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Jacob's Island was a notorious rookery in Bermondsey, on the south bank of the River Thames in London. It was separated from Shad Thames to the west by St Saviour's Dock, the point where the subterranean River Neckinger enters the Thames, and on the other two sides by tidal ditches, one just west of George Row and the other just north of London Street (now named Wolseley Street). ==History== The extent of the historic Jacob's Island is approximately delineated by Mill Street, Bermondsey Wall West, George Row and Wolseley Street. Jacob's Island was once notoriously squalid and described as "The very capital of cholera" and "The Venice of drains" by the ''Morning Chronicle'' of 1849. In the 1840s it also became 'a site of radical activity', and, after attention from novelists Charles Dickens and Charles Kingsley, joined other London areas of 'literary-criminal notoriety' which emerged 'as symbols of a developing urban counterculture'. 19th century social researcher Henry Mayhew described Jacob's Island as a "pest island" with "literally the smell of a graveyard" and "crazy and rotten bridges" crossing the tidal ditches, with drains from houses discharging directly into them, and the water harbouring masses of rotting weed, animal carcasses and dead fish. He describes the water being "as red as blood" in some parts, as a result of pollutant tanning agents from the leather dressers in the area.〔〔in a letter to the Chronicle of 24 September 1849; from "Selections from London Labour and the London Poor", Oxford University Press, 1965, page xxxvi〕 The ditches were filled in the early 1850s, and the area later redeveloped as warehouses. In 1865, Richard King, writing in ''A Handbook for Travellers in Surrey, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight'', observed that 'Many of the buildings have been pulled down since ''Oliver Twist'' was written, but the island is still entitled to its bad pre-eminence'. A decade later, a missionary for the London City Mission provided a more positive report: 'The foul ditch no longer pollutes the air. It has long been filled up... there is now a good solid road... Part of London Street, the whole of Little London Street, part of Mill Street, beside houses in Jacob Street and Hickman's Folly, have been demolished. In most of these places warehouses have taken the place of dwelling-houses. The revolting fact of many of the inhabitants of the district having no other water to drink than that which they procured from the filthy ditches is also a thing of the past. Most of the houses are now supplied with good water, and the streets are very well paved. Indeed, so great is the change for the better in the external appearance of the district generally, that a person who had not seen it since the improvements would now scarcely recognise it.' Charles William Heckethorn had reservations about these improvements, telling readers of ''London Souvenirs'' in 1899, that 'Many of the horror's of Jacob's Island are now things of the past... in fact, the romance of the place is gone'. In 1934, a new public housing development called the ''Dickens Estate'' was opened. Houses were named after Dickens' characters but the only one to have lived, and died, on Jacob's Island, the murderous Bill Sikes, was not honoured.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jacob's Island」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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