People

Charles Dickens

Tags: 1812, 1858, 1866, Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum, Elm Grove, Mile End Terrace, Nicholas Nickleby, Old Commercial Road, portsmouth, Royal Navy, St Georges Hall, St Mary, Theatre Royal, Wish Street

English novelist born in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812 at 1 Mile End Terrace, Old Commercial Road. Charles John Huffham Dickens was baptised on 4 March 1812  at the church of St Mary in the parish of Portsea. His father John Dickens had worked as a clerk in the Royal Navy pay office at Portsmouth Dockyard since 1809. The Dickens family moved to 16 Hawk Street in Portsea and finally to Wish Street, now Elm Grove, before moving back to London in 1814. Dickens returned to Portsmouth in 1838 to conduct research for the book Nicholas Nickleby. Nickleby is partly set in Portsmouth and features the old  Theatre Royal in the High Street. Dickens also gave readings at St Georges Hall in Portsea in 1858 and 1866.

1 Mile End Terrace is now the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum. Displays include the couch that Dickens died upon.