ON THE TRAIL OF DICKENS
Charles Dickens often drew inspiration from the county where he spent much of his life. Here, we follow in the footsteps of the man who loved Kent and immortalised many of its places and people in his books...
Chatham and Rochester The first stop on the trail is a terraced house in an old street overlooking Chatham railway station. The plaque on number 11, Ordnance Terrace, recognises that this was Dickens’ boyhood home.
His family lived there for five years while his father was a Naval clerk at the Dockyard, but fell on hard times with Mr Dickens senior being sent to debtors’ prison.
Nearby Rochester, dominated by its Norman castle and cathedral, is a tourist honeypot, with the names above many businesses such as Baggins Book Bazaar, Peggotty’s Parlour and A Taste of Two Cities recalling the Dickens connection.
Hill Place, at nearby Higham.
The Dickens Festival is celebrated in June when Fagin, Oliver Twist and a host of characters parade the streets. There is also a Dickensian weekend in December, with a snow machine to ensure a traditional wintry backdrop.
A stone’s throw from the High Street is
Elizabethan red-brick Restoration House — thought to be the home of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. The grade I listed mansion is named for Charles II who stayed there overnight on his way to London.
More recently, it was owned by Rod In the centre of the cobbled High
Street is Six Poor Travellers House, founded in 1563, to provide a night’s lodging for transients which it continued to do up to World War I. It became the inspiration for Dickens short story The Seven Poor Travellers.
Other notable sites include the Guildhall Museum and grade I listed Eastgate House. The author’s Swiss chalet, which is in the grounds, originally stood in the garden of his home at Gad’s
20 Mid Kent Living
Hull of Emu fame. The comedian even created a Miss Havisham’s wedding breakfast, complete with cobwebs and model mice, but went bankrupt in his bid to restore the house.
The current owners have faithfully
restored the house and landscaped the stunning garden and it is now open to the public.
Cooling A few miles away is the village of Cooling, where Dickens used St James’s Churchyard as the inspiration for one of
The parlour is furnished as Dickens described it and has items that once belonged to him.
And if you’re not interested in the great man, then Broadstairs is still a lovely place to enjoy a trip to the seaside, as Dickens discovered all those years ago.
Images (clockwise) – Rochester Castle © Visit Kent; Oliver Twist and Fagin © Medway Council; Dickens Museum, Broadstairs, and Rochester Cathedral © Visit Kent
his most shocking scenes. At the start of Great Expectations, the young hero Pip is confronted in the graveyard by convict Magwitch. In the churchyard, you can find what have become known as Pip’s graves — the forlorn tombs of 13 babies that Dickens describes.
Broadstairs Dickens frequently visited the horseshoe-shaped seaside town of Broadstairs and called it his “English Watering Place”. The town has many links with Dickens, including a house where he wrote part of Barnaby Rudge.
The Broadstairs Dickens Festival takes place each June, with parades, concerts and Dickensian beach parties.
On the seafront, the Dickens House Museum is in the cottage that was his inspiration for Betsey Trottwood’s home in David Copperfield.
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