Maxine Morse · Sep 7, 2023 · 8 mins

Charles Dickens Museum Review

Updated: Sep 7

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On a recent visit to the Charles Dickens Museum London, I discovered that Charles Dickens was a bit of a rake and dandy and far more eccentric than my early readings had given him credit for.

In this article we give you insights into the key museum exhibits accompanied by original photographs and explain how to obtain Charles Dickens Museum tickets.

I Visited the Charles Dickens Museum with Fear and Trepidation

Charles Dickens was a prominent feature of my school days, huge dusty tomes featuring characters of a bygone era. Indelibly etched in my young mind was Scrooge in all his miserly unpleasantness and Oliver Twist in the workhouse begging for more gruel. For every rotund, jolly character there would be a sea of filthy, ragged, bare-foot wretches teetering on the brink of starvation. It was with some trepidation therefore that I went to the the rented home of Charles Dickens, the lease of which was purchased with his advance from Pickwick Papers.

Wretched Characters illustrated in Charles Dickens' Novels — Wretched Characters illustrated in Charles Dickens’ Novels

Charles Dickens got into his characters by acting them out in his bedroom mirror… the very mirror that is in his upstairs bedroom.

48 Doughty Street is an Affluent but Ordinary London Town House

In my mind’s eye, I was expecting the Charles Dickens Museum to contain sumptuous splendour, a house bedecked with Christmas decorations shining like jewels and every candle in Christendom lit to illuminate gilded paintings and antique mahogany furniture. Of course, this was erroneous and ridiculous, Charles Dickens was just starting out in his literary career at the time of his life here and this house was reminiscent of the many Georgian and Victorian houses that line the residential areas of the centre of town.

Children’s Bedrooms Pay Homage to Debtors Prison

I climbed the stairs to the top of the museum, to the children’s bedrooms. A pair of bleak rooms with bare wooden floors and simple cots with a room divider of iron bars – the bars of a debtors’ prison. These bars were the embodiment of Charles Dickens’s own lost childhood when his father was in prison in Marchelsea with his wife and young child and the 12 year old Charles was sent to board with an impoverished woman and work pasting labels onto pots in a blacking factory.

The Children's Bedrooms in the attic of the Charles Dickens Museum. — The Children’s Bedrooms in the attic of the Charles Dickens Museum.

Rehearsing Characters in the Master Bedroom

With a shudder, I went down a flight of stairs and found myself in Charles Dickens’ bedroom overlooking the genteel Bloomsbury street. Dominating the room was a four poster bed with its burgundy coverlet, a slipper bath beside the fireplace and his wife’s turquoise serpent engagement ring on the dressing table.

The bedroom overlooking 48 Doughty Street

Imagine Charles Dickens taking a bath In front of the fire. The bath tub in the main bedroom of the Charles Dickens Museum.

In the corner of the room was a large pedestaled mirror sitting aloft a dressing table – it was this very mirror that he had used to “rehearse his characters” I imagined him making grotesque faces in the mirror and adopting gasping, breathy tones and childish high pitched squeals as he tested out each character’s veracity in that very mirror.

Ghosts in the Guest Room

I walked to the next room, smaller and with a sunny sense of calm, no ghosts in sight and nothing untoward…until the room attendant told me that it was in this very bed that his wife’s 17 year old sister had died in Charles Dickens’ arms, the trauma of which dogged him and for years to come.

The Guest Room where Charles Dickens' sister in law died in his arms — The Guest Room where Charles Dickens’ sister in law died in his arms

Charles Dickens, the Dandy

I skated past the dressing room with its display of a suited mannequin and a wash stand. A room where he would dress each morning and don a fashionable tartan waistcoat. Then he would spend his afternoons strolling around town meeting friends, book publishers, or otherwise attending to his many philanthropic activities (before going to bed with his hair in curlers). What a dandy!

Entertaining the Elite in the Salon

Maybe I would find the jolly family atmosphere that had so far eluded me in the family salon. The living room was the theatrical stage for his early talents with the makeshift lectern that he used when reciting stories to friends. I could see Charles Dickens’ guests marvelling over the twists and turns in his plots, gasping in horror at the sheer wickedness of the bosses and overlords.

The Salon where Charles Dickens read from a lectern to entertain his guests.

You may also enjoy our post on another great man Winston Churchill and the Churchill War Rooms. And if you like historical museums read our review on the Museum of London Docklands.

Charles Dickens Study – Do Not Disturb

In the next room ,was the book-lined study where Charles Dickens had written his early works in a quill pen and ink with a spidery hand…tiny writing with numerous scratches and addendum. He worked in this room for 4 hours each morning and woe betide anyone who disturbed him.

Charles Dickens' large mahogany desk. A prized antique of the museum. — Charles Dickens’ large mahogany desk. A prized antique of the museum.

Charles Dickens' spidery handwriting in blue ink. — Charles Dickens’ spidery handwriting in blue ink.

Here was a conundrum. Charles Dickens was a man eager for fame, with little formal education yet he wanted to be part of learned society. This house was was sufficiently impressive to be a passport to his place in the world. And it was here, in his first family home, that he and his wife Catherine began to make their mark, inviting interesting people such as the author Elizabeth Gaskell and the historian Thomas Carlyle to dinner.

The Heart of the Home in the Basement Kitchen

I felt a longing for the warm embrace of a nearby cafe and a hot drink. I arrived on the ground floor of the Dickens’ residence and was about to leave the Charles Dickens Museum when I saw an illuminated arrow pointing to the basement…was there more? I nearly didn’t go. I’m at an age when I think twice about stairs.

And there it was, in its warmth and splendour, the bosom of the family, a kitchen, a pantry, a scullery and a wine cave – filled with plaster of Paris replicas of fruits, vegetables, roasting meats, jelly, cakes, laundry all on scrubbed work tops curved through chopping and overuse…the heart of 48 Doughty Street. A place setting was laid on the kitchen table for Charles Dickens and as I left I could imagine him eating his lunch with the house keeper bustling around him serving a beef and oyster pie and mash with gravy, the resident hedgehog feeding off the crumbs and insects afoot and his chattering children being ushered upstairs by the nursery maid so he could eat in peace.