Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dickens
London is such a small town, I keep running into the same Victorians.
Yesterday we went to Charles Dickens' house on Doughty Street. I don't have much to say about it, except that there's a nice collection of Dickens memorabilia, including his desk and some fine portraits and photographs. Dickens didn't even live there very long—he moved to posher digs after he became a successful author. And if it's a typical Victorian home you're after, you're better off at the Linley Sambourne House.
But as my friend and I toured the home, there was one display that caught our eye. It was about a friend of Dickens, a philanthropist named Angela Burdett Coutts, who I'd never heard of. Or so I thought.
After inheriting her grandfather's banking fortune in 1837, Baroness Burdett Coutts became the richest woman in England. Dickens and Angela Burdett Coutts shared an interest in improving the plight of poor people.
As I was reading the display about her, I almost made a comment to my friend about a place I'd seen the week before while walking near Highgate Cemetery. A sweet cottage with an imposing Gothic entrance gate had caught our attention, so much so that we stopped to take photos. But I remembered that it had been two different friends with me on the trip to Highgate, and besides, the cottage we'd seen had nothing to do with Angela Burdett Coutts. At least that's what I thought, though a niggling thought still stirred in my mind.
My friend and I were so interested in Angela—she's an overlooked figure of Victorian history—that I took a photo of the display, so that we could look her up later. When I did, I realized why the place we'd seen—called Holly Village—had popped into my mind when I read about her at the Dickens house. Turns out she owned Holly Lodge, including the area in Highgate around the lodge. She was well known for entertaining there—you can read about it here.
I looked at the photos I took of the lodge, and sure enough, on the gate is a plaque which reads:
No Public Entry
HOLLY VILLAGE homes were built by Baroness Burdett-Coutts & Henry Darbishire, architect, in 1865.
Some piece of my brain had retained that name, and when I read it at Dickens House, the memory popped into my consciousness long enough for an image of the lodge to pop up.
Here are some of the photos I took that day:
The Gothic entrance which first attracted our attention, in the middle of a North London residential area.
We peeked inside at the sweet looking cottage, with a table outside ready for tea.
I took this picture because I wanted to remember the architect's name.
If the No Entry sign doesn't deter you, maybe these heads on the wall will.
Holly Lodge (or Holly Village, as the plaque reads) is located directly across from the south end of Highgate Cemetery.
For more photos of Dickens House, keep reading.
The door of Charles Dickens' home on Doughty Street in London.
Charles Dickens' desk, where he wrote some of his novels.
The parlor is decorated for Christmas. No Scrooge here!
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