Rochester: Dedicated to Dickens

This weekend the boy took me on a mini road trip to Rochester to see some castles and visit his friends.

Rochester is a quaint little historic town, and what I liked most about it, was not the dead pigeon infested Rochester Castle (and you know how much I love castles), or the extremely old and stunning Rochester Cathedral, but the town’s undying devotion to one of its famous residents – Charles Dickens.

They clearly know that this is a money spinner for them and decided to line the high street with Dickensian shops such as Sweet Expectations, A Taste of Two Cities Indian Takeaway, Little Dorrit’s Tattoo and Palm Reading, Peggoty’s Tea Rooms, Tiny Tim’s Tea Rooms and Expectations pub.

I found myself chuckling to myself frequently as I spotted these signs. Good on them I say! Just like Liverpool knows that the Beatles works for them, Rochester clearly knows that literary tourism works for them and I applaud them for not only acknowledging it – but for committing to it 100%.