Dickens museum will get £2m facelift

Charles Dickens' former home is to receive a £2m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Charles Dickens Museum, in the house where he wrote The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, will have more than 10,000 books, documents and manuscripts relating to his life. The grant will be used to renovate the house and allow extra space for the museum.

Dickens lived in the house on Doughty Street, Bloomsbury, central London, from 1837 to 1839, and there penned the novels which launched him to fame.

After the success of The Pickwick Papers, he and his family moved to larger quarters near Regent's Park.

The Doughty Street house was converted into a museum in 1925. He wrote from a study on the second floor, and the room contains the desk he used throughout his career.