What is worth seeing? As Jonson famously said, some things are 'worth seeing but not worth going to see'. That applies to many statues and plaques. If you are already in a city, sometimes it's worth a detour. Or you can do a trail following the haunts of a favourite character I was just looking at Dickens.
Dickens is associated with London. But let's go through his life logically.
Dickens' birthplace was in Portsmouth. I thought it was south of London. It's actually south west.
What's due south of London.
Brighton
Immediately south of London is Brighton with the Brighton pavilion, Indian on the outside, Chinese inside. What else? Associations with Brighton Rock. The rock you eat, not really good for your teeth but a novelty in olden times. the name of the Graham Greene book, another well known author for all you readers and lovers of literature.
Pebble beaches and narrow shopping lanes.
Brighton is only about an hour each way - make that two hours. I always add an hour to any journey. You need to only a day to get there and back and have time for lunch and shopping and with luck seeing inside a museum. So for those on language courses in Brighton, back to London to see the sites associated with Dickens.
From Brighton, go west and you come to Portsmouth. Mouth of the port.
Portsmouth
Big maritime museum. Ah - Dickens birthplace. At very least you can see a plaque on the house. He left for the big city, the capital, London.
I used to muddle up Portsmouth and Plymouth. Go further west from Brighton and Portsmouth and and you reach Plymouth. Where the Plymouth Brethren left for the USA, what was to become the USA.
In London two sites associated with Dickens are near enough to be done in one trip. From Euston or another station you can pass the Old Curiosity Shop on your way to Dickens House Museum.
I sometimes think of London like the sun with spokes reaching out. Better still, think of it as the central point of a clock with roads and railways reaching out around Britain. (The M1, motorway 1, runs north. If Dickens birthplace was south west at 7 pm, then Bleak House I think of as east-north at 2 pm.
Finally back to the centre, where Dickens is buried, in London, in Westminster Abbey.
Travelling overseas, going west, maybe to 3 or 2 on an imaginary clock face, we have a statue of Dickens with Little Nell in Philadelphia, (known colloquially as Philly) in Pennsylvania, south of New York (also known for A Place For Everything and Everything In Its Place).
Taking London and Dickens birth and death location as the imaginary clock face centre, go south around the globe, 7, to Australia, you can see a Dickens statue.
Dickens Statue
Loch Ave, Sydney, Centennial Park NSW 2021, Australia
Useful Websites
https://www.rome2rio.com/s/London/Portsmouth
https://www.centennialparklands.com.au/visit/history-and-heritage/statues-and-sculptures/charles-dickens-statue?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens
To be continued tomorrow
About Author Angela
Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.)
Author of twenty books including: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When.
See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts. Also watch videos on YouTube.
See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.
If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club,
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Tampines Changkat Advanced. This Tuesday evening Singapore time
Harrovians, London.
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https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
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