Some Early London Homes of Charles Dickens

During his childhood, the future novelist was constantly on the move

Visitors to London who are lovers of the novels of Charles Dickens are doubtless familiar with the house in Doughty Street (not far from the British Museum) where Dickens lived as a young man and wrote some of his early novels, including Oliver Twist.

However, they may not be aware that several other streets in London were home to Charles Dickens at various stages in his life, although the Dickens pilgrim will, in most cases, only have a blue plaque to view because more recent developments have swept away nearly all these 19th century buildings. The following houses were lived in by the young Charles Dickens between the ages of 10 and 12.

Bayham Street, Camden Town

The Dickens family moved from Chatham (Kent) to London in June 1822, to 16 Bayham Street. Charles would have been ten years old at the time, which was coincidentally about the same age as the small terraced house into which the growing family crowded itself. At the time Camden Town was virtually a village on the outskirts of London, with open fields between it and the city, some three miles distant.

Charles did not move in with the rest of the family at first, because he stayed put in Chatham…