Dr Leon Litvack, Principal Editor of the Dickens Letters Project, was interviewed by the Guardian, in connection with an archaeological dig on the site of the St Pancras Workhouse. This particular institution may have contributed to Dickens’s inspiration for his fictional works.  He said: “The name of Dickens is immediately associated with those darker aspects of Victorian life, which fascinate us, but repel us at the same time. His association with workhouses is a perfect example of this. As is well known from novels like Oliver Twist and Our Mutual Friend, Dickens was passionate about exposing the conditions that persisted in many workhouses throughout the country. Yet in these works of fiction, he softens and sanitises the descriptions, so as not to offend his devoted readers. His journalism was, however, something else. There he was much more forthright, filling out his accounts with lurid details drawn from personal observation.”