Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Dickens' Chalet is a 19th century timber framed building used by Charles Dickens as a place to write between 1865 and 1870. It previously stood in the grounds of Gads hill, at the Crystal Palace and on this site at Cobham Hall. It is now behind Eastgate House, Rochester.

Monument Types

• HOUSE (HOUSE, Post Medieval to Modern - 1865 AD? to 2050 AD?)

Full description

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(TQ 68446912 - sited from HHR map) I Dickens' Chalet, Cobham Hall. In the wild garden to the north of the house. Wooden Chalet of Swiss type given to Charles Dickens by Charles Pechter, the actor, and erected in the grounds of Gadshill, near Higham, in 1865. Dickens did much of his writing in it between that date and his death in 1870. After his death it was re-erected, first at the Crystal Palace and subsequently here. It is of 2 stories with an overhanging balcony to the first floor with stairs up to it on the east side. It has widely overhanging eaves with carved barge-boards, gables north and south with carved work in them, wooden shutters to the doors and windowss. (1) Building no longer shown on O.S. map (2)

It was moved in the 20th century to Eastgate House.

See also a full history of Cobham Park, the gardens and structures within them. (3)

The foundations of the building were recorded during a survey in 2002. (4)

Archive material: AL0619 Cobham Hall, Kent An album containing 168 black-and-white prints and 3 measured drawings of Cobham Hall and its associated buildings, dating from 1955 to 1961. Many document outbreaks of dry rot identified in 1958 and 1959.

<1> DOE(HHR) Dist. of Northfleet. U.D. Kent. Dec. 1951 17 (OS Card Reference). SKE41124.

<2> O.S. 1:10,560 1966 (OS Card Reference). SKE47789.

<3> English Heritage, 2002, Historical Account, Cobham Hall Estate, Part 2: The Gardens and Inner Grounds (Unpublished document). SKE17515.

<4> Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit, 2002, Cobham Park I: Level-2 Survey - Gazetteer of Sites (Unpublished document). SKE17816.

Sources and further reading

Related records