Picturing the Cloisterham of Edwin Drood…

By Rach

During a recent long wait that Boze and I spent at the local Social Security Administration office to get my post-wedding name change official, I read the short 1880 book on Charles Dickens and Rochester by Robert Langton. The book is available free on Google Books & attached as a PDF below:

However, just to make a short, Drood-centered, pictorial version here for your perusal, I’m attaching a few images/illustrations from the book of the real-life locales upon which some of our story settings are based.

Of course, we know that the “Cloisterham” of The Mystery of Edwin Drood IS Rochester, a cathedral city full of early memory for Dickens, and a location which brings us back full circle to an early Pickwickian adventure, and a city which was also the subject of one of his essays in The Uncommercial Traveller.

Langton’s cover shows us Rochester Castle and the Gate House (or “Gatehouse”) where Jasper lived:

Most distinctively, we have the skyline of Rochester Castle and Cathedral:

Near the castle is the cemetery where Dickens wished to be buried (but his wishes were overruled by his loving public and he was buried in Westminster Abbey):

Below, the West Door of the Cathedral itself:

And in brass in the wall of the cathedral’s south transept:

Minor Canon Corner:

Eastgate House as the model for The Nuns’ House:

And John Jasper’s Gatehouse (Gate House):

And for a marvelous interactive map of Dickens’s Rochester/Chatham, you’ll find a wonderful one at The Charles Dickens Page. Enjoy!