Review Feature: Patterson Challenge | Victorian London

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Published: 29 January 2009

Are you up for The Patterson Challenge?

THE definitive tick-list of the highlights of Victorian London was discovered in a diary written by a teacher called James Patterson, who detailed a day-long walk through London undertaken in December, 1858 when he set out with his uncle to see the sights.
On Sunday a group of intrepid walkers are meeting at Camden Town tube station to follow Patterson’s meandering route through the city, and see how much has changed.
Patterson, who taught deaf children in Manchester, had come to the city for a week’s holiday over Christmas – and his diary entries show a route that took in all there was to see in Victorian London.
The trek starts in Camden, and heads towards Great Portland Street. From there it threads down to Regents Street, through St James Park and to Westminster. He wandered along the Strand into the City and up to Ludgate, dipping into Covent Garden on the way. He talks of walking past Waterloo Bridge “...where a man was found cut to piece recently”.
The work is in the archives of the Wellcome Collection in Euston Road, and curator Dr Chris Hilton says they reveal much of what Victorian’s were proud of in the capital of the Empire.
“The diary was bought by the collection from a rare book dealer around 10 years ago,” says Dr Hilton. “What emerges is a very detailed picture of a young man bent on seeing, in one visit to the metropolis, everything that a visitor should see; it is an impressive testimony to the stamina of the Victorian tourist.”
• To take The Patterson Challenge, which has been organised by The Londonist website, meet at Camden Town Tube station on Sunday February 1 at 9am

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