Christmas Magic in London, Part One

Since London is a huge and historic city with endless things to do, you can't visit without doing something new (even if you're staying for fewer than 48 hours). So first up on the agenda--the Dickens Museum! Dickens lived there for two years, from 1837 to 1839, and it's the only house in which he lived that's left standing. Also he wrote Oliver Twist there!

And while Dickens isn't my personal top-tier Victorian author, I'm up for any literary site and especially any insight into Victorian times. In another life, I'm a Victorianist at an East Coast college, wearing wooly sweaters while I read in my toasty office.

I don't know why so many of these are sideways...just tilt your head.

Anyway, on the lower level you can wander through the kitchen and Dickens' wine cellar, where I learned that Victorian families kept pet hedgehogs to eat bugs. Elowen enjoyed drawing "Bill Spikes" (puns!) while I looked around.

On the next floor, Elowen charged at a chaise lounge and we decided it was better for her to go to the park...Taylor and Elowen exit stage left, chased by a bear.

On the next level, you can see a table set for dinner and the morning room where the family would have received visitors; you can also see Mary's engagement ring and a few letters (many of Dickens' letters are on display throughout the floors, as well as original manuscripts and first editions).

The museum also has the desk where he wrote Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, and his reading desk--what we call a podium. He was the first famous author to give public readings of his works, and the docent (they were all so knowledgeable) said he took the podium with him to America three times.

Another highlight for me was this mirror, where Dickens would stand and practice the characters in his novels as he wrote.

The rotating exhibit was about Victorian pets and it was fascinating! Dickens had a bevy of pets, including a pet raven named Grip.

And even though I'm not a Dickens superfan, the top floor was deeply affecting to me in a way I can't explain. It contained a set of bars from the debtors' prison his father and mother were thrown into when he was 12, at which time he was forced to work in a factory--a dark time he shared with only a few and which wasn't known publicly until his death. The item that made me tear up, though, was the preserved window from his childhood window. How did they know to preserve that? Who retrieved it and when? Beautiful.

There was also an album his daughter collected of kitten pictures, showing girls back then maybe weren't so different; her portrait is in the morning room and she was stunning. The docent also said she was brilliant but, as a woman, there wasn't anything she could do with it.

Taylor and Elowen came to collect me from the cutest little park they found, an open space just for children under five, and then we were off to Covent Garden, which was festive for the season with carolers and decorations and mulled wine stands. Our objective was the Moomin shop, which as you may recall from previous blogs I LOVE. Moomins are Finland's equivalent of Mickey Mouse, but nature focused, and the store was packed, so I guess everyone loves Moomins.

We got Elowen a stuffie and then headed to Knoops, a gourmet hot chocolate shop that was PHENOMENAL. You can pick your percentage of chocolate, from white to milk to dark, and the menu has all of the different countries of origin and the flavor notes. I picked a milk chocolate spiced orange hot chocolate and a festive spice hot chocolate, but in the summer I'd have done an iced vanilla lavender milk chocolate.

From there it was off to Mr. Fogg's Tavern, where unfortunately you couldn't eat without a reservation, because on Sundays in London all the pubs do Sunday roast, with roast beef and veggies and popovers and gravy. But the bartender did take pity on us and let me try two cocktails, because Mr. Foggs is my very favorite bar in this world (all maximalist Victorian themed) and Tavern is the only location that allows kids. It's glorious inside. 

Part 2 coming as Blogger gets glitchy with too many pics...