Dickens in Exeter

Dickens stayed in Exeter several times and his first visit appears to have been when he stayed with his friend, the radical, campaigning journalist, Thomas Latimer. Latimer and Dickens first met as young reporters when Dickens was sent to Exeter for the Morning Chronicle to cover an election campaign being held at Exeter Castle. Apparently, the experience would later help to inspire a chapter in his first novel, ‘The Pickwick Papers’.

The house at 143, Fore Street which he stayed in is now a Turkish Barbers. The building is marked by a blue plaque (photograph above) which commemorates Dickens’ stay here, but this is tucked away and quite hard to find! An original plaque, now lost, read: 143 Fore Street 18th Century Merchants House Built in 1714 by Sir Thomas Bury, merchant: sold to Sir John Duntze (also a merchant) in 1733 and lived in by his family until 1788. In the 19th century it became the offices of the 'Western Times' which was printed in the adjacent buildings. Charles Dickens, who was a personal friend of Thomas Latimer, the paper's proprietor and editor, stayed here in 1839.

Dickens often visited the Turk’s Head in the High Street and it was whilst observing the customers that he is said to have come up with the character of the Fat Boy (Mr Wardle’s servant, Joe) in ‘The Pickwick Papers’. Mrs Lupin of the Blue Dragon in ‘Martin Chuzzelewit’ is  believed to have been based on the landlady of an inn in Alphington, the village where Dickens leased Mile End Cottage for his parents. Dickens also visited Exeter to give a reading of a Christmas Carol, in August 1858 at the Royal Public Rooms.

143, Fore Street,

Exeter