Boffin's Bower

This watercolour depicts an imaginary place in one of Dickens's novels, Our Mutual Friend, namely Boffins House, Somers Town, St Pancras. 'Where i live', said Mr Boffin, 'is called The Bower. Boffin's Bower is the name Mrs Boffin christened it when we come into it as a property. If you should meet with anybody that doesn't know it by that name (which hardly anybody does), when you've got nigh upon about a odd mile, or say and a quarter if you like, up Maiden Lane, Battle Bridge, ask for Harmony Jail, and you'll be put right'. Book I Ch 15 'A gloomy house, the Bower, with sordid signs on it of having been...in misery holding. Bare of paint, bare of paper on the walls, bare of furniture, bare of experience of human life...The staircase, balustrades, and rails had a spare look - an air of being denuded to the bone - which the panels of the walls and the panels of the doors and windows also bore.'

Very little is known about James Lawson Stewart who exhibited watercolours in various London galleries between 1883-1889. He died in c. 1918 and towards the end of life was employed to copy prints of London; the accuracy of some of the locations should therefore be questioned.

The Museum was gifted a large selection of watercolours featuring locations which appeared in Dickens's works in 1934 and a set of cigarette cards was issued by R and J Hill Ltd in 1926 and 1934 entitled Historic Places from Dickens Classics which featured watercolours by Stewart.