Sketches, Dispatches, Hull Tales and Ballads - University of Hull

98
Jane Thomas
Charles Dickens and Hull
Charles Dickens began his provincial reading tours in 1858 and first
visited Hull on 14 September of that year. His reception was so
enthusiastic that he was forced to promise to return, which he did
in 1869 less than a year before he died. His first reading was at the
Assembly Rooms in Jarratt Street, now the New Theatre. 1 The Hull
News, 18 September, 1858 carried an appreciative report of the event:
The visit of this well-known and popular fictionist
attracted to the Music Hall, on Tuesday Evening, such a
numerous and fashionable audience as we have seldom
witnessed. Every part of the hall was well filled long before
8 o’clock, and for some time after Mr Dickens had
commenced his reading, the pushing and drumming
occasionally heard amongst those who were on the wrong
side of the door proved how many were excluded, and how
keenly they felt their disappointment. If an enthusiastic
greeting from such an audience, and an eager, unflagging
attention from first to last, may be accepted as evidence,
Mr Dickens’ admirers in Hull are by no means few or
indifferent. His CHRISTMAS CAROL was selected for the
evening’s entertainment, and was read throughout with a
voice and pronunciation so clear and distinct that every
word must have been perfectly audible to the most distant
corner of the crowded room. It was impossible to overlook
either the author’s complete acquaintance with the
characters he depicted, or the dramatic skill and success
with which he introduced them to his audience. Both the
story and the reading proved his indisputable claim to the
title which his works have long since earned him – the
genial, hearty world-famed master of smiles and tears.