Bust of Charles Dickens

Prudential Assurance Co, 142, Holborn Bars, EC1.

Tucked away at a far corner of the open piazza which lies behind the great pinky-red facade of the Prudential Assurance building in Holborn is the little shrine-like structurewhich houses this bust of Charles Dickens.

Placed here in 1907, the bust - made in cupronised plaster by the scultptor, Percy Fitzgerald - commemorates the fact that the author started his prolific output of creative writing in rooms on this site, which was then an enclave of lawyers known as Furnival's Inn. Dickens lived at the Inn from 1834 -37 and, as the plaque underneath the bust attests, began his hugely popular Pickwick Papers here.

In a city liberally littered with statues to virtually every celebrated name in British history, it may seem odd that a writer of Dickens' stature has no great public memorial. Yet this is exactly what he personally wanted and intended, leaving the following stern instruction in his will: 'I conjure my friends on no account to make me the subject of any monument, memorial, or testimonial whatever. I rest my claims to the remembrance of my country upon my published works.'

  © 1997 - 2007 Jan Collie. All rights reserved.