Ann Pembroke at Clerkenwell Green

VISITORS to Clerkenwell Green will soon be able to tread the historic cobblestones once walked by Charles Dickens after restoration work to clear away the bumpy tarmac that marred them.

Ten years after Ann Pembroke, who heads up the Clerkenwell Green Preservation Society, first raised the issue of uneven patchwork repairs to the old paving, works are under way to put them back to their former glory.

Ms Pembroke told the Tribune: “It’s beginning to look absolutely wonderful – it would have been the surface Charles Dickens walked on. There used to be a bookshop on Clerkenwell Close, which Dickens used as the bookshop where the Artful Dodger went pickpocketing in Oliver Twist.”

Ms Pembroke has her own illustrated first edition of the Dickens classic, which includes drawings of that very same scene.

She added: “When I first moved here it was still a bookshop – the man who ran it used to take a wheelbarrow of antiquarian books to sell at the book market in Smithfield.”

Ms Pembroke, who has lived in the area for nearly 40 years, told how the Clerkenwell Green Preservation Society worked with Islington Council on the restoration of Clerkenwell Green that finished in 2024, including by maintaining the listed cattle trough that once watered the animals as they travelled to market for slaughter and installing the ornate benches in the middle of the square.

Originally from south London, Ms Pembroke worked in the Foreign Office during the Suez crisis – one of just two women stationed in Downing Street to send out messages on the wires. She later ran a successful recruitment business with her husband and served as a councillor for the Square Mile.

Delighted by the restoration of the old cobblestones, she will now turn her focus to the derelict Victorian lavatories surrounded by black hoardings in the middle of Clerkenwell Green.

“The council said it’s too dangerous to go down there, but I can put on a hard hat – I don’t see the problem,” she said.

In that campaign, she will be aligned with Chris Walker – also known as “Shanksy” – the university lecturer whose annual April Fool’s pranks to bring awareness to the hoardings included a fake Banksy and a planning notice for a giant bust of Jeremy Corbyn.

He remained anonymous until last September, with the name “Shanksy” a reference to the famous toilet manufacturer Armitage Shanks.

Islington Council previously told the Tribune: “The former Victorian toilets haven’t been used for many years and the site is in very poor condition. We’re currently developing plans for the site and look forward to sharing more details soon.”