In the last week I have been spending some time with Dickens’ Dictionary of London 1882 and while some of the entries are the name of a place, its street address, and possibly the nearest transportation, in some of the entries get more commentary. I left all of the hyphenated technology names intact despite Grammarly telling me not to, I removed all the double spaces between words and left semicolons intact. The original text never indents new paragraphs so the reader is as lost as I am. The 1884 version of this entry is the same including the rant about the building, the 1888 version states the museum got moved by an act of 1883 so the first and last four lines got changed everything about patent years and models on exhibit are the same. Either the museum took longer than a year to move, that acts of law take time to enact or the 1884 version went to press at the same time as the move I cannot say. The scanned PDFs I have from the Internet Archive 1882, and 1884 lost some letters closest to the spine, the modern pocket-sized reproduction 1888 I have, doesn’t have that problem.

Patent Museum, South Kensington. — This national collection is lodged in a building wholly unworthy of the purpose; it is small, badly lighted, and overcrowded. There are, however, few institutions more worthy of a visit. There, crowded together, are mechanical inventions of all kinds, some exhibited in model, some of full size. There are locomotive and marine engines, pumps, bridges, docks, and machinery of all sorts. Of special interest are the primitive steam-engines from which have sprung the enormous development with -which we are familiar. There is Stephenson’s ” Rocket,” which won the prize at the competition in 1829, and whose velocity was at that time looked upon as alarming, Close by it is the “Sans Pareil,” of Hawksworth, of Darlington, a competitor with the “Rocket.” Even of higher interest is “Puffing Billy,” the first locomotive ever built, having been at work on a colliery line in 1813. There is Watts’s first “Sun and Planet” engine for winding and pumping. The patent was taken out in 1760, and the engine was erected in 1795. Near it is Newcomen’s Cornish pumping-engine, patented in 1769. Of equal interest, as the progenitors of our cotton industry, are Arkwright’s carding and spinning machines, patented in 1769, and close by is Buchanan’s original carding-engine, patented in 1824. This may be considered the first carding machine of the type now in use. Newsham’s fire-pump, patented in 1721, affords a striking contrast to the steam fire-engines of the present day, but the advance that has been made is still more strongly shown in Robertson’s original engine, built for Bell’s Comet, the first steamboat that ever ran in British waters. Close by the Comet engine is the first hydraulic pump ever made, by Bramah, in 1795. A conspicuous object is the great clock of Glastonbury Abbey, constructed by Lightfoot, one of the monks of the convent in 1325, and still working and keeping time. The sight of these remarkable objects only makes one regret more strongly that so little has been done to preserve the early patents. A museum capable of containing examples of the gradual progress which has been made in all our various manufactures would be of immense value and interest; but a building very many times larger than the iron shed which is now devoted to the purpose is needed. The museum is at present altogether overcrowded, and in glass cases round the walls are ranged numbers of small models of machinery, which can scarcely be seen, much less appreciated, in their present position. The Patent Museum, as it is, excites a vivid regret that it is not the Patent Museum as it ought to be. The museum is open to the public every day, admission free.
Nearest Ry. Stn., South Kensington (Dis.) ; Omnibus Rtes., Brompton-rd and Fuiham-rd ; Cab Rank, Opposite.

Some of the other more interesting Dickens entries are going into future work for our London book. People looking for an earlier source could look to London edited by Charles Knight 1840s-1850s a 6-volume set most of the good scans on the Internet Archive are 2 volumes, whether they say so or not. There are a number of illustrations in London, whereas Dickens only has some maps and no illustrations.

The OCR text from the Archive suffers from the letters dropped close to the spine, as well as it blows up on any reference tables. The OCR text can’t parse Charing ✠ as Charing Cross and gives a squiggly 4 instead. Times are written as 1.00 p.m. I have written them in the modern way to save all of us a headache.

So, Omnibus routes, will this ever come up in your game, who knows, Fantômas had a whole book with a plot point from a French train schedule, Jules Verne took that 80 days further, and Milton Bradley wrote an award-winning board game about chasing a criminal using the bus and train routes, I’m sure you’ll figure something out.

Dickens Omnibus Routes

Line	Colour &c.	Start	Route	Fares
Abney-PK (Weavers’ Arms) to Victoria Stn	Green “Favorite”	8am & every 15 min to 10:50pm	Church-st, Albion-rd, Essex-rd, Angel, St.John’s-st-rd, Gray’s inn-rd, Hol-born, Chancery-la, Strand, Charing Cross, Victoria-st.	To Angel 3d. Balls-pond-gate to Westminster 4d. All Way 6d.
Acton (red Lion) to Lon.-Br	Green “Bayswater”	9:45am and 3:25pm	Shepherd’s-Bush, Bayswater, Oxford-st, Holborn-viaduct, Cheapside, K. William-st.	To Oxford-cir 6d. All way 9d.
Acton to Oxford-cir (Sundays).	Light-green “Bayswater”	9:35am, 12:25, 1:10, 1:55, 4:25, 7:40, 8:10, 8:55, 9:25pm	Shepherd’s-Bush, Notting-Hill-gate, Bayswater, Oxford-st, Oxford-cir.	All way 6d.
Angel (Islington) to London-br.	Green “Islington”	8:15am and every 5 min to 11.5 pm (11:30?)	City-rd, Finsbury-sq, Moorgate-st, Bank, K. William-st, London-br Stn.	All way 3d.
Bank to South Hackney.	Red “South Hackney”	8:15am and every 10 to 15 minutes to 11:35pm	Royal Exchange, Threadneedle-st, Bishopsgate, Norton, Folgate, Shoreditch, Hackney-rd, Victoria-pk-rd, Laureston-rd	Durham-st, Hackney-rd, to The Albion 2d. All way 3d.
Bank to Wimbledon.	White “Brompton”	11am, 4 & 8:15pm	Cheapsiode, Charing Cross, Piccadilly, Fulham-rd, Wandsworth, Putney-heath.	All way 1s.
Barnsbury (Offord Arms) Kennington.	Brown “Islington”	8.5am and every 10 min to 10:55pm	Offord-rd, Liverpool-rd, Angel, Goswell-rd, Ludgate-hill, London-rd, and Kennington-pk-rd.	To Angel 2d, to Endgate-hill 4d. All way 5d.
Acton (Red Lion) to Lon.-Br	Green “Bermondsey”	8am and every 15 min to 11:15pm	Grange-rd, Bermondsey-st, Tooley-st, London-br Stn., K. William-st.	All way 4d.
Bethnal Gn. to Sand’s End.	Chocolate “Chelsea”	8am and every 15 min to 11am and every 20 min after to 10:40pm	Bethnal Gn.-rd, Church-st, Bishopsgate, Cornhil, Cheapside, Fleet-st, Strand, Piccadilly, Sloane-st.	Bank 2d, Bank to Charing ✠ 2d, to Sloane-st 3d, Charing ✠ to Sand’s End 3d, All way 6d.
Blackwall to Victorian Stn.	Blue “Blackwall”	7:40am and at frequent intervals to 10:20pm
Bow to Oxford-cir.	Green “Bow”	7:45am and every 10 min to 10:45pm
Bow-rd to Oxford-cir.	Green “Bow-rd and Oxford-cir”	7:30am and every 15 min to 10.5pm
Brixton Ch. to Charing ✠	Green “Brixton”	8:10am and every 10 min to 10:30pm
Brixton Ch. to Grace Church-st.	Green “Paragon”	8am and every 10 min to 10:20pm
Brixton Ch. to Norwood.	Green “Brixton Ch.”	10am and every 30 min to 10pm
Brixton Ch to Oxford-cir.	Green “Brixton”	8:10am and 11pm	Kennington-rd, Westminster-br, Charing ✠, Haymarket	To Charing ✠ 3d, All way 4d.
Broad-st Stn. to Brompton	White “Brompton”	8:40am and about every 50 min to 10:50pm	Broad-st, Cheapside, Fleet-st, Strand, Charing ✠, Piccadilly, Brompton-rd.	Broad to Charing ✠ 3d, Char ✠ to Bromp 4d, Reg-cir to Bromp 4d, All way 6d.
Broad-st Stn. to Cannon-st Stn.	Brown and White	8:30am and every 5 min to 7:30pm Wkdays only.	Old Broad-st, Royal Exchange, K. William-st, Cannon-st (except Sunday).	All way 2d.

Dickens had things to say about restaurants; we’ll try to include a few different types to give readers an idea of what the dining options were like in the period.

If you have any feedback about this post or our books, please feel free to contact us.

Paul

Evilrobotgames at Gmail.com