What is it?
The museum, library and headquarters of the Dickens Fellowship – and the house where Charles Dickens lived from 1837-39, and wrote ‘Oliver Twist’ – allows visitors a glimpse into how the writer worked and how people in general lived in Victorian London.
Found down a quiet Bloomsbury street, the venue is a mixture of reconstructed rooms and gallery space, featuring original Victorian furniture and fittings, refurbished attics and kitchens and an education centre at 49 Doughty Street. Visitors are taken back in time as they explore Dickens’s life through displays of his personal belongings, paintings and writing.
The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions, which have recently covered subjects including the impact of fog on Victorian London life, Dickens’ scientific interests, Victorian cookbooks and Dickens’ friendship with Wilkie Collins. Regular events include costumed tours, candlelit late openings and a weekly reading club.
Why go?
To deep dive into the life and mind of one of London’s greatest authors inside his only remaining London home.
Don’t miss
The small, peaceful walled garden out the back, where you can sit with a coffee from the museum cafe and spot more Dickens memorabilia, including an original stone step from St George's church, Southwark – a reference to the end of one of his lesser known novels, Little Dorrit.
When to visit
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm. Last entry 4pm.
Ticket info
Admission into the Charles Dickens Museum costs £12.50 for an adult; £10.50 for concessions, £7.50 for children 6-16 years and free for children under 6.
Time Out tip
While you’re in the area, we recommend checking out Bloomsbury’s other niche-interest museums. There’s the Foundling Museum telling the story of England’s first hospital for abandoned children, the Postal Museum for post and Royal Mail-related history and a little further away is the Hunterian Museum, home to a collection of weird anatomical, pathological and zoological specimens.