Charles Dickens Chalet in Rochester opens

It opens its doors as part of the heritage open days, one of England's largest festivals of history and culture.  Mahima Abedin reports.

Transcript

00:00Charles Dickens, a world-renowned author, but his importance is felt that extra bit

00:04more right here in Rochester.

00:07In honour of Heritage Open Days, which celebrates England's history, Dickens' very own writing

00:12chalet has opened its doors for the public to come and see.

00:15Now Rochester played a key part in loads of Charles Dickens' work, but this writing

00:20chalet, just over my shoulder, is at the heart of it all. It's where he started to write

00:25his unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, just before he died. Now the second

00:30floor is where he spent most of his time writing, but unfortunately that's not open to the public

00:35to see due to safety issues. But what is, is the ground floor, so let's go take a look

00:40inside.

00:41It was very important to him because he found it a very, very freeing space in which to

00:48sort of work. We've had loads of people round this morning. It always seems to me to be

00:56enormously popular. It's really, really important to North Kent Medway that we have this association

01:03and it would be brilliant if we can tell that part of his story all the more effectively

01:10because we can use this chalet.

01:13So I'm inside the chalet now and I've decided to come and take a look for myself. Now this

01:17ground floor room, it's quite small, it's quite tight, we can't go upstairs as I mentioned

01:22before, but I've been told that this room has been used as a shed by Charles Dickens

01:26in the past. He'd keep some of his tools here and a few of his dogs and it's more than 150

01:32years old.

01:33But it's not just Rachel who appreciates the rich cultural significance of the chalet,

01:37it's those that came to visit too.

01:39Well Medway particularly because there aren't a lot of jobs in Medway, so anything we can

01:45do that boosts the tourist industry is going to help us.

01:48He's a local person, he's somebody who's actually part of us and lived here, even though

01:55I don't live in Rochester, but I think it's important. Also, I'm sure it brings in lots

02:03of tourists.

02:03It's important for Kent, he was a Kentish person towards the end of his life. Obviously

02:11it's an association that even dates back to Shakespeare we could say with Gads Hill and

02:16Henry I. So, you know, living up needs to happen down here as well I think, so that's why.

02:24And the chalet will remain open for four heritage days with great expectations that the next

02:30Dickens could just be one of those visiting.

02:33Mahima Abedin for KMTV in Rochester.