Tom All Alone

This watercolour depicts an area described by Dickens as Tom All Alone in Bleak House. 'A bleak dilapidated street' with 'crazy houses variously described as 'tumbling tenements' and 'ruined shelters' that have bred 'a crowd of foul existence that crawls in and out of gaps in walls and boards, and evils itself to sleep, in maggot numbers, where the rain drips in.'

'The well known character Jo, the crossing sweeper lives here', ' Jo lives- that is to say, Jo has not yet died- in a ruinous place, known to the like of him as the name of Tom-all-Alone's. It is a black dilapidated street, avoided by all decent people; where the crazy houses were seized upon, when their decay was far advanced, by some bold vagrants who, after establishing their own possession, took to letting them out in lodgings. Now, these tumbling tenements contain, by night, a swarm of misery. As, on the ruined human wretch, vermin parasites apear, so, these ruined shelters have bred a crowd of foul existence that crawls in and out of gaps in walls and boards; and coils itself to sleep, in maggot numbers, where the rain drips in; and comes and goes, fetching and carrying fever...Twice lately, there has been a crash and a cloud of dust, like the springing of a mine, in Tom-all-Alone's; and, each time, a house has fallen.'

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.