The death couch in the birth house
The sofa on which Dickens died in Kent in 1870 is displayed in the house where he was born, and it is the most powerful thing here.
The couch on which Charles Dickens died at his Kent home in 1870 now sits in the house where he was born in 1812. A whole life compressed into one small terraced house on Old Commercial Road: the bedroom of his birth upstairs, the sofa of his death in the exhibition room. That single juxtaposition is the reason to make the detour into Landport, an unremarkable residential corner of Portsmouth that looks like nowhere in particular. The house itself is modest. Three rooms, the parlour, the dining room and the bedroom where the baby arrived on 7 February 1812, have been furnished by the city in the Regency taste his parents would have chosen. Portsmouth bought the building in 1904 and the original contents were long since scattered, so nothing in those rooms was touched by Dickens himself. What he did touch is kept in the exhibition room: his snuff box, inkwell and paper knife, and the couch. Reading every panel takes 30 to 45 minutes. The trap is not the price, an adult ticket is £6.95 with cheaper rates for children, students and over-60s, but the calendar. The museum opens only on selected dates, mostly in a summer season (typically two days a week, a Thursday plus a weekend day) from 10:00 to 16:30 with last entry at 16:00, and dates thin out sharply outside it apart from occasions such as Dickens' birthday on 7 February and the Heritage Open Days in September, when admission is free for everyone. Check the dates on the official site before travelling. It is an early 19th-century house entered down a steep, narrow external stair to the shop and then up three flights inside; there is no lift, so this is no place for a pushchair. From Portsmouth & Southsea station it is a 15-minute walk north up Commercial Road. Drivers should note that street parking is restricted, though there is a car park at the end of the road. Be honest with yourself: if nobody in the party has read Dickens or seen Oliver Twist, this is a stop on the way to the Historic Dockyard rather than a destination. For a reader, a quiet quarter-hour in front of that couch is worth the whole trip.
The sofa on which Dickens died in Kent in 1870 is displayed in the house where he was born, and it is the most powerful thing here.
A small upstairs bedroom furnished in Regency style to look as the house might have in February 1812.
The snuff box, inkwell and paper knife from his desk, among the few objects here that Dickens actually handled.
393 Old Commercial Road, Landport, Portsmouth PO1 4QL
Honestly, no, unless the children are old enough to have read some Dickens. It is three furnished rooms and one exhibition room, nothing interactive, little space to move and narrow stairs that make a pushchair a burden. The Historic Dockyard and the Spinnaker Tower fill a family day; treat this house as a short stop for whoever actually cares.
The London museum on Doughty Street is the house where Dickens lived as an adult and wrote Oliver Twist; it is larger and open most days of the week. The Portsmouth house is far smaller and covers only his birth and first months, but it holds the couch on which he died. If you will see only one, choose London; if you are already in Portsmouth, this completes the picture.