Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street- Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

~ Annie Swafford

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Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street are mentioned at the very beginning of in The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. The commissionaire, Peterson, witnessed an attempt mugging and fight between a man and a “knot of roughs” around the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street. This is a commercial area (the man smashed a shop window).

In the Charlie Booth Online Archive, I searched for “Goodge Street” to see the social standing and wealth (or lack there of) of the surrounding areas. Tottenham Court Road is almost all red (“Middle class. Well to do.”) and Goodge Street is mainly surrounded by pink (“Fairly comfortable. Good ordinary earnings.”). In this area there are pockets of light blue (“Poor. 18s. to 21s. a week for a moderate family”) and purple (“Mixed. Some comfortable others poor”). I also noticed that not far, just off of Goodge Street and Charlotte Street, there is a large area that is dark blue (“Very poor, casual. Chronic want.”).

In relation to the story; Tottenham Court Road itself is pretty well to do, however, this moment in the story when the man was attacked was at night. A commercial area at night can be pretty seedy, not to mention it is fairly close to an extremely poor neighborhood.

goodge street

The British History Online Archive has a plethora of information on the streets and roads of London.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=65160&strquery=goodge%20street

Through this page, I found out that Goodge Street was also a commercial street. Many of these buildings had different structures (different number of windows, different styles, etc.) They were kept around the same height. Many of the buildings were raided and destroyed, so perhaps this explains some of the differences in the buildings.

I was also able to find some information in the Old Bailey Archive. I found that the crimes reported in this area were mainly theft, pickpocketing, shoplifting, larceny, and embezzlement. I also noticed, however, that Goodge Street was mentioned in relation to were someone lived or worked. There were people who worked in a shop close by (“gin shop”, “coal shed”) or lived by the street. The corner of Goodge Street and Tottenham Court Road were also discussed as a place to meet up with people. This makes sense since it is such a commercial area.