanted to sing, she thinks her luck might just change when she is spotted by the manager of the Strand Theatre.
Clemency looks set for operatic stardom, but a chance meeting with the mysterious Jared Stone brings danger and intrigue and threatens to change her life forevermore.
Travel Guide
Clemency Skinner’s London
Poverty and the allure of the stage…
Stew Lane
An apt name for the street, or rather the slum where Clemency lives in absolute poverty with her feckless mother and disabled brother. Stew Lane is a cesspit of smells and grime, not far from the famous and glamourous Fleet Street and St Paul’s Cathedral. As She runs through Cheapside one day she realises she can’t feel her fingers and starts to worry – the threat of cold is that of death and she worries as she is in charge of her family’s security and comfort.
Carter Lane
The pub here is one known for good clientele in the form of reporters from Fleet Street and banking people. This is the pub she lingers around in order to pick a pocket or two’ in the style of one of Fagin’s urchins. But taking the opportunity to sing one night, she uses this as currency for a meal for the evening.
Hog Yard (Bread Street near the river)
The type of place she would never normally venture into. Soot blackened buildings, cheap lodging houses, prostitutes, thieves and swindlers.
Ludgate Hill
Farringdon Market here is her choice of location for pick pocketing
London for a pickpocket was a tough life – you had to have a patch such as near the markets and Piccadilly Circus where there would be tourists and rich pickings and then never return to the same patch at a later date.
The Strand Theatre
This used to stand where Aldwych station now stands. The nearest theatre is now Novello Theatre. This is the world where she wants to be and where she sees her future on the stage. But it’s a long way from the gutter to the spotlight but Clemency is determined to get there.
Streetview Maps
A) London - Stew Lane
D) London - Novello Theatre/The Strand
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Cockney Sparrow
Author/Guide: Dilly Court Destination: London Departure Time: 1889 onwards
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