Early in 1850, Charles Dickens went to the Victoria Theatre in Lambeth. One of several theatres sited close to the bridges linking the southern bank of the Thames with the north, the Vic was a prominent neighborhood institution catering to a mostly working-class audience. Launched in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, a move designed to coincide with the opening of Waterloo Bridge, its investors’ hopes of drawing a more upmarket crowd were largely disappointed. Visiting the theatre in 1820, William Hazlitt was distressed to find Junius Brutus Booth among an ill-assorted and noisy throng, and in 1831 Edmund Kean was reduced to haranguing the “unmitigated brutes” gathered before him. Pelted with orange peel and nutshells, he still drew his nightly fee of £50. Although research by Jim Davis and Victor Emeljanow has revealed an audience more varied than once assumed, upon the changing of its name in 1833, the Victoria's core clientele was more or less established, as indeed was its reputation for the bloodier aspects of popular drama. It had also experienced regular changes of management, sudden spells of closure, and periodic clashes with the authorities. Suitably enough for what follows, by 1840, the Vic was judged to have suffered “more vicissitudes” than any other theatre in London.

1850 年初，查尔斯·狄更斯来到兰贝斯的维多利亚剧院。维克剧院是靠近连接泰晤士河南岸和北岸的桥梁的几家剧院之一，是一个著名的社区机构，主要服务于工人阶级观众。皇家科堡剧院于 1818 年成立，旨在配合滑铁卢桥的开通，但投资者希望吸引更多高端观众的希望在很大程度上落空了。 1820 年，威廉·黑兹利特 (William Hazlitt) 参观剧院时，发现朱尼厄斯·布鲁图斯·布斯 (Junius Brutus Booth) 置身于一群杂乱无章、喧闹的人群中，他感到很苦恼。 1831 年，埃德蒙·基恩 (Edmund Kean) 只能对聚集在他面前的“彻底的野蛮人”进行长篇大论。尽管被橘子皮和果壳砸得遍体鳞伤，他仍然收取了每晚 50 英镑的费用。尽管吉姆·戴维斯 (Jim Davis) 和维克多·埃梅尔贾诺 (Victor Emeljanow) 的研究表明，观众的种类比以前想象的要更加多样化，但在 1833 年更名后，维多利亚的核心客户或多或少已经确立，事实上，它以流行戏剧的血腥方面而闻名。它还经历了定期的管理层变动、突然的关闭以及与当局的定期冲突。到了 1840 年，维多利亚剧院被认为比伦敦任何其他剧院都经历了“更多的沧桑”，这一点也很恰当。