A shop named "The Old Curiosity Shop" can be found at 13–14 Portsmouth Street, Holborn, London, WC2A 2ES, and is now owned by the London School of Economics.[13] The building dates back to the sixteenth century (1567)[14] in an area known as Clare Market, but the shop name was added after the novel was released, as it was thought to be the inspiration for Dickens's description of the antique shop.[15] At one time it functioned as a dairy on an estate given by King Charles II to one of his many mistresses. It was built using timber from old ships, and survived the bombs of the Second World War. The shop was restored in 2023 to repair structural problems and will be rented out again as a shop.[16]
Nell and her grandfather meet Codlin and Short in a churchyard in Aylesbury. The horse races where Nell and her grandfather go with the show people are at Banbury. The village where they first meet the schoolmaster is Warmington, Warwickshire. They meet Mrs. Jarley near the village of Gaydon, Warwickshire. The town where they work at Jarley's Waxworks is Warwick. The heavily industrialised town where Nell spends the night by the furnace is Birmingham (after they have travelled on the Warwick and Birmingham Canal). The town in which Nell faints and is rescued by the school master is Wolverhampton in the Black Country. The village where they finally find peace and rest and where Nell dies is Tong, Shropshire.[17] Other real locations used in the novel include London Bridge, Bevis Marks, Finchley, and Minster-on-Sea.
It is reported by local Coventry historian David McGrory that Charles Dickens used Coventry's Whitefriars gatehouse in The Old Curiosity Shop. This gatehouse building still exists in Much Park Street.[18] Media related to The Old Curiosity Shop, 13–14 Portsmouth Street at Wikimedia Commons
