When Dickens was twelve he was taken from his parents and began working in a blacking factory. His father owed debt and was put in a debtors prison. So, Dickens was sent to work in the factory. It was called Warren's Blacking Factory. It was a warehouse by the Thames that made boot polish. Dickens mostly stuck labels onto the jars of polish.
Dickens' experience in the blacking factory played a major role in his novels. There is a common theme of orphans and abandonment in a lot of his novels. Dickens felt abandoned by his parents and as a twelve-year-old boy, being forced to do labor would be a very traumatic experience.
Landow, George P. "The Blacking Factory and Dickens's Imaginative World." The Victorian Web, The Victorian Web. https://victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/dickensbio3.html
"Warren's Blacking Factory." The Circumlocution Office, The Circumlocution Office. https://www.thecircumlocutionoffice.com/trail/london/warrens-blacking-f….