United Kingdom · Storytelling Tours

London Quest: Chasing Dickens Through Victorian London

1 Hour Round trip from London Easy pace

The journey

Trip highlights
  • 01 Self-guided Dickens-themed quest through Victorian London
  • 02 Follow clues through Clerkenwell, Holborn, and Fleet Street
  • 03 Visit the Charles Dickens Museum and other literary landmarks
  • 04 Solve hidden messages and puzzles inspired by Oliver Twist
  • 05 Explore at your own pace with flexible start time
  • 06 One device can be used for up to 3 players

Step into the world of Charles Dickens on a self-guided literary quest through Victorian London. Using the Questo app, you’ll follow a mysterious Dickens lookalike through historic streets and story-rich corners of Clerkenwell, Holborn, and Fleet Street, uncovering places linked to the author’s life, works, and the city that inspired them.

Along the way, solve literary puzzles, decode hidden messages, and explore landmarks including the Charles Dickens Museum, Saffron Hill, and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. Covering around 3.5 kilometres at your own pace, this experience is ideal for history lovers, literature fans, and curious explorers alike.

Step into the world of Charles Dickens on a self-guided literary quest through Victorian London.

From the itinerary

At a glance

What this trip includes

Duration 1 Hour
Tour type Private
Activity level Easy
Accommodation Not included
Transport Not included
Wheelchair access No
City London
Languages English

Day by day

The itinerary

1
Day 01

The Charles Dickens Museum is an author's house museum at 48 Doughty Street in Holborn, London Borough of Camden. It occupies a typical Georgian terraced house which was Charles Dickens's home from 25 March 1837 (a year after his marriage) to December 1839.

Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.It was laid out around 1686 and originally ran further, along what is now the Man in the Moon Passage. John Rocque's Map of London, 1746 shows Vine Street extending from Piccadilly northeast to Warwick Street. In 1720, the main properties on the street were a brewery and a carpenter's yard.

Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.This stylish inn dates to 1759, but its moment of fame came in 1838, when Charles Dickens changed its name to the Three Cripples and made it Bill Sykes' watering hole of choice in Oliver Twist.

Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.Staple Inn dates from 1585. The building was once the wool staple, where wool was weighed and taxed. It survived the Great Fire of London, was extensively damaged by a Nazi German Luftwaffe aerial bomb in 1944 but was subsequently restored.

Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.The Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre was located in the Fields from 1661 to 1848, when it was demolished. This, originally called the Duke's Theatre, was created by converting Lisle's Tennis Court in 1695.

Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.Following a £35m renovation designed by Gaunt Francis Architects, the Maughan is the largest new university library in the United Kingdom since World War II. Designed by Sir James Pennethorne and constructed in 1851, with further extensions made between 1868 and 1900, it is a Grade II* listed building.

Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.The house now known as Dr Johnson's House was probably originally built for a City merchant. Its most famous resident, and one of the most distinguished figures in English literary history, Samuel Johnson (1709-84), rented it from 1748 to 1759.

Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.Originally, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was built in the 1530's, although the original pub was lost in The Great Fire of London in 1666. The current pub dates from 1667 – having been one of the first London buildings reconstructed after the Great Fire.

Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.It was consecrated on 16 April 1863 as "The Church of St Peter of all Nations". At the time of consecration, it was the only basilica-style church in the UK. Its organ was built in 1886 by Belgian Anneesen. During World War II, when Italian immigrants were interned, Irish Pallottines made use of the church.The Royal College of Surgeons has a long history. Its earliest origins lie in the 1540s when the Company of Barbers and the Fellowship of Surgeons joined together to form the Company of Barber-Surgeons. In the 1700s medicine became an academic discipline and surgeons demanded more recognition for their expertise.Romanian Orthodox chapel St Dunstan-in-the-West is one of the churches in England to share its building with the Romanian Orthodox community (St. George church). The chapel to the left of the main altar is closed off by an iconostasis, formerly from Antim Monastery in Bucharest, dedicated in 1966.

The route

Where you'll travel

Tour route map
Round trip from London 1 city · 1 Hour

The fine print

Trip details

What's Included

  • Self-guided Dickens literary quest through London
  • Follow a mysterious Dickens lookalike from Clerkenwell to Fleet Street
  • Visit the Charles Dickens Museum, Fagin's Saffron Hill, and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
  • Decode hidden messages and literary puzzles inspired by Oliver Twist
  • Flexible scheduling, start anytime, best experienced during the day
  • One device works for up to 3 players; buy extra tickets for the full multiplayer experience

What's Not Included

Live tour guide (self-guided via the Questo app)

Know before you go

  • STROLLER OR PRAM ACCESSIBLE
  • ANIMALS OR PETS ALLOWED
  • PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION NEARBY
  • Not wheelchair accessible
  • Infants must not sit on laps
  • Infant seats unavailable
  • Unlock your city game in the Questo app using this link:
  • Download the Questo app using this link (it’s free):
  • Head to the starting point and enjoy your city game!

Logistics

Meeting & route

Meeting point
London, GB
Tour start
London, GB
Tour ends at the same location as the start point.
End of the journey

Your 1 hour finishes where it began, in London.

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