The Old Curiosity Shop — Local services in London

One of the interesting attractions near Lincoln's Inn Fields is the 16th century shop found on Portsmouth Street, known as the Old Curiosity Shop. This shop has possible ties to the Charles Dicken's novel by the same name and is probably the oldest standing shop in central London.

It is suggested that this shop was the inspiration behinds Dickens novel. However, records suggest that the name was added to the shop after the novel was published so it seems impossible to tell for sure. What is more certain is the age of the building itself. Being constructed around 1567 and predating the Great Fire by almost a hundred years, its claim to be being the oldest building in this area of London are probably correct.

In the end, the Old Curiosity Shop is a fun little place to seek out for a few minutes if you intend to be in the Holburn area. Be you a Dicken's fan or not, seeing the Old Curiosity Shop affords passers-by a chance to see what London shops and buildings looked several centuries ago.

Tip: If you visit the area, do make sure you spare an hour for the excellent collection found at the nearby Sir John Soane's Museum. This is one of the pleasant surprises for history and museum fans...

Before I visited London, this place was on my must-see list. I was deeply saddened to see it closed. A bookstore owner a few steps from the Old Curiosity Shop told me that nobody even knows what to do with it.

My recommendation: Convert it into a Charles Dickens store, similar to the Alice Store in Oxford. Improve the interior, expand underground, or connect it to neighbouring buildings and make everything in the store, both products and interior Dickensian, Industrial, Victorian.

I'll be keeping my eye on this store on my every visit from Georgia, and shall happily...

+JMJ Love history and was glad for the grand tour of many historical sites during my May 1984 travels with British friends in the UK. Took several photos of the exterior of this famous place of tourist visitation. Was not able to go inside, but if time travel were possible, I would go back and make every effort to spend time perusing what I can see in the windows of the photos taken in 1984: Antique curios, books, and...