Mae Russell is a Ballads and Song Research Volunteer, taking part in the Strange Doings in London project run by Bloomsbury Festival and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
An Afternoon at the Charles Dickens Museum
By Mae Russell
The Strange Doings in London heritage project is about rediscovering the forgotten voices of history – voices carried not in books, but in ballads and songs that once filled the streets of St Giles. The project seeks to uncover these lost narratives, using oral traditions, literature, and community research to breathe life back into stories that might otherwise fade away.
This first research visit to the Charles Dickens Museum felt like stepping into one of those stories. We gathered in a room surrounding a table, led by Emma Harper, the Curator of the Charles Dickens Museum, and Vivien Ellis, a ballad singer and researcher. The setting was intimate, bringing together researchers, musicians, students, and historians – all drawn together by a shared curiosity about the past. What emerged from the session was a deeper understanding of how history is easily lost, especially when it exists in oral traditions like ballads.
Uncovering the Hidden History of St Giles
Despite working just five minutes from Doughty Street, I had never truly considered the history of the area or the dramatic and layered past that shaped it. The historic Parish of St Giles stretched from Lincoln’s Inn Fields through Covent Garden and Seven Dials, towards Tottenham Court Road. Most people walking these streets today have no idea that St Giles was once a place of extreme contrasts, where hardship and resilience coexisted side by side.
This area, now a bustling part of London, was once home to a leprosy hospital, public executions, and mass graves from the Great Plague of 1665. The infamous Rookery – a dense network of alleyways and tightly packed housing – became a refuge for those excluded from wealthier parts of the city. While it was often described in terms of crime and poverty, it was also a vibrant, self-sustaining community where people supported one another. It had a strong Black presence, with freed and escaped enslaved individuals settling there, and it was home to sex workers, migrants, and others who carved out lives in difficult conditions. It was a place of survival, where communities found ways to endure despite the vast social inequalities surrounding them.
Thousands lived in overcrowded conditions, while just streets away, London’s elite thrived in comfort. These parallel worlds of privilege and struggle are reflected in both Dickens’ writing and the ballads of the time – each serving as a record of lives that history often forgets.
St Giles, Dickens, and the Ballads: A Shared History
St Giles was deeply woven into Dickens’ life and works, just as it was into the ballads of the time. The streets he walked – where he observed both the grandeur and the squalor of London – are the same streets that inspired so much of his fiction.
Dickens was fascinated by the characters who occupied the fringes of society, the same figures who often became subjects of ballads and street songs. Many of these songs were about criminals, orphans, workers, and those struggling to survive – figures he immortalised in books like Oliver Twist and Bleak House.
Much like Dickens’ novels, ballads were not just entertainment – they were commentary, satire, and social critique. They spread news, carried warnings, and reflected public sentiment. Just as Dickens used literature to highlight the injustices of child labour, workhouses, and slum conditions, ballads carried these same stories in musical form, passed from person to person on the streets of London.
Ballads and the Search for Lost Melodies
The heart of our session was the ballads themselves. Emma Harper shared copies of original ballads, allowing us to see firsthand how these songs recorded history in a way that was never meant to last. Vivien Ellis, a ballad singer and researcher, introduced us to a selection of songs that had been inspired by Dickens’ characters – such as The Artful Dodger, Dolly Varden, and Poor Jo. These songs acted as another layer of storytelling, carrying Dickens’ narratives beyond the page and into the streets, music halls, and homes of working-class Londoners.
But one key challenge emerged: we don’t always know what these ballads sounded like. Many were transcribed without melodies, and without recordings, it’s impossible to know how they were originally sung. Unless they were passed down through oral tradition, their tunes were often lost. Being ballads, which were not always widely known outside of the communities that sang them, this was not very common. The melody could completely transform the meaning of the words. Were these songs mournful or playful? Did they carry a sense of rebellion or resignation? Vivien’s performance of selected ballads brought them back to life.
The Charles Dickens Museum: A Living Archive
Although the session took place in 49 Doughty Street, after it ended, we were free to explore 48 Doughty Street – Charles Dickens’ actual home. I took the opportunity to walk through his rooms, seeing his personal belongings and imagining him at work. Being in that space allowed everything I had just learned to settle in and feel real. The contrast between discussing Dickens’ world in a research setting and then stepping directly into the place where he lived and wrote was powerful. It was a reminder that history is not just something we study – it is something we step into, something we feel.
As we moved from the history of St Giles, to Dickens’ life, to his writing, to the ballads, and then to the wider community and its collective memory, the connections between these elements became stronger and stronger. A full web was forming – one where literature, music, and lived experiences intertwined, shaping the way history is preserved and retold. The project was no longer just about researching the past – it was about seeing how these narratives still ripple through time.
Ballads as a Form of Resistance and Memory
Throughout our discussions, it became clear that ballads were more than just songs – they were a way to share news, expose injustice, and express collective struggles. They were often neglected in written history because they belonged to oral culture, passed down informally rather than being recorded in books.
This visit was a reminder that history is often hidden in plain sight. The streets of St Giles have been home to centuries of hardship and resilience – from the plague victims buried in mass graves, to the prisoners who drank their last ale at St Giles before execution, to the workers whose songs carried them through long days of labour.
The ballads, like Dickens’ novels, tell the story of London’s working class, its outsiders, and its resilience. They remind us that behind the grand buildings and modern city streets, there were once people whose struggles and triumphs shaped the very fabric of London – and whose voices still linger in the echoes of forgotten songs.
Looking Ahead: Reclaiming Lost Voices
Our research into these forgotten songs is only just beginning. This project is about piecing together history through collaboration – researchers, musicians, historians, students, and local communities coming together to recover stories that were nearly lost. Just as Dickens’ books were read aloud to those who couldn’t read, these ballads were meant to be sung – shared, reshaped, and remembered.
Through this project, we are not just studying history – we are bringing it back to life. And as we continue to unearth the strange doings of London, we’ll keep listening for the echoes of the past, hidden in the melodies of forgotten songs.
Read more about this project here.
