Dickens’ week

In 1929 Portsmouth school teachers organised an ambitious event to celebrate the author Charles Dickens and his links with the city. A parade dressed as Dicken’s characters went from the Guildhall to his birthplace in Commercial Road, pageants and concerts were held and the culmination was a ball in the Guildhall. The event was a resounding success.

2012 will be the 200th anniversary of Dickens birth. To celebrate, Portsmouth City Council has a large community archive project which aims to reach out to everyone in the city celebrating both archives and Dickens. The culmination will be a exhibition at the City Museum.

http://www.charlesdickensbirthplace.co.uk/charles-dickens-birthplace/ATaleofOneCity.htm

Dickens and Highland Road

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth and kept connections with the town for most of his life. Highland Road cemetery has a plethora of connections being the last resting place of:
o Maria Winter (nee Beadnall), his first sweetheart
o Ellen Robinson (nee Ternan), his mistress
o Georgina Margaret Haymen, believed to be the model for Little Dorritt
o Alfred Arthur Seale, first curator of the Charles Dickens Museum in Portsmouth.

2012 will be the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth and to celebrate Portsmouth City Council will be arranging a series of celebrations including a large community archive project.
http://www.dickens2012.org/dickens-community-archive-project

This Side Idolatry

This well researched but controversial novel based on the life of Charles Dickens was published in 1928. It was not altogether complimentary. Portsmouth City Council, proud of its links with with the author, promptly banned it from its public libraries. This book was billed as the ‘most discussed book of the century’ but Portsmouth residents were forced to buy their own copies to read. Portsmouth City library has an enviable collection regarding Dickens. However their catalogue shows that they still don’t possess a copy of this book.

A visit by Dickens

In 1838 when Charles Dickens was undertaking research for Nicholas Nickleby, he visited Portsmouth. Of this visit, it was said: ‘He succeeded in finding suitable lodging for Vincent Crummles at Balph the pilots, in St Thomas’s Street for Miss Snevellicci at a tailor’s in Lombard Street; while Nickleby and his companion were quartered at a tobacconist’s on the Common Hard, which he describes as a ‘dirty street leading down to the dockyard’. Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812 and was a returning visitor throughout his life.

Winter Road

This road in Portsmouth is named after Henry Winter, a successful wood and timber merchant in the town during the mid 1800s. Interestingly he married Maria Beadnell who had been the first love of another Portsmouth resident, Charles Dickens. She is thought by some to have been the inspiration for Dora in David Copperfield. Maria is buried in Highland Road cemetery.