This is a small museum in a residential area because Charles Dickens was once an up and comer living in a residential area. I believe this is the only (or one of the only) houses restored for Dickens, so it's almost a little hidden gem in his neighborhood. They don't have their own audio device but do have a QR code to scan, so hope you have your phone full charged, have headphones, and have good signal strength! I did not have all of these elements but it wasn't crowded so I played the recording on super low volume. Still would have been nice to have an in house audio player. The audio does do a good job pointing out authentic items in the rooms and give some background on Charles Dicken's life in the house, his deep love with his wife, his eventual falling out of love with his wife, and the books he wrote in the house. It also talked about how he was able to tap into the lives of London's lower classes and how much he meant to audiences in his own time. I learned some things about Dickens's life and how he lived at this point in his life. It doesn't take that long to go through the floors of the house, but it's a unique spot that is well kept and worth seeing. read more

The Charles Dickens Museum - Museums Near Me - London, XGL

This museum on a quiet street in Bloomsbury is worth a stop, even if you're like me and only have a passing interest in Charles Dickens and his novels! While the ticket is pricey, it's worth it if you take your time to explore each room. The museum contains five floors of rooms designed to look as they would have looked during the few years that Dickens and his family lived there. The highlight of the tour was Dickens' writing desk! In addition to the 19th century rooms, there are additional rooms on a couple of the floors with rotating exhibits. When I visited, the exhibits were designed around Dickens' ghost stories and were interactive and informative. The gift shop is small and doesn't have a lot of variety, but there is a lovely café in the back garden. read more

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I had some sticker shock on the ticket prices. I love Dickens, and did enjoy my visit overall, but it was a bit more expensive than I had expected it would be, especially since it is not a terribly large museum. If you like Dickens, though, I definitely recommend visiting. The house is nicely set up, and they even have areas for activities for kids, so they do try to make it engaging for the whole family (what a great way to get the little ones into classic literature!). There is a multimedia guide, but it is through scanning a QR code. I visited on my first day in town and had limited international data, so not sure how much I was going to need to use as the trip progressed, I opted to just read the materials. Maybe I would have felt differently about the price if I had used that, but it would have been nice if they had an alternative, particularly for international travelers, to be able to listen to the information. I appreciate the work it takes to upkeep a museum like this with real items owned by Dickens and valuable information. It was a great way to start my trip by seeing where one of my favorite authors lived and wrote and how his house might have been set up. read more

The museum transports you back to the era of Dickens with a glimpse into Victorian era. A lot of effort has been put into allowing us to have a peek of the writers home, including dining room, where he entertained the guest, bedroom and reading room. As you walk into the dining room, audio of dinner chat starts to play, enhancing the atmosphere. Each room has a few of objects with explanation, however, audio guide is available (we didn't use it). The museum also has a cafe downstairs. Selection of items available is pretty simple, but the cafe is cosy and has a gorgeous courtyard. read more

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The Charles Dickens Museum is a wonderful and interesting experience, particularly for any fan of Dickens. It is in a house where he lived from 1837-1839 and the only surviving house he had in London. It includes many items belonging to him, brought here from his final home in Kent. These include his writing desk, chaires, other furniture, clothes, letters, and many other items. There is a cafe as well. It is especially decorated for, and interesting at, Christmastime, which is when we went. I highly recommend visiting it. read more

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The Dickens Museum, as you'd expect being in his former residence, is located mid-way down a rather unassuming residential street. For a museum, it is quite small, but for a house, it's on the larger side. Most of this particular museum is recreations and stagings, with pretty few actual artifacts. They do have his writing chair, another chair, his reading desk/podium, and what is believed to be his only surviving suit. Most of the rest is staged. The museum is 4 stories with about 10 rooms in total. Each room has some plaques of information about Dickens, or the overall Victorian lifestyle. There was much of it that I struggled to relate directly to Dickens, but the volunteers were amazing and so knowledgeable in their explanations. Overall, for the admission price, this seemed pretty reasonable, but seemed it was more meant for those that already know a lot about Dickens as a person, not just a writer. It's not necessarily a learning museum. read more

This museum is a 5 story household that Charles dickens lived in that has original floors and walls and such. This museum was super cool to walk though a house pulled back to the 19th century! Definitely recommend read more

The Charles Dickens Museum is truly mesmerizing. Every time I fly to London, I take a visit here. This's where Dickens, one of the greatest authors ever, wrote his masterpiece Oliver Twist. It is located on 48 Doughty Street, London. This museum hosts the world's biggest collection relating to Dickens, including letters, pictures, furniture, and memorabilia. I took a ton of photographs, yes cameras are allowed. There is a small but welcoming cafe and a garden at the bottom floor where you may sip your tea and catch your breath. There is a gift shop on the first floor. I enjoyed every second I spent in the Dickens museum. I highly recommend a visit here if you are a Dickens fan. read more

The Charles Dickens Museum - Museums Near Me - London, XGL

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Fantastic! This is one of my favourite museums with its 5 floors to wander. lifts (elevator) is available for those with mobility needs and plenty of toilets Cameras are welcome and offered many fun areas to pose. It's a bit of a walk from tube so be prepared for approximately 20min walk Well worth the admission read more

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Full disclaimer: I consider myself a hard-core Dickens fan, so visits to this place are for me a cherry on top of every visit to London. Too bad I was there only once during the period when I lived in the town of Olivier Twist. The place has a cafe and a gift shop. Proceeds support the foundation that is in charge of the place, so I always feel obliged to drop in there if only for a cup of breakfast tea. The museum feels very authentic. It looks as the Dickenses moved out only yesterday. Only the top floor is a bit more "contemporary" with such memorabilia as Marshalsea prison cell gate and excerpts from the books painted on the walls. For me the most impressive part is Dickens' own books library. What I like about this place is that it is quite cozy yet the house is these days equipped with such modern things as elevator for accessibility. There is also a room where you can explore on-line the work of Dickens. Plus temporary exhibitions which are changing from time to time. It's great to get a chance to move back to the Victorian-era London if only for an hour or two while exploring the Dickens house. read more

The Charles Dickens Museum - A cup of hot tea on a cold day! - Museums Near Me - London, XGL

I really am glad we carved a bit of time out of our schedule to visit this museum. I had read other reviews, in which people had gotten lost trying to find the house, but we found some very clear signs (brown, with white lettering) posted along the route from the underground station, which led us right to the front door. The museum is within Dickens' former residence, a five-level, four-story terraced house in Camden. Each room is decorated as it might have been when he lived there, and the displays provide additional insight into the man, the author, the husband and the activist. The most amazing things for me, though, were the original letters they had on the walls, and the references to his work in trying to abolish the slums in London and trying to protect the intellectual property put out by himself and his peers. The layout could be a bit confusing, even with the provided guide (on loan only, don't even try to take it with you!), but each room was informative without being overwhelming. I loved that they gave a glimpse as to the house as a whole - including how the servants lived and what occupied his wife's time during the day. It really helped to paint a picture in my mind. The displays each had a card that provided information about the object you were looking at - its significance in Dickens' life, how old it was, where it came from, etc. - so I never got the sense I was just looking at a bunch of random antiques pulled together for the museum. Granted, some of the items and stories could have been hogwash, but at least they were presented well! All in all, it took us maybe an hour to get through the entire house, and that was with us stopping to read every placard and take every conceivable picture you can imagine. It was absolutely worth the time and money, even if you're not a fan of the author (my husband hasn't read a Dickens book, but he was still able to enjoy himself). read more

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Wonderful experience with the audio tour and the people we interacted with. The museum provided an interesting perspective on the life of Charles Dickens with many original artifacts and writings. In fact, the museum itself was a residence of Dickens for several years. You don't have to be a guru on Dickens to enjoy this quaint place. I highly recommend putting this stop in your itinerary. read more

The fireplace bellows fell over while I was in Dickens's study and I nearly had a heart attack. You know old houses and ghosts and whatnot. I went on the Jack the Ripper Tour the night before so I was a bit jumpy for Dickens's House. I know he didn't kill anyone and was basically the founder of Christmas Almsgiving and therefore the furthest thing from Jack The Ripper (I mean The Ghost of Christmases Yet To Come wasn't exactly America's Sweetheart) but I was still a bit spooked. It is irrational to fear his ghost is what I'm trying to say. The fear of ghosts in many human cultures is based on beliefs that some ghosts may be malevolent towards people and dangerous It is related to fear of the dark. Dickens's House was not dark so you have no reason to give into this fear. He was a good man and you should go see his lair- I mean house. read more

Essential pilgrimage for any lover of Dickens. It's fascinating to see original manuscripts, portraits of him and his family, plus other bits and bobs related to this notable Victorian figure. As one reviewer said, yes, there's a lot to read, but if you're a total Dickens geek like I am (from "Great Expectations" to "Bleak House" - I think I've read nearly every published work of his) you'll absorb it all with ravenous fascination. Plus, there's just something special about being in a place, a room, where a writer that you love penned words that have so-captivated you. The best time to pay a visit is during the Christmas season when the house is festooned with holiday greenery and they do live readings of "A Christmas Carol" (just as Dickens himself once did). They even hand out mince pies and mulled wine for you to enjoy as you listen... a nice way to get into the holiday spirit! read more

The Charles Dickens Museum - Museum Interior - Museums Near Me - London, XGL

Given all the amazing museums in London, the overhyped Charles Dickens museum feels like a letdown and quite honestly, a bit of a rip-off. Having just visited the fabulous and FREE Soanes Museum, it cost us the equivalent of $60 for four people (tickets sold by an unfriendly person in the entry) to walk around a house that was sparsely decorated and had many fewer actual Dickens belongings and period pieces than you'd expect from a Dickens museum IN a house he actually lived in. We were hoping for each room to be as it was when Dickens lived there. Some are and do have items of interest, but other rooms felt quite sparse, sparser than would've been when Dickens was there. Like Oliver Twist, we were left asking "Please, sir, may I have some more?" read more

I am not an English major or a rabid Dickens fan. Business brought me to this little museum. Still, it proved a unique window in to Dickens life and career. The museum is in, I believe, the only remaining home associated with Dickens in London. The museum is a hybrid of exhibits, house museum and grass roots institution. The relatively short audio tour is a good choice for the mild Dickens fan. It helped put the man's career and life into the context of the home. The biggest disappointment was the sense of decrepitude on the third floor. Dust and faded text panels were all I could concentrate on. So, if you've been to all the big boys of the London museum scene, give the Dickens a try. You might find yourself going to the library and giving one of his classics a read. read more

I am so happy that I got to come and see house of one of my favorite authors the place is amazing.the staff were supper helpful and nice. Make sure to go to gift shop and the cafe. There is a beautiful garden with available seating as well. This was a great experience read more

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The Dickens Museum is located in a former residence of the man himself, but is not a must see unless your a Dickens fan - although it can fill an afternoon nicely for a modest price, and is very informative as you'd expect. It's by no means a recreation of his house as he lived in it - there are a few pieces of his furniture (allegedly) but it's mainly a collection of letters, articles, paintings and illustrations of his books, and perhaps most interestingly drafts of some of his most famous books. The building itself and the surrounding street are nice examples of typical Georgian townhouses, with lots of original features, but Dickens only actually lived there for a couple of years. His biography is well explained and definitely helps to establish his influences, and he was apparently very happy here where he wrote some or all of Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist. There's also a small temporary exhibition space, a shop and a library - it's not somewhere to take the kids as there's so much to read, but a lot of it is quite fascinating if you can cope with it all. read more

The Charles Dickens Museum - Museums Near Me - London, XGL

Fellow book geeks, get out of the coffee shops and come visit the Dickens Museum. I recently visited here over Christmas and was enchanted by its lovely collection and friendly staff. The Museum's collection consists of personal items and papers and provides a unique perspective on not only Dickens but the era. In the event that you find yourself in need of caffeine or feel inspired to pick up a read, they have a cozy cafe with decent coffee for a decent price. Be warned: it's not a free museum, but the minimal price of admission is worth an entertaining afternoon. read more

The house is small but the collection of papers and work is extensive. There aren't too many of those items that were supposedly used by him, but I still liked it, being a Dickens fan. I really liked that little library at the bottom which I assume has every edition of all his novels--I have a nerdy picture of myself pointing to the Penguin Classics edition of David Copperfield I have. I'm pretty sure if you have no interest in Dickens, though, that you'd find this place incredibly boring. Because this place is so small, this isn't a place that you should save as a "one-day" trip. This is more of a side-trip on the way to another museum. read more

Solidly average. It definitely has some interesting factoids and pieces of his past, but the museum is not set up in a linear fashion. So instead of walking through a chronology of his life, we started in a dining room area, then went downstairs to the kitchen. We then walked up two flights of steps to a game room and study, which were probably my favourite parts (particularly his writing desk). We then went up another flight to learn of his death, then another to learn of his childhood, then down another way to learn about the causes he cared about. I suppose if I went into it knowing this was the structure I would've liked it a little bit more, but I was just perplexed most of the way through. read more

Although I can't count myself as an especially voracious reader of Dickens, I really enjoyed this small, intimate museum. They have excellent displays of his letters, first editions, and personal artifacts, and they really make clear the connections between his personal life and written work. Don't miss having an espresso in the small garden downstairs. It was a beautiful place to relax and write out a few postcards before heading on. read more

This is an extremely small museum, and the friend I took with me was literally bored to tears. The most entertaining part was when we tried on various mustaches and took pictures. That was before we realized they smelled funny and had probably been on innumerable people's mouths....umm, yum....at least we didn't contract a disease. read more

I visited London for the first time at Christmas time 2014. I am a huge fan of Dickens, so I had to visit this museum. I found it to be quite interesting. I loved seeing the desk that he wrote 'A Tale of Two Cities' and 'Oliver Twist' at. It was neat for me to learn a little more about the life and family of Dickens. The gift shop is great! I knew exactly what I wanted to purchase before I got there, because everything is on their website. I say give it a go! read more

Informative little museum. Good for a day out with kids and past your time after lunch. read more

The Charles Dickens Museum - Museums Near Me - London, XGL

Certainly worth the visit for die hard fans, this museum is small but not terribly interesting. Found more to do in the gift shop than in the actual house. The staff is very nice and informative but it felt a bit like an off-the-beaten-path tourist trap. read more

I really enjoyed this museum even though I'm not a reader of Dickens books. I loved seeing the house due to its historical value and in seeing how Dickens' family would have lived back then. The furniture, antiques, decor are done very well. I especially liked seeing the kitchen, "laundry" room, and dining room. There's also a beautiful backyard cafe. I do wish there was a nice, short, entertaining movie or video explaining Dickens' life and work. read more

If you have to go on a school trip or with your university I suppose it is ok, but if not really I don't see the point. Dickens lived here for two years, that is like making a historical landmark out of the flat you rented for a couple of years and then moved on. I don't know that this was a significant time for Dickens but the house will sure make you feel like it is. These museums of dead people as I call them have a great way of making something out of nothing. Its not the way the house would have been while Dickens was here but seeing his letters and things like that is pretty cool. Of course like all these "old celebrity houses" you can rent it out for exhibitions and banquets and things like that. I really don't think being a fan of older/dead celebrities is any more prestigious than being a fan of current celebrities, but I am sure many will beg to differ. read more

Small but perfectly lovely museum in one of Charles Dickens' London houses. I'm not a massive fan of Dickens' work but I found the museum interesting. They give out a free guide at the start which you return at the end and you wander round at your own pace. A lot of the artefacts are collected from other houses he lived in or are reproductions, but it still gives you a good idea of the way things must have looked. It won't take you long to go round - there are maybe a dozen rooms in total - so don't plan on spending hours here but it's handy if you're wandering through Bloomsbury anyway or if you can fit it in on the way to somewhere else. The shop is also very good with a nice range of things. read more

Terrible experience! I took a 45 min uber and spent 30 Euro to get here, arrived at literally 4:04p and was turned away from the museum. Even though the museum closes at 5p, they told me i had to be in by 4p. Nowhere did it mention that on any signs anywhere.. i only had one full day in London and this was the top of my list. The guy jockeying the register refused to allow me in because of 4 min.. i planned on making a fantasticly glowing video for youtube to let others know the museum is there in case they come visit, and yet i ended up making a very negative video detailing my experiences here right in front of the museum. I will never return because of the completly ridiculous circumstances, and will do everything i can to sway anyone who asks from going there. Instead i'll recommend the great places that didnt have pitiful 4 min guidelines.. instead, go spend your money visiting the Handel &Hendrix flat.. probably a better organization to invest your money in, amd definitely a better staff employed there.. read more

We visited during a trip to London in December of 2014. It was nice to take a break from some of the overwhelming crowds at this cute little museum. They had a lot of interesting information and really well put together self-guided tour. I was really impressed with the gift shop too. It had a ton of great, unique items. read more

This is essentially, Dicken's House in Bloomsbury where he lived through the bulk of his career. It take a little bit of wandering to find it as there isn't really much signage above a blue plaque and it obviously looks like every other house in the street. You have to ring the doorbell to be let in ( quaint and somewhat time-consuming) before stepping into the hallway. The house is spread over 3 floors: 1) Ground floor - front room and rear reception room have photos, notebooks and show how the family might have relaxed by the fire. Who knew Charles Dickens had so many children! 7 at my count of the portraits on the wall. To the rear is a small gift shop and tiny cafe that opens onto a walled garden or terrace. 2) First floor - a drawing room that overlook the street has os much riginal furniture of the time and more information on Dickens notes and acquaintences throughout his career. Information on printing his Oliver Twist series in installments etc 3) Second floor - Plays and how his works have been turned into performances on the stage etc, costumes and small memorabilia. We got in free for this as it was part of the Bloomsbury festival, but usually the entrance is £6.50 ish. Bit steep I thought, but having said that, they are mostly privately funded and have ambitious plans to build an extension out the back across all froor in a modern wood and glass style. This will be to house more of the collection, but if you ask me, it will completely unin the originality and WHOLE POINT of the mnuseum as being kept in tact since Dickens lived here. Bah humbug and all that, but if I were one of the neigh bours in this area I'd be up in arms. Maybe go and see it in it's current state while you can! read more

Small museum that was originally Dickens' home early in his career. As others have stated, lots of nice artifacts; but I went for one reason only: to see the painting "Dickens' Dream." Watch the film "Hereafter" and you'll see Matt Damon's character going to this museum to see the same painting. Nice experience if you're a Dickens fan. Not sure if neophytes apply. read more