The Coach and Horses

The Coach and Horses is a public house situated on the road from London, a little way beyond which another road appears to run off. It is here that Bill Sikes and Oliver Twist, having traveled by cart from London, dismount and continue their journey on foot. The inn marks a transition point in the expedition to the Chertsey burglary, a place where Sikes, maintaining his grip on Oliver, secures further transport and where the boy's physical and mental exhaustion becomes pronounced.

Location and Setting

The Coach and Horses is located on the main road out of London, past Kensington, Hammersmith, Chiswick, Kew Bridge, and Brentford. It is a public house where the cart carrying Sikes and Oliver stops, and where Sikes dismounts with great precipitation, holding Oliver by the hand all the while. After lifting the boy down, he bestows a furious look upon him and raps his side-pocket with his fist in a significant manner, a clear threat referencing the pistol he carries. The inn is thus a place of transition, where the relative safety of the cart journey ends and the more exposed and dangerous phase of the journey on foot begins.

Events at the Coach and Horses

At the Coach and Horses, Sikes and Oliver have dinner by the kitchen fire. The kitchen is described as an old, low-roofed room with a great beam across the middle of the ceiling and benches with high backs by the fire, on which several rough men in smock-frocks are seated, drinking and smoking. They take no notice of Oliver and very little of Sikes, and the pair sit in a corner by themselves. After dinner, Sikes indulges himself with three or four pipes, and Oliver, being much tired with the walk and getting up so early, first dozes a little and then, quite overpowered by fatigue and the fumes of tobacco, falls asleep. It is quite dark when he is awakened by a push from Sikes, finding that worthy in close fellowship and communication with a labouring man over a pint of ale. Sikes then negotiates a lift for himself and Oliver as far as Lower Halliford, pushing the ale towards his new friend. The inn thus serves as the setting for Sikes's opportunistic arrangement of onward transport, deepening Oliver's helplessness as he is passed from one carrier to another.

Narrative Significance

The Coach and Horses functions as a liminal space in Oliver's journey, a waypoint between the relative anonymity of the cart and the more intimate danger of the final approach to the burglary. It is here that Oliver's exhaustion is most starkly depicted, as he falls into a deep sleep from which he is roughly awakened. The inn also illustrates Sikes's method of operation: using a combination of threats (the pistol) and small bribes (buying ale) to control both Oliver and the strangers he encounters. The rough men in the kitchen, who take no notice of the pair, underscore the anonymity and danger of the road, where criminals can move without attracting attention. The Coach and Horses is thus a key location in the narrative of Oliver's forced journey, marking a stage in his descent into the criminal underworld and his increasing physical and psychological vulnerability.