The chalet where Charles Dickens wrote his last work is set to receive a \u00a3240,000 lottery grant for its restoration.<\/p>\n
The Grade I listed building in the gardens of Eastgate House, just off Rochester High Street, is more than 160 years-old and in fragile condition, Medway Council said.<\/p>\n
The project plans to restore the chalet, creating a setting inspired by part of the garden at his home in Gad’s Hill, Higham, before opening it to the public.<\/p>\n
The council said the project would “shine a light on this comparatively lesser known, but equally special part of the great author’s story”.<\/p>\n
As well as the National Lottery Heritage Fund money, a further \u00a340,000 is being contributed by Medway Council, and the Rochester and Chatham branch of the Dickens Fellowship are giving \u00a35,000.<\/p>\n
Working in partnership with Friends of Eastgate House, heritage experts, and local cultural organisations, the council said it would develop an inclusive programme involving residents, schools, and visitors.<\/p>\n
If development plans are successful, further funding of \u00a31.2m from the Heritage Fund will be unlocked, the council said.<\/p>\n
The chalet was given to Dickens as a present from an actor friend, Charles Fechter, in 1864.<\/p>\n
He used the property to write novels including Our Mutual Friend, The Uncommercial Traveller, and his final, unfinished work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. <\/p>\n
He also used it to rehearse for public appearances. It is believed the second floor was lined with mirrors for this, the council said.<\/p>\n
The day he died, on 9 June, 1870, Dickens was working inside on The Mystery of Edwin Drood.<\/p>\n
According to the council, which dubbed it a “Victorian flat pack”, it arrived at Higham Railway Station on Christmas Eve 1864, in 94 pieces packed into 58 boxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chalet where Charles Dickens wrote his last work is set to receive a \u00a3240,000 lottery grant for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-655287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}