How to reach the Dickens statues and sights

UK flag

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.

USA flag

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.

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How to set an alarm with your phone

Problem
Worried about being up in time for breakfast before catching a plane or attending a conference?

Answer
Set a phone alarm. Ask a friend to show you, or check on line for your brand of phone. On one of my family's phones this is how it works:

Look for the clockface symbol. Click on it. You are offered several options in another set of symbols along the bottom of the screen. One is 'alarm'.

You may have some alerts already set. You can slide the white bubble across the green with a touch of your fingertip to set the alarm, or slide it back to cancel.

Nothing happening? Look for the small text at the top of the screen saying edit. Press that and up pops the numbers of a 24-hour clock. Seven or 07.00 with be 7 a.m., seven in the morning. 19.00 will be seven in the evening.  Slide the numbers up and down.

You may be asked whether you want the alarm repeated on that day of the week each week.

At the end of the 24 hours, check and decide how to cancel or change any alarms.

Make sure your phone is plugged in near enough to the bed for you to hear it. Make sure you remember to take the phone with you the next day.

You can do other things to help ensure you are up in time. For example, have a hotel breakfast delivered in the room. Find out how accurate their delivery timing will be. Tell reception you are catching a plane.

You can also set an alarm to remind yourself to go to bed early so you get enough sleep and wake on time.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.