Our mutual friend

On the 150th anniversary of his death, we look back at Charles Dickens’ links to his Portsmouth birthplace

- Steve Roberts

A foremost social critic and reformer who entertained live audiences with readings, a letter writer par excellence, a celebrity before the word was invented, someone who had a literary term named after him; he was all of these things and a pretty useful writer too. His name was Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-70). As we mark the 150th anniversary of Dickens’ death on 9 June, it’s time to consider what it meant (or means) to be Dickensian.

Charles’ father brought his young wife, Elizabeth, to Portsmouth in the summer of 1809, renting a modest house in Old Commercial Road as the first home of their married life. It was a new build, constructed around 1808. Charles was born at this house in Landport, then a small suburb of Portsmouth (or Portsea), on a Friday in the spring of 1812. Apparently, his mum was at a dance at the Beneficial Hall, in Kent Street, that evening, 6 February, but left earlier than planned. Charles emerged the following morning. He was baptized in St Mary’s Church, Fratton Road on 4 March, a Norman church twice replaced by the Victorians, although you’ll have to go to St Alban’s Church, in Copnor Road to see the actual 15th-century font that was used.

The Old Commercial Roadhouse wasn’t Charles’ home for long as the family moved to 16 Hawke Street, Portsea four months later in June 1812. Sadly, this house was damaged by World War II bombing and later demolished. There’s a plaque on the George pub, on the corner of Hawke and George Streets. There was one further Portsmouth house, 38 Wish Street, Southsea (today’s King’s Road), where the Dickens lived from Christmas 1813, an unhappy spell, as Charles’ brother Alfred died here aged just five months.