Charles Dickens Museum
Pre-Covid, visiting the Dickens Museum for a Dickensian Christmas Eve was something we enjoyed as a family. My boys tolerate my obsession with good humour, but on our last visit, I was delighted that we were joined by my son’s girlfriend whose pleasure in the trip matched mine and allowed me a renewed joy as I watched her reaction to being where Dickens once lived as we listened to ‘A Christmas Carol’ being read by the fire in his sitting room. Just magical!
48, Doughty Street is the house Charles Dickens and his young family moved into in March 1837. The house was relatively new- about 30 years old at this point-and offered Dickens a comfortable home, fitting his new status as a celebrated author. The family lived here for about two years and it was here that he wrote my favourite of his works, ‘Nicolas Nickleby’ as well as ‘Oliver Twist’ and finishing ‘The Pickwick Papers’ (another favourite!)
Published on the 19th December 1843, ‘A Christmas Carol’ was written in six weeks and was an immediate success, selling out in a week. Dickens had left Doughty Street by this time, but the house is set up as if he had just left, opening to the public in 1925.
Here, you can visit the study where Dickens worked from breakfast to lunch every day, following his strict routine. The desk and chair are from his study at Gad's Hill Place where they were kept until his death in 1870. On this desk, he wrote ‘Great Expectations', 'Our Mutual Friend', 'Hard Times', 'A Tale of Two Cities', and the unfinished 'Mystery of Edwin Drood'. This desk features in the famous painting, ‘Dickens’ Dream’ by Robert W Buss, which can be found above the fireplace opposite the desk.
The museum is the perfect place to introduce children to the great man as well as a place where fans of his work can absorb the atmosphere and imagine what it must have been like when Dickens and his family were in residence. No matter how many times I visit, I always find something else to notice and enjoy and revel in the moments when I manage to capture a room with no one else in it!
An excellent introduction to Dickens and his life is ‘Charles Dickens: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life’ by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom. Lavishly illustrated and offering information about the life, times and work of Dickens, it is an excellent read. Each new section is introduced in the style of a Dickens’ chapter heading…In which our hero gets married, moves into Doughty Street and publishes The Pickwick Papers… with a section written as if by Dickens himself. The plots of some of his books are summarised in cartoon form, making them accessible to a younger audience, and the end papers show a map of some of the London locations which would have been familiar to him.
Sweet Cherry Publishing have produced a ‘Charles Dickens Collection’ where some of his stories have been made accessible to children with modified language and engaging illustrations. You can find out more about these here.
Charles Dickens Museum
48-49 Doughty St, London WC1N 2LX
You can visit the Museums’ website here and read about my visit to the Charles Dickens’ Birthplace Museum here.
