Charles Dickens Museum — Attraction in London

On Wednesday 24th August 2022, My birthday, My Beautiful Wife and I set off for London in order to make a day of it in the greatest city in the world!! The Dickens House Museum (I prefer it's old name as opposed to the obvious newer one) being our first port of call on our busy itinerary and also because our 'annual pilgrimage' has been postponed for the last few years with the awful pandemic stopping everything in its callous tracks. It was indeed time to 'touch base' with 'the master of the pen' Mr Charles Dickens of Doughty Street and so thanks to the excellent new Crossrail taking us up from Woolwich in 20 minutes and depositing us at Farringdon Station, we walked to our literary destination with an excited spring in our respective steps. The Museum was welcoming in itself with the door open and people milling around inside so we walked through to refresh ourselves in the cafe. Thereby encountering the first and only negative for me,.. Unfortunately since our last visit in 2018, the prices remain extortionate and extremely off-putting. Charging £4:50 for a 'piece' (it cannot be called a slice as it is far from that!) of fruit cake or £3:50 for a scone is not right in my opinion and so I opted for a pot of tea that at £1:95 for two small cups I thought was reasonable and needed a drink after traveling. Back to the many positives then...We then made our way into the museum itself and was met by a lovely smiling charming lady sat outside the dining room who shared her passionate knowledge about Dickens with us and made us feel very welcome and comfortable. We then slowly walked through the house observing the wonderful treasures on show from the beautiful paintings hanging throughout (I particularly enjoyed those in the Morning room) and historical furniture to the incredible manuscripts and writings encased for our perusal. The museum has certainly improved since my last visit with little touches here and there that make the visitor believe that Dickens himself will appear anytime soon like fruit in the bowls downstairs and the table laid nicely in the dining room where Charles and Catherine entertained their many interesting friends. In the drawing room, the actual red leather chair he sat in is positioned in the corner and an old piano also adds to the overall splendor of the room amongst other things. I enjoyed a brilliant reading that was playing on repeat by Miriam Margoyles being Mrs Gamp and reading some select passages from her amazing dialogue in 'Martin Chuzzlewit' and they made me smile as they always do. One of Dickens greatest literary creations was that remarkable comic character and her imaginary friend Mrs Harris. The Study boasts the actual desk that this giant of literature sat at in his home in Gads Hill and where he wrote such classics as 'Great Expectations' and the complex and last completed novel 'Our Mutual Friend' and that I found strangely moving and connected to 🤔 a very important addition to the experience of the house. Upstairs further to see the bedrooms and it feels almost like you are intruding when walking into that private and sacred space where two married people share their most intimate secrets of both the flesh and mind. But a respectful appreciation counters any doubts one may have and the feeling of privilege in being able to access such a pleasant room in the first place. There are interesting items to be seen if you can manage the last flight of stairs in this incredible house and my wife and I stole a brief kiss through the rusty prison bars of the old Marshalsea Prison for unfortunate debtors that is positioned in the centre of the room in rememberance of those poor forgotten souls who perished within those dreadful places. A tiny scrap of paper containing the first ever scribblings of a young Charles Dickens was also on show in a well lit wall cabinet that I found interesting. An excellent visit was crowned with a few keepsakes from the giftshop and we left happy with our exciting and intriguing experience....

We visited Charles Dickens Museum for the Finding Father Christmas event on Sunday. (They’ve since deleted any mention of the event on their social media/site). It was hands down the worse Christmas event I’ve attended with my family. I emailed them about our experience: “We have returned from a trip into London to your “Find Father Christmas” event with our 4 children aged 4, 6, 7, 8 years. We love Christmas, Christmas spirit, all things decorative and magical that comes with it. As do our children. The event at the Charles dickens museum was the worse Father Christmas event we have ever visited. My daughters and I left emotional and in tears. (We reassured them it was a fake Father Christmas.) There was nothing magical. No Christmas spirit. No christmas decor. The “Father Christmas”, trainers showing, poor wig and hat that kept falling off, was the worse impersonator we have come across. And the “gifts” were poorer than a stingy party bag. How you could call this a Christmas event is beyond me. How could you justify the £10 entrance for a choc coin, pencil and eBay stickers, which probably cost £2 max a bag is also beyond me - especially when you had a whole gift shop of gifts to offer! Our daughters commented: “what was the point of the hedgehog toys on the trail it could have at least been a toy reindeer!” In such a beautiful building you put Santa in a boardroom with boardroom chairs and not a mistletoe, snowflake, paper chain or elf in sight. We were appalled. We complained and were told that the event had only been sprung on them that day. So they had “cobbled” something together. You should have cancelled the event! The manager Adam refused to take responsibility- blaming events and an events manager that should have been there but not turned up. He could neither confirm nor deny that it wasn’t up to scratch because he said it’s his job on the line so didn’t want to say anything to jeopardise it! I hope he has provided you with my details as requested. I can only presume your events manager Jordan Evans-Hill has a) no understanding of children and the magic of Christmas and b) thought it was funny to play the role of Scrooge. We were disgusted. For a literary place which should have been full of imagination and warmth you left us cold. I have no shyness in asking for a full refund as you simply did not deliver and disappointed this family of 6.” … I attached a picture with my number to call me…. And explained: “This is not magical. This is not Christmas spirit. No one expects to find Father Christmas in a boardroom.”

I waited for a response, a phone call, an apology…. All I received was “Good Evening,

This is to confirm that we have processed a refund for you, and you should receive your money shortly.

Please let us know if you have not received it within 1 working week.

Regards,”

No phone call. No explanation. No apology. I am stilled utterly appalled how they have treated families at Christmas and think they could get away with it! I wouldn’t entertain visiting here again. No Christmas spirit,...

This was disappointing. The museum itself is great, well planned and for someone who has studied both English Literature and art history it was particularly interesting and I was looking forward to it... at first. Most of the guides were excellent, extremely helpful and very enthusiastic. However there was one that was very rude and ruined our entire experience with her attitude. We did come a little late so we tried to hurry as much as we could. We started at reception and worked our way up. Once we reached the top we looked at our maps and saw that there was also a basement and a garden. We asked the guide on that particular floor how we could get to the basement and her immediate reaction (she was busy showing off to another couple so apparently we interrupted this very important event) was to be very curt (and unnecessarily snobbish for some reason) and tell us that she "knew" we were going to ask that and that no we couldn't because that's not allowed and that someone should have told us that when we started. This was her reasoning (and fair enough if that's how it is) - the basement is always done FIRST because a guide needs to accompany us to the basement level as if we get stuck down there on our own no one would know. This is all fine in itself but the tone she used was completely uncalled for, almost accusing us like it was our fault that we hadn't been told this by someone at the start of our tour. (How would we even know to ask this?) If she wanted to show off to her other guests that much and show them that they were way more important than the rest of us then fine, if it brings you joy to feel so superior and be so condescending then good for you but I hope you realise what an awful impression that left for us. There is absolutely no reason to be rude to your other guests just because you deem another lot more important than them. It came across as being such an inconvenience to her that she had to speak to us, and berate us like naughty schoolchildren. Everyone I have narrated this incident to -people who live in London, academics, literature enthusiasts - have all been appalled and even angry that this was how we were treated. I will not be recommending this museum to either my fellow literature academia or my art history alumni. Do better, this was...