Plaque

(lost) Nancy's Steps - plaque 1

Inscription

Nancy's Steps
These steps and arch are surviving fragments of the 1831 London Bridge designed by John Rennie and built by his son Sir John Rennie. The steps were the scene of the murder of Nancy in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist.
Historic Southwark

Site: Nancy's Steps (2 memorials)

SE1, Montague Close

The plaques both have the facts wrong; in the novel Nancy is murdered in her house. It is in the 1960 musical Oliver! that she is murdered at steps leading to London Bridge. However the steps are mentioned in the novel as explained at Lost Industry.

2016: We are grateful to Chris Harry who, via Facebook, has very helpfully provided further useful links for people who want to fully understand this Steps issue: a detailed map showing the bridge and its steps; a link to the relevant text, Ch XLVI (dead but Gutenberg works, 2022) and a link to the sequence in the film. That really is a very thorough analysis of the issue!

When we first visited this site (winter 2012) all one could see was the empty frame which had held plaque 1, to the left of the steps. So we are grateful to Monkeyboy69 for having got there in time.

2016: still missing.

2020: Lionel Wright helpfully wrote via Facebook with the latest update: "Recently, probably in 2020, a new round plaque appeared near the foot of the stairs in the photo. It's been installed on the wall just inside the bridge tunnel to the right. Sadly the sign repeats the incorrect wording of its predecessor. Like Chris Harry I thought the Heritage section of Southwark Council was responsible. I wrote to Southwark Heritage to draw their attention to the mistakes in the wording. They told me it wasn't erected by the council. As the City of London Corporation manages London Bridge, I've written to the City Bridge Trust to ask if they know who sponsored the plaque."

One day someone will get this right.

August 2020: Our colleague Alan Patient took our new photos, capturing the new plaque. He remarks that Google Street View for April 2020 doesn't show it which narrows down its erection date.

2022: Londonist have got to grips with "Steps Gate" as it might be called, but probably isn't. They point out that the steps are remnants from the 1831 bridge, whereas the novel 'Oliver Twist' is set before that bridge was built. Any steps in place at that time belonged to the 1760 bridge which was the old medieval one with the houses and shops removed and the roadway widened.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Nancy's Steps - plaque 1

Subjects commemorated i

London Bridge

Four stone bridges have spanned the Thames at this point. The first was built...

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Nancy in Oliver Twist

Character created by Charles Dickens in his novel Oliver Twist, first publish...

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Charles Dickens

Born, son of Elizabeth and John Dickens, at No.1 Mile End Terrace, Landport, ...

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Sir John Rennie

Civil engineer. Born 27 Stamford Street.  In London, worked on Waterloo, Sout...

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John Rennie, the elder

Engineer. Born Scotland. In 1791 he moved to London and set up his own busine...

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Nancy's Steps - plaque 1

Created by i

Southwark Council

The London Borough of Southwark was created as an amalgamation of the Metropo...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Nancy's Steps - plaque 1

Also at this site i

Nancy's Steps - plaque 2

Nancy's Steps - plaque 2

Erected between April 2019 and August 2020, by unknown.

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Nearby Memorials

Rotherhithe Tunnel - south - 1

Rotherhithe Tunnel - south - 1

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William Pitt the younger

William Pitt the younger

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London County Council William Pitt the younger, 1759 - 1806, lived here, 1803 - 1804.

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Lockerbie bench - 13 - Reina

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We have numbered these 17 plaques, anti-clockwise, starting from the plaque for the whole crew which faces the water. Oddly, the last two...

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St Margaret Pattens, founded 1067, rebuilt by Wren 1686 - 1688.

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Sir Charles Dilke

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London County Council Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 1843-1911, statesman and author, lived here.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator