The word Lant refers to aged urine, used for cleaning, in the manufacture of gunpowder, and ale and pastry making.

[6] He took lodgings in Lant Street during 1824 while still a child, in a house that belonged to the Vestry Clerk of St George's Church.

[7] This was during the period that his father John Dickens was imprisoned in the nearby Marshalsea debtors' prison.

It was a slum area with privileges for debtors until The Mint in Southwark Act 1722 removed these rights.

[12][13] Much of the area became derelict as a result of air raid damage during World War II.