The Mill Pond Bridge, Rotherhithe

The watercolour depicts a view of theThe Mill Pond Bridge in Rotherhithe. Dickens described it in Oliver Twist, Chapter 50 as follows: 'Jacob's Island surrounded by a muddy ditch, six to eight feet deep and fifteen or twenty wide when the tide is in, once called Mill Pond but known in these days as Folly Ditch. It is a creek or inlet from the Thames, and can always be filled at high water by opening the sluices at the Lead Mills from which it took its old name...'

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.