What the Dickens?

Tuesday afternoon dog walking for Mrs B.

Molly and I discovered the gated, modernist 'Haversham Grange' tucked away in East Twickenham. Large cedars and stately trees in the vicinity suggested that there could have been a much larger estate in the past.

Back home, a quick Google reveals that Charles Dickens lived in the Borough, renting Elm Cottage, Petersham [in the Petersham Road] for 4 months in 1839. In his book 'Great Expectations' (published in chapters 1860-61) the hero Pip meets Miss Haversham in her home Satis House, near Richmond Green. She is a wealthy spinster, once jilted at the altar, who continues to wear her decaying wedding dress, living in her delapidated mansion with her adopted daughter, Estella.

Perhaps Cambridge Park, built in 1610 and demolished in 1937, where Haversham Grange now stands, was the inspiration for Dickens?

https://www.richmond.gov.uk/dickens_in_richmond_upon_thames https://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.php?aid=387&ctid=&cid=40