Tavistock House

Charles Dickens lived in Tavistock House for nine years beginning in eighteen fifty-one. During his residency, he built a small private theater in the schoolroom where he staged elaborate amateur plays for his friends and family. These performances became local sensations, drawing notable guests like Hans Christian Andersen who famously overstayed his welcome in the house for five weeks. Dickens wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, and Little Dorrit while working in his study here, often pacing the floors to act out scenes for his characters before committing them to paper.