Tavistock House was the London home of the noted

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

author

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

and his

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

from 1851 to 1860. At Tavistock House Dickens wrote ''

Bleak House ''Bleak House'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has many characters and several sub-plots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and ...

'', '' Hard Times'', ''

Little Dorrit ''Little Dorrit'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in serial form between 1855 and 1857. The story features Amy Dorrit, youngest child of her family, born and raised in the Marshalsea prison for debtors in London. Arthur Cl ...

'' and ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in ...

''. He also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forster's ''Life of Charles Dickens''.'Tavistock House', Survey of London: volume 21
The parish of St Pancras part 3: Tottenham Court Road & neighbourhood (1949), pp. 99-100. Date accessed: 9 January 2010 Later, it was the home of

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and

Georgina Weldon Georgina Weldon (née Thomas; 24 May 1837 – 11 January 1914) was a British litigant and amateur soprano of the Victorian era. Early years She was born at Tooting Lodge, Clapham Common in 1837, one of seven children and the oldest daughter bo ...

, whose lodger was the French composer

Charles Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...

, who composed part of his opera '' Polyeucte'' at the house. Tavistock House was demolished in 1901.

History

Tavistock House was built by builder and developer

James Burton James Edward Burton (born August 21, 1939, in Dubberly, Louisiana) is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards), Burton has also been recognized ...

, who probably lived in Tavistock House while he developed the surrounding area. From

Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford (23 July 1765 – 2 March 1802) was an English aristocrat and Whig politician, responsible for much of the development of central Bloomsbury. Life Francis Russell, eldest son of Francis Russell, Marquess of ...

, Burton acquired the leases for two plots of land, one northern and one southern, on the east side of

Tavistock Square Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. History Tavistock Square was built shortly after 1806 by the property developer James Burton and the master builder Thomas Cubitt for Francis Russell, 5th Duke ...

. It was on the northern plot, and part of the southern plot, that Burton built Tavistock House. Burton sold the lease for Tavistock House to Thomas Murdock in 1805. Murdock lived there for six years before he in turn sold the lease to Benjamin Oakley in 1811. In 1812 Oakley transferred the lease to

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

James Perry, who was the first editor of ''

The European Magazine ''The European Magazine'' (sometimes referred to as ''European Magazine'') was a monthly magazine published in London. Eighty-nine semi-annual volumes were published from 1782 until 1826. It was launched as the ''European Magazine, and London Re ...

'', and who also edited the ''

Morning Chronicle ''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It ...

''. The house is shown on Davies' Map of

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...

, printed in 1834. Stockbroker Charles Williams later lived in Tavistock House, renting it from his friend James Perry. From Tavistock House Williams published a volume of private letters and portraits of his family. In his will Perry left the house to his nephew Thomas Bentley, from whom it was later purchased by

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

eer George Henry Robins of Covent Garden, who probably divided it into three separate residences. His tenancy of No. 1 Devonshire Terrace having expired in the autumn of 1851,

obtained the lease on Tavistock House from his friend and fellow

Shakespeare Society William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

member, the artist Frank Stone. In 1851 Dickens, with his young family, moved into the western section of the by now divided Tavistock House. His first published story, ''A Dinner at Poplar Walk'' (1833) (later re-titled ''Mr. Minns and His Cousin'') is set in Tavistock House. Dickens wrote ''

'' (1852-3), '' Hard Times'' (1854), ''

'' (1855-7), and ''

'' (1859) at Tavistock House. He also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forster's ''Life of Charles Dickens''. These performances included

Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for '' The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for '' The Moonstone'' (1868), which has b ...

's ''The Lighthouse'' in which Charles Dickens also acted along with Collins,

Augustus Egg Augustus Leopold Egg RA (2 May 1816, in London – 26 March 1863, in Algiers) was a British Victorian artist, and member of The Clique best known for his modern triptych '' Past and Present'' (1858), which depicts the breakup of a middle-class ...

Mark Lemon Mark Lemon (30 November 1809, in London – 23 May 1870, in Crawley) was the founding editor of both ''Punch'' and '' The Field''. He was also a writer of plays and verses. Biography Lemon was born in Marylebone, Westminster, Middlesex, ...

Kate Kate name may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kate (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Gyula Káté (born 1982), Hungarian amateur boxer * Lauren Kate (born 1981), American autho ...

and

Mary Dickens Mary "Mamie" Dickens (6 March 1838 – 23 July 1896) was the eldest daughter of the English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. She wrote a book of reminiscences about her father, and in conjunction with her aunt, Georgina Hogarth ...

and Georgina Hogarth, and ''

The Frozen Deep ''The Frozen Deep'' is an 1856 play, originally staged as an amateur theatrical, written by Wilkie Collins under the substantial guidance of Charles Dickens. Dickens's hand was so prominent—beside acting in the play for several performances, ...

'' (1856), also written by Wilkie Collins, with the guidance of Dickens. ''The Frozen Deep'' was first performed at Tavistock House at a dress rehearsal on 5 January 1857 for an audience of servants and local tradespeople. Other performances were held on 6, 8, 12 and 14 January for audiences of about 90 people at each performance. These audiences were made up of friends of Dickens and Collins, including members of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, judges, and government ministers. Dickens had Tavistock House's large schoolroom converted into what he billed as "The Smallest Theatre in the World". The first performance at this improvised theatre was the burlesque ''

Guy Fawkes Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated ...

'' by Alfred Smith, held to celebrate

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vi ...

.Tavistock House on Victorianweb
/ref> In 1858, while living at Tavistock House Dickens separated from his wife,

Catherine Dickens Catherine Thomson "Kate" Dickens (''née'' Hogarth; 19 May 1815 – 22 November 1879) was the wife of English novelist Charles Dickens, the mother of his ten children, and a writer of domestic management. Early life Born in Edinburgh, Scotlan ...

. In 1856 Dickens bought Gads Hill Place in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, but he did not sell the lease for Tavistock House until August 1860, after his daughter Kate Dickens' marriage. Dickens sold the lease to William Spencer Johnson and William Bush for two thousand

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...

. The celebrated litigant and soprano Mrs.

and her husband William Henry Weldon later lived in Tavistock House, and she held classes for the cultivation of the voice in the house.

later lodged with the Weldons in Tavistock House, and the Gounod Choir met there weekly. It has been suggested that Georgina Weldon and Gounod were lovers, and that he had promised her the title role in his

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

'' Polyeucte'' when it opened in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

.Gounod's ''Polyeucte'' reviewed in ''Opera Today''
22 April 2005 However, Gounod became increasingly disturbed by the gossip about the ‘Weldon Affair’, and in June 1874 he returned to his wife in Paris. Feeling slighted by Gounod's departure,

refused to send on his personal belongings, including the draft of his opera ''Polyeucte'', forcing him to rewrite it.First Performance of Gounod's ''Polyeucte''
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' 21 October 1878 Tavistock House was demolished in 1901, and its former location is covered today by the headquarters of the British Medical Association in

. A blue plaque commemorates

and Tavistock House.

Notable residents

, property developer * Eliza Davis, letter writer * Miriam Isabel Davis, painter *

, novelist *

, composer * James Perry, journalist *

, soprano and celebrated litigant * William Weldon,

Officer of Arms An officer of arms is a person appointed by a sovereign or state with authority to perform one or more of the following functions: * to control and initiate armorial matters; * to arrange and participate in ceremonies of state; * to conserve a ...

References

External links

Tavistock House on Dickens' London

* ttp://tavistockhouse-wc1.com/gallery/outside-tavistock-house How Tavistock House looks now - image gallery on the Tavistock House website {{DEFAULTSORT:Tavistock House Charles Dickens James Burton (property developer) buildings Demolished buildings and structures in London Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Camden Buildings and structures demolished in 1901