Alice’s Shop

You’ll now reach Saint Aldate’s, formerly Fish Street and renamed after the saintly bishop of Gloucester. Look for the store with the red door at number 83. It’s called Alice’s Shop and is much more interesting than just a souvenir store. It’s a stone house built in the 1400s and renovated a few centuries later. Long before selling souvenirs, the store had already been renamed for Alice, a real little girl, named Alice Lidell, who used to come into this little store to buy sweets. She was the daughter of Henry Liddell, the dean of Christ Church College, and therefore lived just across the street. At the same college, Charles Dodgson was a mathematics teacher and a neighbor of the Liddells, with whom he had made friends. He became a good friend of the family, telling stories to 5-year-old Alice and her two sisters, and often took the girls on boat trips on the Thames river. If you don’t understand who this Charles Dodgson is, it’s because he’s better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. A popular belief is that Dodo is a caricature of the author and his slight stuttering problem, which caused him to introduce himself by saying “Do-dogson”. Anyway, one afternoon as Dodgson was telling them the story of a curious, intrepid little girl, Alice begged him to write down this wonderful story. He did, of course, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1865. Dodgson gave Alice his first manuscript, which he had illustrated himself. Alice Through the Looking Glass followed in 1871, and it’s in this sequel that a small, dark and magical store appears. If you look at the illustration in the book, you’ll see that the store has clearly been copied from the one you see in front of you now. For fans of this enchanted story, step into the store as it is just as enchanting.