Dirty Dick

Dirty Dick was Nathaniel (Dick) Bentley, an 18th century merchant who owned a hardware shop and warehouse in London, and is one of the people who is considered as a possible inspiration for Miss Havisham in Dickens' Great Expectations after he refused to wash following the death of his fiancée on his wedding day.^[1][2]

Dirty Dick's pub

The name is used for a pub in Bishopsgate, London.^[3]

History

Bentley had been quite a dandy in his youth, but following the death of his fiancée, he refused to clear up or clean anything.^[4] His house and warehouse shop became so filthy that he became a celebrity of dirt. Any letter addressed to The Dirty Warehouse, London, would be delivered to Bentley. He stopped trading in 1804 and died in 1809. The warehouse was later demolished.

Dirty Dick's pub

A pub in Bishopsgate, London at the beginning of the 19th century, changed its name from The Old Jerusalem to Dirty Dick's, and recreated the look of Bentley's warehouse shop.

The contents, including cobwebs and dead cats, were originally a part of the cellar bar, but have now been tidied a to a glass display case. Successive owners of the Bishopsgate Distillery and its tap capitalised on the legend. By the end of the 19th century, its owner, a public house company called William Barker's (D.D) Ltd, was producing commemorative booklets and promotional material to advertise the pub.

The pub was described in 1866 as having "cobwebs festoons dangling from the black rafters." It is now owned by Young's.^[5]

References

1. ^ "48 hours in Dickensian London - UK, Travel - The Independent". www.independent.co.uk. 2002-01-12. http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/48-hours-in-dickensian-london-663301.html. Retrieved 2009-07-21. 
2. ^ JSTOR: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Mar., 1955), pp. 301-307. JSTOR 3044395. 
3. ^ Rick Steves' London - Google Books. books.google.co.uk. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IdP1zo7WtowC&pg=PA319&dq=%22Dirty+Dick%27s%22+pub&as_brr=3&client=firefox-a. Retrieved 2009-07-21. 
4. ^ A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America - Google Books. books.google.co.uk. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-DCyLQP8y08C&pg=PA31&dq=%22Dirty+Dick%22&as_brr=3&client=firefox-a. Retrieved 2009-07-21. 
5. ^ Forever Young's, Helen Osborn, Young & Co's Brewery, 2004, ISBN 095181673

External links

• Dirty Dicks website
• Dirty Dicks Theatre Restaurant Australia

Coordinates: 51°31′05″N 0°04′47″W / 51.5180°N 0.0796°W / 51.5180; -0.0796

Persondata
Name	Nathaniel (Dick) Bentley
Alternative names	Dirty Dick
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	1809
Place of death