In the heart of this cluster of huts; and skirting the river, which its upper stories overhung; stood a large building, formerly used as a manufactory of some kind. It had, in its day, probably furnished employment to the inhabitants of the surrounding tenements. But it had long since gone to ruin. The rat, the worm, and the action of the damp, had weakened and rotted the piles on which it stood; and a considerable portion of the building had already sunk down into the water; while the remainder, tottering and bending over the dark stream, seemed to wait a favourable opportunity of following
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Dark urban vision
- Conditions - rookeries - ‘closely packed’
- ‘Cold, wet, shelterless streets’
- Fagin’s den - ‘foul and frowsy den’
(Dicken’s preface to 3rd edition 1841)
