What the Dickens? Great Expectations for themed attraction

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2007

CHATHAM, England (AFP) — Britain's newest visitor attraction, a theme park dedicated to the novelist Charles Dickens, offers a taste of the grim world of Victorian London stalked by his characters like Oliver Twist, Ebenezer Scrooge and David Copperfield.

In the naval dockyard town of Chatham in southeast England's Kent, where Dickens lived and worked, "Dickens World" opened its doors over the the three-day public holiday weekend. Victorian street urchins, barmaids and pickpockets lie in wait inside.

The attraction, built on a 71,000 square foot (6,600 square metre) site, offers a step back in time into the Dickensian environs conjured up "Oliver Twist", "The Pickwick Papers", "A Tale of Two Cities", "David Copperfield" and "A Christmas Carol".

"It's a dream...