Person    | Male  Born 7/2/1812  Died 9/6/1870

Charles Dickens

Born, son of Elizabeth and John Dickens, at No.1 Mile End Terrace, Landport, Portsmouth (where there is a museum). For a map showing many of his London addresses see Londonist. His family were so peripatetic that he had lived in at least 17 places by the time he was 22 and moved out.

Dickens wanted to be buried in Rochester Cathedral but instead we find him in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, with the inscription: 'He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world.' His will specified: 'I conjure to my friends on no account to make me the subject of any monument, memorial or testimonial whatsoever.' Despite this stipulation there is a statue in Sydney and a life-size 1891 bronze by Francis Edwin Elwell in Philadelphia and, in 2014 (late for the 2012 celebrations) a statue by Martin Jennings was unveiled in Portsmouth. Digital Journal in 2011 has more to say about Dickens statues. And what would Dickens have said about all the plaques? But the Portsmouth statue-erectors argue that Dickens' ban on memorials was "just him talking about funeral arrangements" and they point out that he sat for several sculptors.

Lots to read by Dickens and about Dickens but we'd recommend one academic detective novel, about the research that led to the listing, and saving, of the Cleveland Street Workhouse, the one that almost certainly inspired Dickens to write 'Oliver Twist'. Dickens and the Workhouse by Ruth Richardson.

2016: Londonist keeps returning to Dickens and here is surely the last word in Dickens mapped.

2022: Londonist have found another spin: Did Charles Dickens Ever Ride On The London Underground?

2023: This image is Charles Dickens by Margaret Gillies, 1843, courtesy of the Charles Dickens Museum.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Charles Dickens

Commemorated ati

7 - Wine Office Court – Dickens

Mr Lirriper's Lodgings The Extra Christmas Number All the Year Round Charles ...

Read More

Black Bull Inn, W6

This is a much travelled bull. It was sculpted by Obadiah Pulham at Woodbridg...

Read More

Bradbury & Evans

Oh, dear, what is happening to the City plaques? This one looks really cheap...

Read More

Charles Dickens - blacking factory

This was the site of the blacking factory where Dickens worked, aged 12 or 13...

Read More

Charles Dickens - Cranleigh Street

In Dickens' time it was called Johnson Street. His house was number 29 though...

Read More

Show all 44

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Charles Dickens

Creations i

Dog and Pot sculpture

Dickens was a boy of 12 when he passed this sign on his way to work in 1824. ...

Read More

Little Dorrit gate

The quoted text comes at the end of Chapter 13 of 'Little Dorrit' by Charles ...

Read More

Marcus Grantham Fountain

{On a plaque fixed to the rim of the fountain:} In October 1976 this fountai...

Read More

Marshalsea 1 - stone - round

Quoted from Chapter 3 of Little Dorrit.

Read More

Marshalsea 4 - stone - spiral

Quoted from Charles Dickens' preface to Little Dorrit.

Read More

Other Subjects

Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Humourist and writer. Born in Shepherd's Bush, he invented the verse form which took his middle name (his mother's maiden name), and is a four-line nonsense poem about a famous person; an example b...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Literature, Poetry

2 memorials
P. D. James

P. D. James

Writer. Born Phyllis Dorothy James in Oxford. Best known for her crime novels, many of them featuring the detective Adam Dalgliesh. Created Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991.

Person, Literature

2 memorials
Captain Frederick Marryat

Captain Frederick Marryat

Novelist and officer in Royal Navy where he was a bit of a hero, rescuing men from drowning, etc. Born Catherine Court, Tower Hill or Great George Street, Westminster, depending on source.  Entere...

Person, Armed Forces, Literature

3 memorials
Percy Fitzgerald, FSA

Percy Fitzgerald, FSA

Sculptor, painter and author. Born Ireland.  The picture source website has a second picture of Fitzgerald, sadly no more flattering than this one.

Person, Literature, Sculpture, Ireland

2 memorials
Leonard Huxley

Leonard Huxley

Writer. His works include biographies of his father Thomas Henry Huxley and Charles Darwin. Father of Aldous and Julian Huxley, the unidentified child in the photograph is presumably one of his sons.

Person, History, Literature

1 memorial