The celebrated British writer Charles
Dickens was born in Portsmouth, but he spent
part of his childhood at 2 Ordnance Terrace in Chatham,
adjacent to Rochester. He later bought a house at Gad's Hill Place, Higham,
between Gravesend and Rochester. It is evident from his writing that Rochester and the surrounding area made quite an
impression on him, in fact it features in a number of his works. For Dickens fans visiting Rochester, the city offers the Footsteps In Time guided walking tours conducted by costumed Dickens
characters, while the best time of year for them to visit Rochester
is just before Christmas, when the Dickensian Christmas Festival takes place,
and there is also a Christmas market at the castle. There is another Dickens festival in the town
in June.
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| Rochester Castle |
One of Dickens' best known works is The
Pickwick Papers, originally written as a serial for a publication, 19 issues in
all. The story centres around Mr
Pickwick, founder of the Pickwick Club based in London, and three of his fellow
Pickwickians, as they set off on a journey full of amusing adventures - or more
often misadventures - encountering a whole sub-cast of eccentric characters
along the way. The action kicks off with
a stay in Rochester,
where they put up at the Bull Inn on the High Street. The castle makes an immediate impression on
the friends: one of them, Mr Snodgrass, declares it a "Magnificent
ruin!", while Pickwick himself adds "What a study for an
antiquarian!" Pickwick makes some observations on the character of the town, describing its "principle productions" as "soldiers,
sailors, Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers and dockyard men", while
commercial activities include marine stores and the sale of "hard-bake, apples,
flat-fish and oysters". He also
comments on the smell of tobacco in the streets: as a sign of how different
attitudes to such things were in those days, he describes it as
"exceedingly delicious to those who are extremely fond of
smoking".
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| View of the Medway from the castle |
In one of the story's many comic episodes,
one of Pickwick's friends, Mr Winkle, becomes the unwitting victim of a case of
mistaken identity following an incident at a ball being held at The Bull, which
very nearly results in him becoming involved in a duel. Another hilarious episode takes place on a
journey from the inn out to the country, in which the friends make a disastrous
attempt at controlling a horse. One of
their outings from Rochester is a visit to Chatham to observe some military maneuvers put on for the
public on The Lines, an open space neaer Chatham
barracks. The friends get into trouble
again, this time finding themselves in the line of fire by standing in the
wrong place. Dickens' affection for Rochester shows through in a contemplative scene in which
Pickwick is standing on Rochester
Bridge admiring the river
scene. There is a vivid description of
the castle on the left with "the ruined wall, broken in many places",
while the banks of the Medway are "covered with corn-fields and pastures,
with here and there a windmill".
Rochester Castle still makes an impressive sight
today, as does the Cathedral, which dates back to Norman times. The inn featured in The Pickwick Papers (and
also in Great Expectations, where it was named the Blue Boar Inn) still stands
on the High Street at nos 16-18. It is
now called the Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel - the name acquired the Victoria part following
a stay by Queen Victoria, who allegedly complained about the uncomfortable bed
she slept in. The High Street retains
quite a lot of its old world charm, with a pleasant mix of pubs, restaurants
and independent shops occupying the period buildings. One of these, an Elizabethan mansion called Eastgate House, featured in Dickens' final, unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. As for neighbouring Chatham, the other big draw besides Dickens
World is the Chatham Historic Dockyard, where the construction of ships dates
back to Tudor times and has encompassed both surface ships and submarines. The site is now a major tourist attraction
for visitors to the area.
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| Side entrance to Eastgate House |
For more information about the area see the Visit Medway website.
