Photos by Carole Adams
Top hats, crinoline skirts, Victorian bathing costumes and Queen Victoria have all been spotted in Broadstairs this weekend.
The Dickens Festival is underway and continues until tomorrow (June 19) marking the town’s link to Victorian author Charles Dickens, who first came to visit in 1837 when he was 25.
After lodging at 12, High Street, where he worked on ‘Pickwick’, Charles Dickens took a house, which is now part of The Royal Albion Hotel, where he finished ‘Nicholas Nickleby’.
In 1937, to commemorate the centenary of the author’s first visit, Gladys Waterer, the then resident of Dickens House, conceived the idea of putting on a production of David Copperfield and of having people about the town in Victorian dress to publicise it and the festival was born.
The Broadstairs Dickens Fellowship was formed the same year and today members meet in Broadstairs on the first Wednesday of each month.
Cricket, gin tasting, the festival play, talks, a Victorian Summer fair and music, the Grand Parade and more all form part of the festival.
Find more details at https://www.broadstairsdickensfestival.co.uk/
Remaining events
SATURDAY, 18TH JUNE
3pm Festival Play – A Tale of Two Cities at Sarah Thorne Theatre
5pm “Pursuing Mr Pickwick: in search of real Pickwickians”. The lecture will be presented by Dr. Cindy Sughrue OBE, Director of the Charles Dickens Museum in London York Street Methodist Church Hall Tickets: £8 In advance or £10 on the door (cash)
7pm Dickens Declaimers at Dickens House Museum
7.30pm Festival Play – A Tale of Two Cities at Sarah Thorne Theatre
SUNDAY, 19TH JUNE
10am – 5pm Victorian Summer Fair on Victoria Gardens Punch and Judy – performances during the day
10.45am Take coffee with costumed Dickensians at the Bandstand
11am Barry Wootton and friends exhibition at Holy Trinity Church
11.30am Open-air Church Service at Preachers Knoll
1.30pm Victorian Village Cricket Match on Victoria Gardens
2.30pm Concert by BAE Systems Brass Band on the Bandstand
5pm The Heritage of Gilbert and Sullivan A lecture by Bernard Lockett York Street Methodist Church Hall Tickets: £8 in advance, £10 on the door (cash)
6pm Songs of Praise at Holy Trinity Church
7pm Dickens Declaimers at Dickens House Museum
7.30 pm Festival Play – A Tale of Two Cities at Sarah Thorne Theatre
if you walked about like this on any other occassion you would probably be detained under the mental health act
Id love to know how much this event costs the community/taxpayer and what the economic returns are?.
Dickens didnt even live in Broadstairs, he holidayed there.