May 2019 Group Meeting Report
Admirers of the works of Charles Dickens enjoyed passages from his many novels and lovers of trips to interesting places in Kent got plenty of ideas during ‘Dickens In Kent’ presented by Christoph Bull, delivered in his customary jovial and energetic manner, at our May meeting.
Joking that the netting suspended across the ceiling of our venue (The Alexandra Suite) reminded him of the fictional Satis House, home of Miss Haversham in Great Expectations, Christoph remarked that, although Charles Dickens has been dead for 150 years, his novels and characters continue to be widely known.
Born in Landport, Portsmouth Dickens came to know Kent from an early age as he was aged four when the family moved to Ordnance Terrace, Chatham Dockyard where his father John worked in the Pay Office. Living in this lively place, with all manner of people working and passing through, and with prisoners from the hulks brought to work in the docks, provided plenty of material for his novels. Dickens also gathered knowledge of the seamier side of life when his father John was sent to a debtor’s prison. Mr Dickens senior appears to have been a Mr. Micawber figure – despite looming disaster he was known to say ‘Something will turn up!’
Dickens was keen on recycling. In his novels places and buildings were used many times but given different locations and names. These include several buildings in Rochester, such as Restoration House, the inspiration for Satis House in Great Expectations; The Royal Victoria and Bull, named The Bull in Pickwick Papers; Eastgate House used in The Pickwick Papers and the Mystery of Edwin Drood. Several buildings in Canterbury appear in David Copperfield and other writings. Dickens considered Broadstairs ‘too genteel’. One homeowner has put up a sign saying ‘Charles Dickens did NOT live here!’ as so many buildings claim association. Although Dickens disliked Gravesend he was inspired by an upturned boat by the canal turned into a home. This became Peggotty’s cottage and he describes the embarkation for Australia from Gravesend Reach of Peggotty and The Micawber family. Who can forget the bleak Cooling marshes in Great Expectations and the poignant graves in St. James’s Church of thirteen children from the Comport and Baker families who died of marsh fever - where Pip met Magwitch. Dickens wrote several of his novels at his last home, Gad’s House at Higham, where he died on 9 June 1870.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser
Admirers of the works of Charles Dickens enjoyed passages from his many novels and lovers of trips to interesting places in Kent got plenty of ideas during ‘Dickens In Kent’ presented by Christoph Bull, delivered in his customary jovial and energetic manner, at our May meeting.
Joking that the netting suspended across the ceiling of our venue (The Alexandra Suite) reminded him of the fictional Satis House, home of Miss Haversham in Great Expectations, Christoph remarked that, although Charles Dickens has been dead for 150 years, his novels and characters continue to be widely known.
Born in Landport, Portsmouth Dickens came to know Kent from an early age as he was aged four when the family moved to Ordnance Terrace, Chatham Dockyard where his father John worked in the Pay Office. Living in this lively place, with all manner of people working and passing through, and with prisoners from the hulks brought to work in the docks, provided plenty of material for his novels. Dickens also gathered knowledge of the seamier side of life when his father John was sent to a debtor’s prison. Mr Dickens senior appears to have been a Mr. Micawber figure – despite looming disaster he was known to say ‘Something will turn up!’
Dickens was keen on recycling. In his novels places and buildings were used many times but given different locations and names. These include several buildings in Rochester, such as Restoration House, the inspiration for Satis House in Great Expectations; The Royal Victoria and Bull, named The Bull in Pickwick Papers; Eastgate House used in The Pickwick Papers and the Mystery of Edwin Drood. Several buildings in Canterbury appear in David Copperfield and other writings. Dickens considered Broadstairs ‘too genteel’. One homeowner has put up a sign saying ‘Charles Dickens did NOT live here!’ as so many buildings claim association. Although Dickens disliked Gravesend he was inspired by an upturned boat by the canal turned into a home. This became Peggotty’s cottage and he describes the embarkation for Australia from Gravesend Reach of Peggotty and The Micawber family. Who can forget the bleak Cooling marshes in Great Expectations and the poignant graves in St. James’s Church of thirteen children from the Comport and Baker families who died of marsh fever - where Pip met Magwitch. Dickens wrote several of his novels at his last home, Gad’s House at Higham, where he died on 9 June 1870.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser