LONDON: The British government has given protected status to a former workhouse thought to have inspired Charles Dickens' “Oliver Twist.” The 18th-century building in central London had been slated for demolition, but local residents and academics fought a campaign to save it. The young Dickens lived just nine doors away and scholars say the sights and sounds of the building were probably the basis for the workhouse where orphan Oliver is incarcerated in the 1838 novel. Heritage Minister John Penrose said the austere Georgian edifice was “an eloquent reminder of one of the grimmer aspects of London's 18th-century social history.”
