Chatham Docks, Kent, England: Dickens World exterior shots. A museum in honour of the famous author, Charles Dickens

A clock which overhangs the entrance to the Charles Dickens centre at Chatham Marina in Kent slides away to reveal model Dickensian characters in a boat. The models voice selelctions from the works of Dickens. The Dickens World themed attraction, covering 71 500 square feet, and including a cinema and restaurants, opened in Chatham on 25 May 2007. It stands on a small part of the site of the former naval dockyard where Dickens's father had once worked in the Navy Pay Office. Charles Dickens was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Considered one of the English language's greatest writers, he was acclaimed for his rich storytelling and memorable characters, and achieved massive worldwide popularity in his time. In 1856, his popularity had allowed him to buy Gad's Hill Place. This large house in Higham, Kent, had a particular meaning to Dickens as he had walked past it as a child and had dreamed of living in it.