Note - I’ve edited my original post, for brevity. After an arduous trip to attempt to see London’s Monunent to the Great Fire that devastated the city in the 1600’s, I went to Cornhill, a nearby street. It has what was London’s original stock exchange (now a luxury shopping mall), but the area might also have provided a likely setting for Charles Dickens to envision the counting house for the wealthy miser Scrooge in the 1800’s. OK, Scrooge was fictional, created by Dickens almost 200 years ago, so there was no actual counting house. Anyway…
At Christmas, a Thread here about A Christmas Carol was posted. I added a reply, with something I found Online. The original post’s gone! Whether deleted by the OP, the Webmaster, or some quirk, I don’t know, but at least one other poster commented they’d thought mine was interesting. To help anyone else who might go to London, and would either like to see this in person, or avoid it based on my experience, here it is:
To begin, I found an article (advertisement?) detailing a theory about where Scrooge could’ve had his office, based on Dickens’ book - https://www.london-walking-tours.co.uk/secret-london/newmans-court.htm. A guide even includes it on a walking tour around Christmas. Since I’m in London in April, the timing’s not right to do that, but I thought I’d seek it out.
Cornhill has many narrow Lanes, Alleys, and Courts leading off it. I wandered in and out of all of them in the rain, covering the length of the 2-block street twice, unable to find Newman’s Court, which was on no map. I did find the spot where the photo of the church had been taken in the article, on the south side of Cornhill, and was certain that Newman’s would be on that side, too. No luck. With all the steel-and-glass skyscrapers that have been/are being erected in the area, I figured it had been replaced by development, and the article was obsolete.
Retracing my steps, then crossing the street, I finally saw a sign for Newman’s Court! A passage dripping water, with one garbage bag, it leads to an opening lined with buildings’ fire exit doors - no entrances. There was an abandoned Lime rental bike, back there, though. You’ll find the entrance to the short Newman’s Court passage between 74 Cornhill (a barbershop) and 73 Cornhill (an accounting firm). There’s no slide for a modern Bob Cratchit to slide down.