Dickens lived in a pretty small world!
On Sunday I went down near Rochester, past the castle where Kevin proposed to me, and to a kitschy theme park called Dickens' World. Frankly, I would be much more excited in Bede's World, but that's just because I'm a sucker for medieval kitsch much more than I am for faux Victorian.
Dickens' World has only been open for 6 months, so some of the sites were still under construction. There was a 3-D animated movie on Dickens' life, a classroom where one could play snakes and ladders whilst answering Dickens' trivia questions, and a haunted house where you saw 'ghostly' stories from Dickens' novels projected onto the walls. Basically it's set up in a big warehouse that is made up to look like Victorian England. It's very dark though, so even the fake ooze on the walls was hard to see. And, as Shana pointed out, it wasn't so much a glimpse into Victorian England, but a snippet of the seedier side of things, minus the prostitutes.
Then there was the boat ride. The people who made it had obviously been on Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean. The boat ride meandered around a river (maybe the Thames?) and ended up in an 'underground'
sewer, complete with smell-o-vision (basically a sewer-like scent was sprayed in the air to make the experience more authentic). After one drop and a wet butt later, the ride was finished.
Thing is, I can go see Victorian England by looking out my window. Many of the buildings that are part of everyday life here were made by the Victorians, so the World seemed a little anticlimactic. Besides, there wasn't even a rotting wedding cake in sight, and Mrs. Havisham is certainly one of the coolest characters that Dickens' made up. Bede's World seems like it would be a little more fun simply because the year 700 is much more difficult to imagine than the 19th century.
On Sunday I went down near Rochester, past the castle where Kevin proposed to me, and to a kitschy theme park called Dickens' World. Frankly, I would be much more excited in Bede's World, but that's just because I'm a sucker for medieval kitsch much more than I am for faux Victorian.
Dickens' World has only been open for 6 months, so some of the sites were still under construction. There was a 3-D animated movie on Dickens' life, a classroom where one could play snakes and ladders whilst answering Dickens' trivia questions, and a haunted house where you saw 'ghostly' stories from Dickens' novels projected onto the walls. Basically it's set up in a big warehouse that is made up to look like Victorian England. It's very dark though, so even the fake ooze on the walls was hard to see. And, as Shana pointed out, it wasn't so much a glimpse into Victorian England, but a snippet of the seedier side of things, minus the prostitutes.
Then there was the boat ride. The people who made it had obviously been on Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean. The boat ride meandered around a river (maybe the Thames?) and ended up in an 'underground'
sewer, complete with smell-o-vision (basically a sewer-like scent was sprayed in the air to make the experience more authentic). After one drop and a wet butt later, the ride was finished.Thing is, I can go see Victorian England by looking out my window. Many of the buildings that are part of everyday life here were made by the Victorians, so the World seemed a little anticlimactic. Besides, there wasn't even a rotting wedding cake in sight, and Mrs. Havisham is certainly one of the coolest characters that Dickens' made up. Bede's World seems like it would be a little more fun simply because the year 700 is much more difficult to imagine than the 19th century.
2 comments:
I was hoping for so much more. I am disappointed. You know how I love everything Dickens!
I found you through dear Shana and I'm horrified about the faux sewer scent. Horrified.
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