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