Charles Dickens' Links to Liverpool

[neilsturrock]

Charles Dickens and Liverpool

• Dickens’ first visit to Liverpool was in 1842 when he stayed at the Adelphi Hotel.

• In 1844 he chaired the annual Christmas Soiree at Liverpool’s Mechanics Institute. During this visit he researched the characteristics of people living in Whitechapel.

• On his final visit to Liverpool in 1860 he was made an honorary member of the Literary and Philosophical Society. A public banquet was held in his honour at the Town Hall.

• Dickens’ inspiration for his novel The Uncommercial Traveller was based on his research at Liverpool Docks and his visits to the workhouse on Brownlow Hill.

• Dickens’ final words on stage were: “From these garish lights I vanish now for evermore.” Three months later, in 1870, he died.

Source

The Banquet for Charles Dickens was held in St George's Hall, not the Town Hall, although the Lord Mayor presided. It was on Saturday 10th April 1869 not in 1860. This was his final appearance in Liverpool since he died in 1870.

[neilsturrock]

Bridewell means prison (also reformatory), so, presumably police stations with cells were called Bridewells.
Both the Everton and Wavertree lock-ups were Bridewells, but not police stations.

The first Bridewell was a prison in London originating in the 16th century, the building had been a Royal Palace of Henry VIII. It was given to the city by Edward VI for the housing of homeless children and the punishment of ‘disorderly women’ (unmarried mothers!) but soon afterwards became a general prison.
The 'Bridewell Palace' was so named because of its location near to a well dedicated to St Bride.
It became common practice for a town-centre jail, especially one next to a court-house, to be known as a ‘Bridewell’, but the term was often used to indicate any Police Station which had cells.

[PhilipG]

Thanks NeilS.
There is a reference to a Masque Theatre in Duke Street in this thread.
I know there was never a theatre in Liverpool with that name, nor was there a theatre in Duke Street.
I think though there is an element of truth about Dickens in Duke Street.
Do you know anything about that?

[Waterways]

Thanks NeilS.
There is a reference to a Masque Theatre in Duke Street in this thread.
I know there was never a theatre in Liverpool with that name, nor was there a theatre in Duke Street.
I think though there is an element of truth about Dickens in Duke Street.
Do you know anything about that?

There was a coffee bar in Duke St called the Masque. I used to go there. It may have been named after what was there before. It was at the bottom on the right as you go down the hill.

[Libertarian]

On the evening of Sunday 9th December, at St George's Hall in Liverpool, The Reader Organisation is hosting its fourth annual Penny Readings event.

This year, the event features renowned UK poet Jenny Joseph; The Archers star Annabelle Dowler; and BBC Radio 4 and CBeebies presenter, David McFetridge; the 500-strong audience will hear readings from such famous classics as Bleak House, A Christmas Carol and A Winter's Tale. Other highlights of the evening include performances by the Liverpool African Youth Dance group, three community choirs, a Dickensian trumpet player and a string quartet.

The Reader exists to promote the good in literature, believing that reading can be fun, life-enhancing and creative for everyone, and this is why we host The Penny Readings. As in Dickens' day - when he would travel around the potteries and Liverpool, reading to thousands of people for only one penny - we too only charge one penny for this event, so that it is inclusive and available to all. We want everyone to benefit from the positive impact that literature can bring to people's lives and this is one thoroughly enjoyable way that we are able to do it.

You can read the full press release on the University of Liverpool's website. Tickets are now sold out for this year's event but you are can place your name on a list at Liverpool Central Library to ensure you are amongst the first to know when tickets go on sale for 2008.

Next year we are thinking of putting one hundred of the tickets on ebay in order to add excitement to the scramble for tickets and raise money to support the event. A penny for your thoughts, please.

www.thereader.co.uk

[beatlegirl]

Charles Dickens

1812/1870 Colin's Bridewell, Campbell Street, off Duke Street, Liverpool L1

He was born in Landport and moved with the family to London. At the age of 12 years old he was put to work in a blanking factory to assist the family income as his father was imprisoned in the Marshalsea for debt.

Next, from 1824 until 1827 Dickens studied at Wellington House Academy, London. From 1827 to 1828 he was a law office clerk, and then worked as a shorthand reporter at Doctor's Commons. In the 1840s Dickens founded Master Humphrey's Cloak and edited the London Daily News. Dickens's relationship with Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker, lasted for four years. Afterwards, he married the daughter of his friend George Hogarth, Catherine Hogart in 1836.

When Catherine's sisters, Georgiana, moved in with the Dickenses, he fell in love with her. Even though, Dickens had 10 children with Catherine, they were separated in 1858. Additionally, Dickens also had a long-lasting relation with the actress Ellen Ternan, whom he had met by the late 1850s.

From the 1840s Dickens spent much time traveling and campaigning against many of the social evils of his time. In addition he gave talks and reading, wrote pamphlets, plays, and letters. In 1844 to 1845 he lived in Italy, Switzerland and Paris. From 1858 to 1868, he gave lecturing tours in Britain and the United States. Afterwards, he moved to Gadshill Place, near Rochester, Kent. He died there on June 9, 1870.

Charles Dickens made numerous visits to Liverpool, specially from 1842/1869 when he read extracts from his novels often to large audiences in St. George's Hall and at former Masque Theatre in Duke Street. He salied to America from Liverpool on at least two occasions in 1860 was sworn in as a special constable in the Liverpool Police Force to aid his research in writing The Uncommercial Traveller. The time spent in Liverpool must have been very dear to him for he wrote Liverpool lies in my heart next only to London.

Maybe, he was not born in Liverpool and never lived here, but he spent part of his time in Pool in. I am thinking that he was a important person here with his books, his culture, and his audiences in St. George Hall and Masque Theatre.

Thanks for that! I've just learned something about Charles Dickens.

[marky]

Re: Barfly/Masque Theatre, 90, Seel Street. I suppose Seel Street is close enough to be mistaken for Duke Street. Look at this internet posting which concerns the buildings' owner, a rich slave transporter.
http://mhgt.moonfruit.com/

An interesting extract "Like so many business men of the day he liked to show his wealth and had his own theatre built within this building"

A paragraph here mentions Dickens at Masque 90, Seel Street, but adds..."or so the story goes"
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nylo...hp?startid=135

[PhilipG]

Re: Barfly/Masque Theatre, 90, Seel Street. I suppose Seel Street is close enough to be mistaken for Duke Street. Look at this internet posting which concerns the buildings' owner, a rich slave transporter.
http://mhgt.moonfruit.com/

An interesting extract "Like so many business men of the day he liked to show his wealth and had his own theatre built within this building"

A paragraph here mentions Dickens at Masque 90, Seel Street, but adds..."or so the story goes"
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nylo...hp?startid=135

Rather annoyingly, there are no dates there.
My initial interest was in the fact that Dickens was made a (Honarary) Special Constable in Liverpool due to his visits to a police station.
Recently, the Bridewell in Campbell Street has been said to be the place, but it didn't open until 1860.
Opinions differ on when Dickens last visited Liverpool, but he'd been coming here since the 1840s, when there was already a police station next to the back-to-back houses in Duke Street.
It's shown on an OS map of 1848.
Kelly's Directory of 1936 still lists this police station and it was listed next to 88 Seel Street.
Therefore the Masque name probably stems from Dickens' literary connections, and may be a comparitively recent name, IMHO after WW2 perhaps.
There certainly was never a Masque Theatre anywhere in Liverpool, and I've never heard of any private theatres (apart from Knowsley Hall), at least not private theatres where plays, etc., were put on.
There were lecture theatres, and the nearby Royal Institution had one.
It's stretching the imagination somewhat to think that a private theatre would become an operating theatre, but conceivable that a lecture theatre could be.

[Chris48]

test

[Ged]

Great flickr site Chris.

[neilsturrock]

Rather annoyingly, there are no dates there.
My initial interest was in the fact that Dickens was made a (Honarary) Special Constable in Liverpool due to his visits to a police station.
Recently, the Bridewell in Campbell Street has been said to be the place, but it didn't open until 1860.
Opinions differ on when Dickens last visited Liverpool, but he'd been coming here since the 1840s, when there was already a police station next to the back-to-back houses in Duke Street.
It's shown on an OS map of 1848.
Kelly's Directory of 1936 still lists this police station and it was listed next to 88 Seel Street.
Therefore the Masque name probably stems from Dickens' literary connections, and may be a comparitively recent name, IMHO after WW2 perhaps.
There certainly was never a Masque Theatre anywhere in Liverpool, and I've never heard of any private theatres (apart from Knowsley Hall), at least not private theatres where plays, etc., were put on.
There were lecture theatres, and the nearby Royal Institution had one.
It's stretching the imagination somewhat to think that a private theatre would become an operating theatre, but conceivable that a lecture theatre could be.

I'd be interested to know how you came up with 1860 as the date for this Bridewell (incidentally early Kelly's Directories give its address as No 17 Argyle Street - not Campbell Street). The Watch Committee requested the building of a Bridewell ' near to Duke Street' in 1836.
The ventilation system used indicates that it predates Pentonville (1842). The system is similar to that in Perth Prison (1840) but an improvement on Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia 1829). The Perth system is that favoured by Dr David Boswell Reid ('Ventilator' to St George's Hall and Houses of Parliament) in his book of 1844 and it could be that Reid had a hand in this building - that is something I am currently trying to establish. Cheapside Bridewell has a Pentonville ventilation system and that was built in 1859. The style of the cells at Argyle Street/Campbell Street would certainly indicate that this is a lot earlier.
A banquet was given in honour of Dickens in St George's Hall on 10th April 1869 and, since he died the next year, this may well have been his last visit.

[PhilipG]

I'd be interested to know how you came up with 1860 as the date for this Bridewell (incidentally early Kelly's Directories give its address as No 17 Argyle Street - not Campbell Street). The Watch Committee requested the building of a Bridewell ' near to Duke Street' in 1836.
The ventilation system used indicates that it predates Pentonville (1842). The system is similar to that in Perth Prison (1840) but an improvement on Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia 1829). The Perth system is that favoured by Dr David Boswell Reid ('Ventilator' to St George's Hall and Houses of Parliament) in his book of 1844 and it could be that Reid had a hand in this building - that is something I am currently trying to establish. Cheapside Bridewell has a Pentonville ventilation system and that was built in 1859. The style of the cells at Argyle Street/Campbell Street would certainly indicate that this is a lot earlier.
A banquet was given in honour of Dickens in St George's Hall on 10th April 1869 and, since he died the next year, this may well have been his last visit.

Joseph Sharples says 1860, and I've found that he's invariably right.
Yes, the address was in Argyle Street, but I can be forgiven for saying Campbell Street because the side of the building is there.
(It's obviously nearer Campbell Street than Duke Street!)
What is the earliest street directory you've found that gives the address (of the Bridewell) as 17 Argyle Street?
The 1848 OS map shows that one of the three buildings on the site is built right up to the pavement, not set back behind a wall as the larger building appears on the 1890 and subsequent editions, so the current building did not exist until after 1848.
Nor is it identified, as other Police Stations and Bridewells are, which leads me to:

I see you don't comment on my remarks about the Police Station which did exist in the 1840s, in between Duke Street and Seel Street.
(Nearer to Duke Street than Campbell/Argyle Streets.)

I've managed to answer your post almost immediately.
I hope I don't have to wait another week for a reply.

[marky]

I did a quick search of Charles Dickens' letters at this site (a .pdf file, 602 pages)
http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Letters.pdf

I didn't spot any mention of the Bridewell or the Duke Street Theatre. There are many mentions of Liverpool.

[PhilipG]

I did a quick search of Charles Dickens' letters at this site (a .pdf file, 602 pages)
http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Letters.pdf

I didn't spot any mention of the Bridewell or the Duke Street Theatre. There are many mentions of Liverpool.

I did a search for "constable" and found this which shows that Dickens was already a special constable by 1848.
This doesn't prove that Liverpool had given him such a title so early, but it seems likely.

1848.
DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, 10th April, 1848, Monday Evening.
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.
MY DEAR BULWER LYTTON,
I confess to small faith in any American profits having international copyright for their aim. But I will carefully consider Blackwood’s letter (when I get it) and will call upon you and tell you what occurs to me in reference to it, before I communicate with that northern light.
I have been “going” to write to you for many a day past, to thank you for your kindness to the General Theatrical Fund people, and for your note to me; but I have waited until I should hear of your being stationary somewhere. What you said of the “Battle of Life” gave me great pleasure. I was thoroughly wretched at having to use the idea for so short a story. I did not see its full capacity until it was too late to think of another subject, and I have always felt that I might have done a great deal better if I had taken it for the groundwork of a more extended book. But for an insuperable aversion I have to trying back in such a case, I should certainly forge that bit of metal again, as you suggest—one of these days perhaps.
I have not been special constable myself to-day— thinking there was rather an epidemic in that wise abroad. I walked over and looked at the preparations, without any baggage of staff, warrant, or affidavit.
Very faithfully yours.

[marky]

A Flickr member has a very large pic. of the Dickens plaque at the Bridewell. The Masque Theatre gets mentioned, but not the Bridewell he's supposed to have visited.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/indigog...7594155130599/

This .pdf file mentions the site (on the map on page 3, item 35). Unfortunately the place on the map is at the junction of Argyle Street and Lydia Ann Street. But they obviously meant Campbell Street. I wonder where they got their information.
http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Images/tcm21-32267.pdf