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.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

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...

Read More

Nancy in Oliver Twist

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

Read More

Charles Dickens

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

Read More

Sir John Rennie

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

Read More

John Rennie, the elder

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

Read More

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...

Read More

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.

Read More

Nearby Memorials

John Burns

John Burns

SW4, Clapham Common North Side, 110

London County Council John Burns, 1858-1943, statesman, lived here.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Powell and Pressburger

Powell and Pressburger

NW1, Gloucester Place, Dorset House

Plaque unveiled by film director Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker, film editor and Michael Powell's widow, his son Columba Powell and ...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Sir Leonard Woolley

Sir Leonard Woolley

E5, Southwold Road, Former number 13

The plaque can be seen in our photo, at the top of the wall, above the black car. The house was lost in 1959/60 when the bridge was raise...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Teddington Lock - 1858

Teddington Lock - 1858

TW11, Teddington Lock

We found the punctuation on this plaque so peculiar we have transcribed it exactly. Just shows that way back in 1858 even people in a po...

1 subject commemorated, 4 creators
Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett

Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett

SW7, Cornwall Gardens, 95, Braemar Mansions - Flat 5

English Heritage Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, 1884-1969, novelist, lived here, 1934-1969.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator