(Click this Charles Dickens at Camden Crescent text link to see the largest size)
The photo was taken from Marine Parade on the seafront promenade above the beach of Dover Harbour.
Camden Crescent is now a Listed Building and runs from the Indian Mutiny War Memorial in New Bridge (the buildings behind the tree on the left) to Wellesley Road (by the Gateway Flats, out-of-shot to the right).
The following extract is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under the terms of the Click-Use Licence (PSI licence number C2010002016) (4):
Originally a complete crescent similar to Waterloo Crescent, but the other houses have been demolished.
Built in 1840. 4 storeys and basement with area. Yellow brick, the ground floor stuccoed and rusticated.
Parapet above 3rd floor, cornice above 2nd floor, stuccoed stringcourse above lst floor. Continuous iron balcony with hood on the 1st floor.
No 1 has a curved front. 3 windows to each house with restored glazing bars.
The full "Listed Building" entry for Victorian - or Georgian - Camden Crescent is appended below.
The build date of 1840 is at the juncture of two architectual periods:
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover - George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United Kingdom, and George IV of the United Kingdom - who reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830.
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and French custom of naming architectural styles for a reigning monarch. Within this naming and classification scheme, it follows Georgian architecture and Regency architecture, and was succeeded by Edwardian architecture.
A blue plaque erected by the Dover Society states:
"In 1852 CHARLES DICKENS and his family lodged nearby in Camden Crescent while he wrote parts of Bleak House. The author Wilkie Collins was a regular visitor."
Charles Dickens spent three months at 10 Camden Crescent during the Summer of 1852, relaxing in Pilot's Meadow and no doubt visiting the nearby Court's Folly (Dover's "Lost Castle") and Cowgate Cemetery (now a nature reserve).
Other associations Charles Dickens has with Dover include the Lord Warden Hotel (now Lord Warden House) and the Dickens Corner Cafe in the Market Square (where I usually have a morning coffee). The cafe has a wall plaque inscribed:
"Here, while searching for his aunt Betsy Trotwood, David Copperfield rested on the doorstep and ate the loaf he had just bought." (photo not yet uploaded)
Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed unrivaled popularity and fame during his career, and he remains popular, being responsible for some of English literature's most iconic novels and characters.
Many of his writings, with their recurrent concern for social reform, first appeared in magazines in serialised form, a popular format at the time. Unlike other authors who completed entire novels before serialisation, Dickens often created the episodes as they were being serialised. The practice lent his stories a particular rhythm, punctuated by cliffhangers to keep the public looking forward to the next instalment. The continuing popularity of the novels and short stories by Dickens is such that they have never gone out of print.
Bleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in twenty monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon.
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale and No Name.
Wilkie Collins first met Charles Dickens in the spring of 1851, when they were aged respectively 27 and 39. The introduction came via their mutual friend, Augustus Egg, who recruited Collins to Dickens's amateur theatrical company.
Dickens and Collins at once took to each other and a friendship began which lasted until Dickens's death in 1870. Forster, in his 1871-4 biography of Dickens, wrote, in one of his few references to Collins in the book, that 'Wilkie Collins became for all the rest of the life of Dickens one of his dearest and most valued friends.'
In addition to performing in Not So Bad As We Seem during 1851 and on a highly successful provincial tour in 1852, Collins stayed with Dickens at Camden Crescent, Dover, in the summer of that year, the first of many such visits to Dickens's homes and holiday houses.
Correspondence from the two authors during this period can be seen in The Letters of Charles Dickens: 1850-1852 (pp 722) and The Letters of Wilkie Collins: 1838-1865 (pp 89).
Camden Crescent once extended to the right but was damaged during World War II.
Excerpt from an article quoting a 1941 edition of the Dover Express newspaper (9):
In an air raid on the afternoon of March 10, Messerschmitt fighter-bombers swept in over the English Channel and dropped five bombs.
One fell in the Granville Gardens on the seafront, where there was a barrage balloon unit, and others in the Granville Dock.
The blast from the Granville Gardens bomb knocked over several airmen manning the balloon site.
The Granville Gardens Pavilion suffered further damage. No casualties were reported as a result of this raid.
It was not until June that an unexploded bomb (UXB) was found in the basement of a house of 8 Camden Crescent and it was believed this had been dropped during this raid.
In the 1916 edition of Annals of Dover, John Bavington-Jones has the following entry for one, "Robert Finnis", the Mayor of Dover in 1796:
Robert Finnis was a timber merchant, who bad his residence and timber yard at Finnis's Hill. He also had a timber yard where Camden Crescent now is.
Excerpt from Edwin Lee's 1848 book, The baths and watering-places of England (p. 114):
Dover is greatly improved of late years, and has been more resorted to both as a summer and autumnal bathing-place, and as a winter residence, for which the position is not unfavorable.
...The Marine Parade has a southern aspect, and is fully exposed to the sea breezes. Guildford and Clarence Lawns are more sheltered, and are favourite situations. Wellington-crescent, consisting of larger houses, and the Esplanade, have more of a south-eastern aspect. The Camden-crescent houses, behind the Parade, are much less exposed to the sea winds.
Advertisement in the Musical times and singing-class circular, Volume 12 of 1866 (p. 420):
CHAMBER ORGAN FOR SALE - Compass CC to F, with stopped diapason, open diapason, principal, fifteenth, flute, Cremona; mahogany case, front and side foot blower, composition pedal, general swell. Height 8 feet, width 3 feet, depth 2 feet. Price 25 GBP. Address G., 4, Camden-crescent, Dover.
The 1973 edition of Visitation of Ireland by Joseph Jackson Howard, Frederick Arthur Crisp (originally published 1897) has the following entry on page 278:
Andrew Mitchell Uniacke of Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada), D.C.L.; born 9 November 1808; Barrister-at-Law, Judge Advocate and Custos Rotulorum; Chief Commisioner for Nova Scotia at the International Exhibition, London (or "Great London Exposition"), 1862; D.C.L. of King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia; died at 4 Camden Crescent, Dover, co. Kent, on Friday, 26th of July, buried in St James Cemetery, Dover, 30 July 1895. Administration was granted at the Principal Registry 18 November 1895, to the Reverend Robert FitzGerald Uniacke, son, and one of the next of kin.
Redmond Uniacke Somerville, ex-Lincoln Militia and British Army 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot, had died a few weeks earlier at the same address on Monday, 24th of June, 1895.
The Gloucestershire Regiment (10) was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Nicknamed "The Glorious Glosters", the regiment carried more battle honours on their Regimental colours than any other British Army line regiment.
After the Childers reforms, the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot (originally 28th Regiment of Foot) amalgamated with the 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot to form the two-battalion Gloucestershire Regiment on 1 July 1881.
The empty plinth on Granville Gardens near bottom-left once held The Waiting Miner statue, now relocated to Kent's Fowlmead Country Park (regenerated from the shale spoil tip of the former Betteshanger Colliery).
At top-left is the plateau of Drop Redoubt, part of an extensive Napoleonic and Victorian defense system embedded into the Western Heights. The horizontal bar of brickwork below the skyline is part of the redoubt's Caponier No. 4 (alt. caponnier).
On the far side of the plateau, to the left of the triangular "bump" (an expense magazine), is where the Bredenstone stands, the replica remains of the West Roman Pharos (lighthouse, or watchtower).
The Bredenstone, or "Devil's Drop of Mortar", is where the installation ceremony of Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports once took place, including that of the Duke of Wellington who held the post from 1829 until his death in 1852 (the last time the Grand Court of Shepway was held on this historic site was with the installation of the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava on 22nd June, 1892).
The East Roman Pharos still stands in the grounds of Dover Castle).
The following extracts are © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under the terms of the Click-Use Licence (PSI licence number C2010002016):
List Entry Summary
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Name: No name for this Entry
List Entry Number: 1343834
Location
1-4, CAMDEN CRESCENT
The building may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
County: Kent
District: Dover
District Type: District Authority
Parish: Dover
National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.
Grade: II
Date first listed: 17th of December, 1973
Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.
Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System: LBS
UID: 177724
Asset Groupings
This List entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.
List Entry Description
Summary of Building
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Reasons for Designation
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
History
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Details
CAMDEN CRESCENT 1. 1050 Nos 1 to 4 (consecutive)
TR 3241 1/3
II GV
- Originally a complete crescent similar to Waterloo Crescent, but the other houses have been demolished. Built in 1840. 4 storeys and basement with area. Yellow brick, the ground floor stuccoed and rusticated. Parapet above 3rd floor, cornice above 2nd floor, stuccoed stringcourse above lst floor. Continuous iron balcony with hood on the 1st floor. No 1 has a curved front. 3 windows to each house with restored glazing bars.
Group value with New Bridge House in New Bridge Street.
Listing NGR: TR3206341223
Selected Sources
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
National Grid Reference: TR 32063 41223
Robsons Yard Flats
(1) Photo taken on a cycle ride from Robsons Yard Flats in the Tower Hamlets area of Dover then: Athol Terrace (Eastern Docks) - Seafront Promenade - Prince of Wales Pier (Western Docks) - Robsons Yard.
This is where I do my Evolution and Psychology research! (archive)
(2) From Georgian architecture
(3) From Victorian achitecture
(4) The Dover Society: "Assisting with the preservation of our Historic Town of Dover."
(5) From Charles Dickens
(6) From Bleak House
(7) From Wilkie Collins
(8) From Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins
(9) The opening of Town suffered first civilian casualty of the year in raid begins:
Although life in Dover in March 1941 was considerably quieter that in late 1940, the Dover Express noted the sirens sounded, on average, 50 times a week.
Shelling continued regularly and one that crashed down in Granville Street, near Beaconsfield Road, caused the town's first civilian death of 1941 - Mrs Rosa Nicholls, aged 77.
(10) From Gloucestershire Regiment
(11) Source: English Heritage Professional. Designation: Grade II - Buildings that are "nationally important and of special interest". Click to see photos of all Dover English Heritage sites
The main photo first appeared at:
Charles Dickens and the Victorian Camden Crescent, Dover Seafront
Recent sunrise and sunset photos of Dover's seafront include:
To be uploaded:
Dover Marina Hotel and Spa of Waterloo Crescent at Sunrise
We Will Remember Them..., Dunkirk War Memorial, Dover Seafront (sunset, recommended)
The Seafront Tonkin Liu Artworks or Sculptures at Sunrise
Sir Henry Le Geyt Bruce KCB, a Victorian Knight of 1 East Cliff
A Dover Architecture, British Army, Charles Dickens, History, Listed Building, and Urban photo.
Clickable thumbnails of all harbour- and urban-related photos from the main Panoramio Images of Dover website are available on this blog at Port of Dover Page and Urban Dover Page (also linked to below the blog title).
The main site Panoramio photos are each accompanied by a Google Earth satellite map. However, the images are smaller than those on the Images of Dover Blog and the captions are less well formatted.
John Latter / Jorolat
Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town
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