Alistair Hardaker | Image: Dickens Writing Chalet (Nick Johnson, The ImageWorks)
Grade I listed Charles Dickens writing chalet in Rochester receives £240,000 from National Lottery Heritage Fund to develop restoration plans.
The chalet where Charles Dickens wrote some of his final novels is to be restored following a £240,000 award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The Charles Dickens Writing Chalet, in the gardens of Eastgate House off Rochester High Street in Medway, is a Grade I listed structure over 160 years old. The structure is fragile and at risk of being lost. The funding will develop plans to restore the building and open it to the public. Medway Council is contributing £40,000 and the Rochester and Chatham branch of the Dickens Fellowship £5,000.
Dickens worked on several novels in the chalet, including Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), The Uncommercial Traveller (1861-69) and his unfinished final work The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870). He also used it to rehearse for public appearances, and it is believed the second floor was lined with mirrors for this purpose.
The chalet was given to Dickens by the actor Charles Fechter in 1864, when Dickens lived at Gads Hill in Higham. It arrived at Higham Railway Station on Christmas Eve 1864 as a sort of ‘flat pack’ prefabricated building, in 94 pieces packed into 58 boxes. It was moved to its current location in Rochester in the 1960s.
The project will conserve and restore the chalet and create a new setting inspired by the Wilderness Garden of Dickens’ home at Gad’s Hill. Medway Council will work with the Friends of Eastgate House, heritage experts and local cultural organisations to develop a programme for residents, schools and visitors. If the development plans are successful, they will unlock a further £1.2m from the Heritage Fund.
Eilish McGuinness, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “I’m pleased we are adding the Charles Dickens Writing Chalet, the writing nook where he wrote his last novels in peace and tranquillity, to the writing heritage we’ve funded over the years.”
Councillor Nina Gurung, Medway Council’s portfolio holder for heritage, culture and leisure, added: “The links between Medway and Dickens are well-known and run deep, and this project will help to shine a light on this comparatively lesser known, but equally special part of the great author’s story.”
The Heritage Fund has supported other projects linked to Dickens, including £2m for the restoration of his home in Bloomsbury, now the Charles Dickens Museum, in 2010.
