Plaque: Charles Dickens - NW1
Erection date: 1924
Charles Dickens, lived in a house on this site when a boy in 1823. Erected by the Dickens Fellowship, 1924.
Site: Charles Dickens - NW1 (1 memorial)
NW1, Bayham Street, 141
Dickens' home was at 16 Bayham Street where he stayed as a boy. That particular address no longer exists, but this plaque is in place at number 141. Our entry used to claim, erroneously, that this was Dickens' first London home but our good friend, Dr Ruth Richardson, writes "Bayham Street was NOT Dickens's first home in London. He certainly lived there, and in 1823, but he had lived in London for two years 1815-16, in Norfolk Street (now Cleveland Street). Bayham Street was a miserable time for him, the family was on its way down to the Marshalsea Prison, but they lived in Gower Street (on the site now occupied by the cruciform building, the old University College Hospital) before they were finally imprisoned. Will give you data when our plaque is ready to go up. My book on Dickens and Cleveland Street is due out February 2012 in time (I hope) for his 200th birthday."
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