29 April 2012

Charles Dickens and Characters in Marylebone Road, London

'WHILE LIVING IN A HOUSE ON THIS SITE
CHARLES DICKENS
WROTE SIX OF HIS PRINCIPAL WORKS,
CHARACTERS FROM WHICH APPEAR
IN THIS SCULPTURED PANEL'

This sculpture is on an outside wall of Ferguson House, 15 Marylebone Road, formerly No 1 Devonshire Terrace, where Dickens lived from 1839 to 1851. The characters represented near Dickens' head – clockwise, concluding with the pair to our immediate right of Dickens – are Ebenezer Scrooge with Marley's ghost as a doorknocker (A Christmas Carol); Barnaby Rudge with his pet raven Grip (Barnaby Rudge); Little Nell Trent and her grandfather (The Old Curiosity Shop); Mrs Gamp (Martin Chuzzlewit); David Copperfield and Mr Micawber (David Copperfield); and Paul Dombey and his daughter Florence (Dombey and Son).

This arresting plaque is the work of Estcourt James Clack (1906–73), who sculpted it in 1960.

Two more of my posts on Dickens are linked below.
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Charles's Dickens's birthplace in Portsmouth
Charles's Dickens's inspiration for Oliver Twist?

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